Meet the team behind AdviceOnly

Steven Fox is the Founder and President of AdviceOnly. A Certified Financial Planner and Enrolled Agent, he ran his own financial planning firm for nearly a decade before turning to the problem AdviceOnly exists to solve: financial advisors shouldn't have to start their own firm just to serve clients with a business model that they feel good about, and clients shouldn't have to guess whether their advisor is actually on their side.

AdviceOnly is his answer to both halves of that problem. Advisors join a platform that handles back office support (compliance, software, etc) so they can spend their time planning instead of running a business on top of their day job. Clients get a directory of well-qualified advice-only planners, with no commissions or asset minimums standing between them and competent advice from someone acting in their best interest.

Steven served more than eight years on active duty in the Marine Corps, where he was often the one other Marines came to with money questions. He went on to San Diego State University for a degree in financial services and a minor in entrepreneurship, passed the CFP and EA exams, and earned an MBA from the University of San Diego.

In 2016 he founded Next Gen Financial Planning, a San Diego firm built for younger clients with real planning needs who were routinely turned away by the asset minimums at traditional firms and later co-founded Next Gen Tax Prep alongside it. In 2024 he sold Next Gen to its employees: partly so he could focus on AdviceOnly full time, and partly because the team that helped build the firm deserved to own its next chapter.

He stays deeply involved in the profession. He is a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, the XY Planning Network, and the Advice-Only Network; a board member of the Garrett Planning Network Alliance; co-founder, treasurer, and secretary of the Advice-Only Planners Association; and a past president of the Financial Planning Association's San Diego chapter. He also volunteers as an item writer for the CFP exam and provides pro bono financial counseling through the San Diego Financial Literacy Center as well as tax prep through the IRS' Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.

Steven is happily married to the love of his life who somehow hasn't realized how far out of his league she is (so please don't tell her). When not working, he's often chasing after their two amazing kids who keep life loud and full in the best ways, or experimenting with new vegan curry recipes, or injuring himself trying to get back into a workout routine since he refuses to accept that he's no longer a 20-something Marine.

Katie supports AdviceOnly as an operations consultant. With a background in IT, she works behind the scenes to keep the operational machinery of the platform running smoothly.

Kingston Hollman is AdviceOnly's Compliance Officer, a role he fills through his consultancy, Just Compliance. He handles the regulatory side of the platform — registrations, filings, and the steady stream of rules that come with being an SEC-registered investment adviser — so that AdviceOnly's advisors can keep their attention on clients.

He has seen compliance from just about every seat at the table. Before founding Just Compliance, Kingston worked as a securities examiner for the State of Minnesota and as a compliance consultant at the XY Planning Network, and his firm has since supported more than a thousand registered investment advisory firms. He holds a bachelor's degree in finance and an MBA from Elmhurst University, and served four years in the United States Air Force.

Kingston lives in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, where he's active in his church and local community and spends his time outside of work with his family. He's fond of saying that compliance is a culture, not a check-the-box activity — which is exactly the mindset you want in the person watching the rules.