01 — Diagnose
See the whole board.
Wealth
We map all nine areas of your money as they really are today — what you own, owe, and haven't protected.
Business
We map how the business runs today — or pressure-test the idea or deal you're weighing.
Financial planning, insurance & business servicesNothing skipped.Nothing out of order.
A clear plan for your finances. The right protection for your needs. A practical path for your business.
A free 15–30 minute conversation to discuss what you need, how we can help and the next step.
Our Services
Start with what you need.
Sequence Advisory
You make good money. But you’re still unsure where it goes, whether you’re doing enough, or what to do next.
Sequence brings your finances into one coordinated plan, so you know what needs attention, what to do first and how your decisions fit together. You choose which parts to carry out yourself and which parts you want our help implementing.
Sequence Insurance
You want to protect your family, your income and your future. But knowing what coverage you need—and which options fit—can be confusing.
We help you understand your needs, review any coverage you already have and compare appropriate options, with our compensation explained before you decide.
Sequence Business
You want to build a business, but aren’t sure what to do first—or how to put the pieces together.
Your business is growing, but everything still depends on you. More customers mean more work, and the systems haven’t caught up.
We help you build the roadmap and put it into practice—from launching the business to connecting your systems, documenting processes and preparing for growth.
Start it · Buy it · Run it · Scale it
Households and business owners
When your business and personal finances affect each other, your plan should account for both.
What you pay yourself, what the household keeps in reserve, what the business reinvests, and how your retirement and protection fit all draw on the same money. We plan them together while keeping business and personal accounts legally and operationally separate.
Marlyn Santiago Foma’i leads the household side and Efrain Santiago leads business services. When your situation spans both, they work on one plan. Not every household needs a business service.
One Method, Both Sides
Diagnose. Design. Build. Maintain.
Every engagement runs the same four stages, in the same order: understand the situation, set the priorities, put the plan in place, and review it when it helps. Nothing skipped. Nothing out of order.
Our Mission
We believe every person has been entrusted with resources, opportunities, and responsibilities for a greater purpose.
Wealth is more than money, business is more than profit, and success is more than achievement. They are tools to create value, serve others, and leave a meaningful legacy. Our mission is to help people steward those gifts with wisdom, integrity, and faithful purpose.
Pricing
Know what it costs before you decide.
The introductory call is free. A written financial plan starts at $1,997, business services start at $497, and implementation and ongoing support are separate and optional. Every fee is confirmed in writing before work starts.
There is no separate implementation fee for insurance placed through us. We receive commissions from the insurance carrier, explain our compensation before you decide, and you may choose another provider. Premiums still apply.
A free 15–30 minute conversation to discuss what you need, how we can help and the next step.
02 — Design
Set the order of operations.
Wealth
We put your moves in priority order and write you a plan to follow.
Business
We design the entity, the systems, and the roadmap — with the hire order and milestones.
03 — Build
Put it in place, step by step.
Wealth
We implement the plan one piece at a time, in priority order, and bring in the specialists.
Business
We form it, build the SEO-optimized website, funnel, automation, and CRM, then document the operation.
04 — Maintain
Keep it in order.
Wealth
We review your plan regularly and keep it in order as your life, the tax rules, and the markets change.
Business
Ongoing monitoring, optimization, and a build each quarter as you grow.
Why order matters: skip a step, and the rest cost you more.
Ready to see where your sequence begins?
Get Started →W Wealth Engineering · Sequence Advisory
Your personal financial life, engineered in order.
We read all nine areas of your money and build them in one deliberate sequence — so nothing you build gets undone by something you skipped. Numbered in the order we work them, not alphabetically.
01
Cash Flow
What comes in, what goes out, and what's actually left over to put to work.
02
Debt
Paid down in the smartest order — weighed against everything else, not at random.
03
Protection
The right insurance, sized to what you'd actually lose — no more, no less.
04
Investments
Built around your plan and your taxes — not a pile of accounts you collected over the years.
05
Retirement
Your number, the path to it, and the order to fill and draw from your accounts.
06
Estate
Where it goes, how it gets there, and the least friction for the people who receive it.
07
Tax
Every decision looked at through its tax bill — across the years, not just this April.
08
Your Business
If you own one: the pay you take, the retirement plan it can run, protecting your partners, and how you'll one day sell it or hand it off — planned as part of your personal wealth. (Building the business itself lives on the Business side.)
