Three layers. One price each.
The sealed proof: free. The Filing Record: one fixed price a foundation a year. The Foundation Record: a flat price by size. Never a fee on assets; nothing prepared, paid or held. Family-office bands are below.
Free, for any foundation from $10M: $0 The sealed 990-PF proof
The return re-done and sealed in seconds, the nine controls, the calendar ahead. Checkable by anyone you send it to. No account.
$2,600Direct, or through its firm at cost: $2,600 The Filing Record, a foundation, a year
Each filed year sealed on request beside the last; the due date as the return states it; a read seat for the firm; a verification page anyone can check. Invoiced to the foundation, or to its firm at cost with no margin. The foundation keeps the record and can take it anywhere.
$17,000 – $35,000Direct, from $75M: $17,000 – $35,000 The Foundation Record, a year
Everything above, plus the committee's decisions and the policy, sealed the day they are made; board packs. Over $1B by quote. Ten founding seats: nothing to pay for ninety days, then the band price locked for thirty-six months.
The Foundation Record, by size.
$75M – $250M: $17,000 A year
2.3 bps at $75M, 0.7 bps at the top of the band
$250M – $1B: $35,000 A year
1.4 bps at $250M, 0.3 bps at the top of the band
Over $1B: By quote Quoted before you sign
The same record and terms, priced for the size of the book.
The Filing Record carries
- The client foundation's 990-PF recomputed from the IRS's own file and sealed on request, each year chained to the last
- The distribution requirement and its due date, and the undistributed income Part XII carries
- A verification page anyone can check without us
- A read-only seat for the firm; the foundation keeps the record and takes it with it
The committee's decisions, the investment policy and its approvals, and board packs: those are the Foundation Record, bought by the foundation direct. A foundation can move to the Foundation Record at its band price at any time; its sealed filing years come with it. Who pays and how: see the questions below.
The Foundation Record carries
- The committee's decisions and the investment policy, each sealed and approved by a second person
- Your 990-PF re-done and sealed on request, in seconds, each year's alongside the last
- The distribution requirement as a dated deadline with a named owner
- Board packs carrying the foundation's rows and nobody else's
- Every control on /trust, the Durability Charter, and a full export any day
The family-office modules (the nightly Intacct, Bill.com and Addepar tie-out and the bill-payment path) stay on the family bands.
Ten founding seats on the Foundation Record: nothing to pay for ninety days, then the band price locked for thirty-six months. The family bands’ guarantees are their own and do not apply to the Foundation Record. The Filing Record has no founding seat: one price from the first year.
Does it move money, hold assets or advise?
No. For a foundation, nothing here pays, holds or advises. The bill-payment path is a family-office module and is not part of either foundation record. The firm's seat can read; it cannot change a figure, approve a decision or sign for the foundation.
Why does a foundation pay less than a family of the same size?
This is the record alone. A family's band also runs the five frameworks across every entity and account a family holds, and the nightly tie-out between its books, its payables and its portfolio.
Who pays for the Filing Record, and is the price the same through our CPA firm?
Bought by the foundation direct, or carried at cost by the firm that prepares its return. One published price: the foundation is invoiced for it, or pays the firm no more than it, and the firm keeps no margin. The firm's own seat is read-only, granted and revoked by the foundation. No fee, commission or referral payment is paid to a firm for its attest or tax clients.
What does the Filing Record leave out?
The committee's decisions, the investment policy and its approvals, and board packs: those are the Foundation Record, bought by the foundation direct. A foundation can move to the Foundation Record at its band price at any time; its sealed filing years come with it.
Who can see the foundation's page?
Whoever holds its link. The page is unlisted and asks search engines not to index it. It is listed publicly only on the foundation's own written consent; a firm's order does not make it public.
Is there a minimum term on the Foundation Record or Filing Record?
No. Annual, by invoice; a foundation may leave at the end of any year and takes its sealed years with it.
For family offices and the firms that run them Bands by assets, the first ten families’ terms, setup and guarantees, firm pricing, a private server
The first ten set the terms for everyone after.
A system of record is worth more every month it runs. The families who start it now get terms nobody after them will be given.
10 seats, then closed
No setup fee, and no fee of any kind for the first ninety days
Then your band's price, locked for 36 months, whatever the book grows to
Direct line to the founder; answers the same business day
A quarterly review with the founder: the committee's open questions answered on your own book, each answer sealed
Named nowhere, ever, unless you choose to be
In return: your honest verdict at day thirty, quoted only in words you approve
Band prices apply from day ninety-one; these terms are locked for these 10. Founding clients receive ninety days free and a locked price; any quote from one will say so.
For the family bands. A foundation’s founding terms are stated with the Foundation Record above.
A fixed setup, then a price by asset band. Unlimited users.
Monthly, or annual at about 8% less. No basis points, no per-seat fees.
| Assets overseen | Monthly | Annual | Saving | Annual, in bps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $100M | $4,500 / mo | $49,500 / yr | 8% | 6.6 bps → 5.0 bps | Start |
| $100M – $250M | $7,500 / mo | $82,500 / yr | 8% | 8.3 bps → 3.3 bps | Start |
| $250M – $500M | $11,000 / mo | $121,000 / yr | 8% | 4.8 bps → 2.4 bps | Start |
| $500M – $1B | $16,000 / mo | $176,000 / yr | 8% | 3.5 bps → 1.8 bps | Start |
| Over $1B | Quoted per family | — | — | — | Talk to Us |
Direct, for families from $75M. A family below that comes in through its adviser’s firm, at the firm prices below.
