What “Open Weights” and “Frontier Models” Mean — And Why the Answer Matters to Your Portfolio
By Vaughn Woods, CFP®, MBA Vaughn Woods Financial Group, Inc. | August 2026 There is a vocabulary problem in artificial intelligence right now, and it is costing people money. Not because the words are difficult. Because the words are doing work that most investors never inspect. When a headline says a company released […]
How We Eat Now
Four generations, four worldviews, one table By Vaughn Woods, CFP®, MBA Vaughn Woods Financial Group, Inc. — La Jolla, California I want to be clear about what I am and what I am not. I am not a nutritionist. I have no credentials in food science and no interest in pretending otherwise. What I do […]
The Silent Frequency of the Family Meeting
Before a single word is spoken in a high-stakes family wealth or business succession meeting, the outcome has often already been decided. It happens in the stillness between taking a seat and opening a folder. The faint tightening of a patriarch’s jaw when his eldest daughter mentions board governance; the subtle, rhythmic tapping of a […]
The Ontology Race
Six Stacks, One Throne, and the Investment Bet Nobody Is Naming Correctly By Vaughn Woods, CFP®, MBA Vaughn Woods Financial Group, Inc. | July 2026 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”— Daniel 12:4 […]
What We Check Every Quarter, Whether You Ask or Not
Here’s a secret about being your advisor: most of the good stuff happens when you’re not looking. You’re at dinner, walking the dog, blissfully unaware that somewhere a spreadsheet is quietly doing its job. That’s not us slacking off between meetings — that’s us actually working. Every quarter, whether or not a call is on […]
The Ontology of Power
Why Context Has Become the Most Dangerous Asset in the World By Vaughn Woods, CFP, MBA Vaughn Woods Wealth Management | July 2026 “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” — Romans 7:15 What My Thesis Didn’t […]
When Your CEO Is Ranting About Chips, Ontology, and Models…
Vaughn Woods, MBA, CFP® President & Founder, Vaughn Woods Financial Group | San Diego, California Did anyone else catch Alex Karp going off (again) about chips, ontology, and models? Palantir’s CEO has basically turned “chips + ontology” into his personal drinking game at this point. You can almost see the CNBC host thinking, “We […]
The First 90 Days as Trustee: What Actually Happens After a Parent Dies
Most families create trusts. Far fewer prepare the human being who will actually have to run one after death. By Vaughn L. Woods, CFP®, MBA Founder and Senior Portfolio Manager, Vaughn Woods Financial Group, Inc. No one ever feels fully ready to become trustee when the moment actually arrives. In the abstract, families imagine […]
What If Everything Goes Right?
The most dangerous word in finance right now isn’t “recession” — it’s “impossible.” Oil at $77, a new Fed chair, falling mortgage rates, and America turning 250: what if, just for a while, everything goes right? What If Everything Goes Right? A Mid-Summer Case for American Optimism Vaughn Woods, MBA, CFP® President & Founder, Vaughn […]
A Brief History of How We All Became Efficiency Freaks
By Vaughn Woods, CFP®, MBA I recently left the training ground for multi-generational dialogue. Instead, I found myself standing in my kitchen, screaming—“REPRESENTATIVE!”—into my telephone. I was trying desperately to keep my voice at a civilized pitch so the robotic voice on the other end wouldn’t politely inform me, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.” […]