Vanguard employees understand investing better than most. But understanding markets and having a coordinated financial plan are two different things. Blackshire helps Vanguard employees turn their financial knowledge into a strategy that actually works for their lives.
Working at Vanguard means you already know more about investing than most people ever will. But the financial decisions that matter most aren't about picking funds — they're about coordinating your full picture: taxes, retirement timing, estate planning, and making all the pieces work together.
That's where an outside advisor adds value — not by second-guessing Vanguard's investment philosophy, but by building the plan around it.
We don't work for Vanguard — or any other company. Blackshire is fully independent, fee-only, and fiduciary. We don't sell products, earn commissions, or have any incentive other than giving you the best advice we can. We respect Vanguard's investment philosophy and build our planning around low-cost, evidence-based strategies.
Vanguard's campus is in Malvern, PA. Our office is in West Chester — about 10 minutes down Route 202. Many of our Vanguard clients live across the Main Line and Chester County: Malvern, Wayne, Paoli, Exton, Downingtown, and West Chester.
Blackshire was founded by Henry Supinski, supported by Ron Madey (CFA, Chief Investment Officer), Ken Kideckel (CFA, CFP®), and a dedicated team. We bring institutional-grade rigor to personal financial planning.
Your first call is 30 minutes — no obligation, no sales pitch. Just an honest conversation about where you are and where you want to be.
Schedule an Intro CallOr call us at (302) 203-9634 · info@blackshirewealth.com
Knowing markets and having a coordinated plan are two different things. The decisions that move the needle most are not about picking funds, they are about how taxes, retirement timing, equity, and estate planning fit together. An outside advisor adds value not by second-guessing Vanguard's investment philosophy but by building the plan around it.
Partnership and deferred compensation pay out over time and are tied to the firm, which creates both a concentration question and a timing question. The goal is to plan the distributions so they land in lower-tax years where possible and to make sure you are not overexposed to a single source. Confirm your plan's current payout schedule, then build the tax plan around it.
Beyond maxing the standard contribution, the often-missed lever is the mega backdoor Roth: if your plan allows after-tax contributions and in-service conversions, you can move significantly more into Roth than the normal limits. We also coordinate the 401(k) with your outside accounts so the whole picture is allocated and tax-efficient rather than each account in isolation.
A backdoor Roth lets high earners who are over the income limits still fund a Roth: you contribute to a non-deductible traditional IRA and then convert it. It can be very effective, but the pro-rata rule means existing pre-tax IRA balances can create an unexpected tax bill, so it needs to be done carefully and in the right order.
Leaving triggers a set of decisions: how and when your deferred compensation pays out, what happens to any pension benefit, and how to roll your retirement accounts efficiently. We model the financial impact of leaving before you decide, so the tax consequences are planned rather than discovered later.
We are fully independent, fee-only, and fiduciary. We do not work for Vanguard or any other company, we earn no commissions, and we sell no products. Our only incentive is to give you the best advice we can. We respect Vanguard's low-cost, evidence-based philosophy and build our planning around it.