The Thirty-Day Book.
Setup · Standard: $5,000 Once. Most families.
Entity map, books loaded, FORTRESS reviewed with you, kickoff on real numbers.
Setup · Premium: $10,000 Once. Many entities or custodians.
Everything in Standard, plus a specialist and two classification reviews.
The setup fee is credited against your first annual invoice, up to $5,000. Stay a year on Standard and the setup cost you nothing; on Premium, the specialist work nets $5,000. While founding seats are open, a founding seat pays no setup fee (above).
Free first. Then three guarantees you enforce.
Front door: Free A sealed proof of your own filed book, free.
Seconds from a 13F or a foundation's 990-PF; two business days from an export. No data, no credentials, no call.
Guarantee one: Day 30 Live in thirty days or the setup fee comes back.
You decide whether it was met. A founding seat pays no setup fee: nothing is charged before day ninety-one, so you leave owing nothing.
Guarantee two: 3× Three times the fee, measured on your book by day thirty, or the first quarter you are billed is free.
Measured on your own numbers.
Guarantee three: Nightly Tied out every morning, from the first morning it runs.
Built and tested end to end. It switches on per entity the day you connect it.
Each guarantee is enforced by one line from you, not a review. The guarantees in full →
Every framework, every seat, every source.
Every framework, every seat
All five frameworks and Sibyl. Unlimited users, each scoped.
The source chain
Every answer shows its rows, or names the missing input.
The books and the record
A balanced ledger, a two-person close, 16 chained ledgers kept 7 years.
When it applies: The nightly tie-out
Intacct, Bill.com and Addepar, reconciled nightly.
A firm fee, then a fee for each family by its size.
Boutique firm: $12,000 A year, up to 5 families
Up to five families, on shared infrastructure with the same per-family isolation, and the firm's record of advice.
Firm licence and server: $35,000 A year, any number of families
Any number of families, the firm's own isolated server, one integration for every family, and the firm's record of advice.
| Each family, by its size | A year |
|---|---|
| Under $100M | $8,000 |
| $100M – $250M | $15,000 |
| Over $250M | $25,000 |
A boutique with five families under $100M: $52,000 a year, $10,400 a family. A firm with twenty, all under $100M: $195,000 a year. A firm is a practice running the ledger for at least three of its own advisory clients, under an order form the firm signs. Families that are not its clients buy direct. The firm's first family pays the standard $5,000 setup, credited against the first annual invoice; each family after it pays none. For multi-family offices.
A private server, priced now.
Private server: $15,000 Once, then $2,000–$4,000 a month
Dedicated, isolated infrastructure: your own database cluster, compute and model agents.
No advice is sold here. ParetoAlpha keeps the record of the decisions your advisers and committee make; it does not make them.
Why is it priced by band and not by basis points?
Because the work does not scale with the assets. A $900M family with four entities is less work than a $150M family with nineteen. Bands keep the price predictable and stop the invoice growing because your portfolio did. The table shows what each band works out to in basis points anyway.
What does the setup fee buy?
The seven onboarding steps, done with you, in about two hours of your time: entity map, connections to what you already produce, FORTRESS classification reviewed on a call, and the kickoff review on your real numbers. Not live by day thirty: the fee is returned in full. Live: it is credited against your first annual invoice, up to $5,000.
Who decides whether a guarantee was missed?
You do. One line by email saying the test was not met, and the refund or credit is issued: the setup fee within five business days to the account that paid, or the first quarter's platform fee credited to your next invoice. We do not review the claim and there is nothing to arbitrate. A guarantee the vendor adjudicates is a marketing sentence.
How does the find-it guarantee work?
By day thirty, IGNITION, BEDROCK and SIGNAL are computed on your own policy figures, positions and entities, and we send you the sum whether it passes or fails. If it is less than three times your first year's platform fee, the first quarter of the platform is credited without you asking. The full terms are on the pilot page.
How does the tie-out guarantee work, and has it ever run?
For a family whose Sage Intacct, Bill.com and Addepar are connected, every night, per entity: payables to the AP account, Addepar's portfolio value to the investment accounts and its cash to the ledger, with both figures, the difference and the tolerance recorded. It is built and tested end to end; it has not yet run for a client. It starts the morning after your first successful tie-out; from then on, a business morning with none on record, for a cause that is ours, makes that month of the platform free. The full terms are on the pilot page.
Does the platform move money?
On the Foundation Record and the Filing Record: no. Nothing is paid, held or moved. On the family bands, one action can: paying a bill that is already approved in Bill.com. It is staged with its exact request and hash, decided by a principal or the COO who is not the person who asked, re-read from Bill.com before sending, sent once, and recorded. A first or changed wire instruction also needs a recorded phone call-back and a second approver. Everything else is read-only.
Is there a minimum term on the family bands?
No. Monthly is month to month and you can leave at any point in the first ninety days with nothing further owed. Annual is billed once and saves about eight percent. Your rows leave with you as plain exports either way.
Take the number to the committee. Take the proof with it.
Free, from the return you have already filed. Type the EIN; no account.