Built for the moments that matter — not the middle.
The Idea Behind Lake House
After a decade at Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan, I saw a pattern I couldn't unsee: the most consequential financial decisions of an executive's career — acquisitions, IPOs, change-of-control payments, the year the equity finally vests into wealth — were being navigated with the same generalist advisor who handled the long, calm middle of the career. The window when planning matters most was the window most advisors were least equipped for.
Lake House Private Wealth Management was built for that window.
We work with senior executives and their families anchored in the Philadelphia–Princeton corridor and serving clients across the country — leaders at pharma, biotech, finance, technology, and corporate companies in our footprint and beyond, navigating the moments when equity compensation becomes meaningful wealth. The 12 months around a liquidity event contain more high-stakes financial decisions than the prior decade combined. Lake House exists to make sure those decisions get made in the right order, with the right professionals at the table, before the planning windows close.
What We Actually Do
The work is coordination, not just planning.
Most executives don't need another financial plan. They need someone running the integration across tax strategy, equity compensation timing, family transfers, charitable structures, and concentrated stock decisions — coordinated with their CPA, attorney, and HR team rather than running the project themselves.
Lake House is built around three specialty practices:
— M&A and liquidity events — acquisitions, IPOs, change-of-control payments, 280G optimization, post-close diversification — Executive equity compensation — RSUs, ESPP, NQDC, options, deferred comp — managed as one integrated system — Pre-retirement coordination — the wind-down, the deferred comp distribution, the next chapter
The work translates whether a client is across the river in Princeton, across town in Conshohocken, or across the country — because the moments we focus on are the same regardless of zip code. We work with a deliberately small number of executive families at a time. Every relationship gets the full firm.
Why Independence Matters
Lake House is genuinely independent. No proprietary products. No sales quotas. No bank conflicts.
We custody client assets at Schwab and Fidelity — the same institutions the largest brokerage firms use — but the advice is independent and fiduciary. Independence isn't a marketing line. It's the structural difference between an advisor whose firm is paying them to sell something and an advisor whose only incentive is the client's outcome.
Lake House operates as a DBA of MGO One Seven, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. The MGO One Seven platform provides our regulatory, custody, and reporting infrastructure. The advice is ours.
Institutional Depth: The Alta Vera Connection
Alongside Lake House, I serve as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Alta Vera Global Capital Advisors — an independent advisory platform headquartered in Miami and backed by Merchant Investment Management. Alta Vera operates at a different scale than Lake House: serving ultra-high-net-worth families and recruiting breakaway advisors across the country, with institutional capabilities most local independent firms can't access on their own.
The relationship matters for Lake House clients in three ways.
First, depth of resources. When a Lake House client faces a situation that benefits from institutional reach — private credit access, direct-indexing infrastructure, alternative investment platforms, capital-raising mandates, or family office–level coordination — Alta Vera's platform is the same depth they'd get at a much larger firm, applied through the Lake House relationship.
Second, advisor caliber. The professional networks and operating standards Alta Vera builds for UHNW families and breakaway advisors flow back into how Lake House operates day-to-day. It's why our process, technology, and reporting are built to institutional standards even though the client experience is deliberately personal.
Third, perspective. Serving as an institutional operator at one firm while running a specialized practice at another keeps both lenses sharp. The Alta Vera work means I see capital markets and the advisory industry from a vantage point most local advisors don't have. The Lake House work means I never lose sight of what an actual executive family needs at an actual inflection point. The combination is the point.
Two firms. Two roles. One operating philosophy: independent, specialized, built for what the moment requires.
The Team
Chris Gatsch is Founder and Managing Partner of Lake House. After ten years at Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan working with executive families through accumulation and liquidity events, Chris founded Lake House to specialize in the moments most advisors aren't built for. He holds Series 7, 66, and 24 licenses and serves as Co-Founder and COO of Alta Vera Global Capital Advisors.
Andy Thiem is Investment Associate with a focus on pharma, biotech, and life sciences clients. His specialty depth in the dense network of corridor employers — Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, GSK, Genmab, and the mid-cap and private biotech firms across our footprint — makes him the natural anchor for clients navigating M&A and equity compensation events at those companies, whether they live in our footprint or work for those companies from elsewhere.
Steve Shaffer is Wealth Advisor and brings something rare to financial planning: thirty years as a commercial pilot before becoming an advisor. Steve specializes in aviation industry professionals — pilots, flight crews, and aviation executives navigating variable income, contract negotiations, and pension complexity. He understands these decisions because he lived them for three decades.
Where We Work
Lake House is headquartered in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Our local clients are based across Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, and Mercer counties. Our virtual clients are based across the country — primarily former corridor natives now relocated, executives working for corridor employers from other geographies, and prospects who found us specifically because the specialty work they need is rare in their local market.
The location matters less than the moment. The work travels.