Why Dovetail Financial Exists
As retirement approaches, the questions often change.
It is no longer only about how much you have. It becomes about how income will replace your paycheck, how taxes may affect what you keep, and what should remain available in case of health, markets, family, or life changes.
Many people have saved carefully and made responsible decisions for years. What gets harder is seeing how the next decisions fit together. A choice about income can affect taxes. A healthcare need can affect what should stay available. A family request can change the planning question.
Dovetail Financial begins with the person, not the accounts. Through Human-First Financial Guidance®, we start with what matters, what is changing, and what questions are becoming harder to carry.
Then we connect the financial decisions around the life your wealth is meant to support, so the next decision is not answered too narrowly.
The Firm
Dovetail Financial is based in Wilmington, NC, and works with people across southeast North Carolina, metro Atlanta, and around the country who are nearing or living in retirement.
We have served households from the same Wilmington location for more than 20 years.
Many of the people who come to us are approaching retirement, settling into retirement after a move, or trying to make thoughtful decisions as income, taxes, investments, healthcare, and family priorities start to intersect.
We operate under a fiduciary standard of care. Our work is to help people see how those decisions fit together, what each decision may affect, and what should stay available as life changes.
That is the kind of planning this firm was built to do: fiduciary retirement guidance that begins with the person and connects the financial decisions around the life they are meant to support.
Leadership
Ross Marino is the founder and CEO of Dovetail Financial and the creator of Human-First Financial Guidance®.
For more than 30 years, his work has centered on helping people navigate financial decisions during periods of change, especially the transition into retirement.
He taught Retirement Planning and Employee Benefits in the CFP® curriculum at UNC Wilmington and is the co-author of Shaping Change: How to Respond When Life Disrupts Your Retirement Plan.
His work has been recognized by InvestmentNews, WealthManagement.com, and ThinkAdvisor, which named him the 2024 LUMINARIES Thought Leader of the Year in the RIA category.
That combination of retirement focus, teaching background, local perspective, and broader industry leadership shapes how Dovetail works today: begin with the person, make the decision-making process visible, and help people move forward with clearer next steps.
Collaborative Approach
Financial decisions often extend beyond a single area of expertise.
Dovetail Financial works in coordination with other professionals when needed. This may include tax professionals, estate attorneys, healthcare-related resources, or other professionals involved in a client’s life and wealth decisions.
The goal is not coordination for its own sake. It is to help ensure that one decision does not create avoidable pressure elsewhere.
When the right people are working from the same picture, the next decision is easier to understand.
Professional Standards
Dovetail Financial Group LLC is a fee-only Registered Investment Adviser that operates under a fiduciary standard of care. Our advisors provide fee-only financial planning are compensated through advisory fees, not commissions from investment or insurance product sales.
This means advice is provided with an obligation to act in the client’s best interest. Recommendations should be explained in the context of the life and retirement decisions they are meant to support.
The focus is not on isolated recommendations. It is helping people understand what a decision touches, what may need review, and what should stay aligned over time.
A Thoughtful Next Step
If this approach reflects how you want to make financial decisions, the next step is a conversation.
That conversation is a chance to talk about your situation, what is changing, and whether Dovetail’s approach fits what you are looking for.