09
Real Estate
Real estate as an investment — deal analysis and placement will be offered once our investment-adviser registration is effective.
How We Work Together
Start where it suits you. Build only what earns its place.
00
Get your Sequence Score →
Sequence Score Free
A free, plain-English read on where your money stands today — and the single most useful thing to do next. No pitch, no products.
01
Let's talk
Personal Financial Review Diagnose
A live look at every area of your money. You walk away with a written summary — your findings, ranked in the order to fix them.
02
Let's talk
Growth & Planning Strategy Design
Your complete, personalized plan — the specific moves, the amounts, and the sequence — for when you want decisions made, not just options laid out.
03
Let's talk
Implementation Build
We help you actually do it — one piece at a time, in priority order, and we bring in the professionals who handle each part.
04
Let's talk
Ongoing Partnership Maintain
Regular reviews that re-order your plan as your life changes — so nothing important quietly slips between them.
Implementation — the pieces your plan may call for
01
Money Setup
Accounts, automatic transfers, and cash reserves — set up and running.
02
Investing
Offered once our investment-adviser registration is effective.
03
Retirement Plan
A written income plan: when to draw, Social Security timing, healthcare costs.
04
Debt Payoff
A payoff schedule with dates and the interest you'll save — wired into your automation.
05
Estate
Documents signed, trust funded, beneficiaries lined up — with your attorney.
06
Insurance
Coverage sized and put in place — every option shown, with our pay disclosed on each.
07
Business Owner
Owner pay, buy-sell, key-person, succession — your business, planned with your life.
08
Investing Education
Learn what you own and why — never a sales pitch.
Real Estate — Strategy & Placement
Deal analysis and placement will be offered once our investment-adviser registration is effective.
Estate Planning
Wills and trusts prepared through our estate platform, with guided signing and funding — coordinated alongside your attorney, not drafted by us.
The technology behind it
The technology
PFOS
Personal Financial Operating System
The platform your plan lives in. Every account, debt, and goal in one place, your order of operations laid out step by step, and your progress tracked as life changes.
- Your whole financial picture in one view
- Scenarios before you decide
- Spending and debt payoff tracked as you go
Your advisor works with you inside it — so the plan you agreed on is the plan you see.
Client sign in →Protection
Sequence Insurance
Life, annuities, long-term care, and disability
The coverage your plan calls for is placed through our insurance side — every option shown side by side, with our pay disclosed on each.
Explore Insurance →0
B Business Engineering · Sequence Business
Your business, built in the same order.
For founders and owners, we engineer the company the same way we engineer your money — diagnose, design, build, maintain. Start it, buy it, run it, or scale it, each in its right sequence, and coordinated with your personal wealth plan.
★
Let's talk →
Complete Business Build Everything
The whole path, bundled: formed and launched, the systems to operate, and documented and built to scale — one engagement, one order.
01
Let's talk
Formation Start it
Pressure-test the idea, choose the right entity (LLC vs S-corp vs other), file it, get your EIN and operating agreement — then stand up your first business plan, financial model, and operations.
02
Let's talk
Acquisition Buy one
Independent analysis of a business you're buying — valuation, red flags, and records verified, with a written "is this a good buy." Plus education on funding (seller financing, SBA) and deal structure.
03
Let's talk
Systems Run it
The infrastructure to operate: a conversion-built, SEO-optimized website, a funnel, advanced automations, and a CRM — connected and live. AI integration and backend setup when you need them.
04
Let's talk
Operations Scale it
Map how the business runs today and find the gaps, write the SOPs and define the roles, then a full scale roadmap — the org to grow into, with hire order and milestones.
05
Let's talk
Business Retainer Maintain
Keep it running and growing: ongoing monitoring and optimization of your systems, on-call support, and — at the strategic level — a quarterly strategy session and a new build each quarter.
Planned together, kept separate
Your business and your personal finances draw on the same money. We plan both in the same order, so a move on one side never quietly undermines the other, while the accounts stay legally and operationally separate.
Owner planning, too
Owner pay, buy-sell, key-person, and succession are handled on the Wealth side, planned right alongside your personal financial life.
Business Finance
The money side of the business, handled.
Building the company is half of it. The other half is its books, its cash, its taxes, and what it's worth — kept properly underneath and explained in plain language.
Bookkeeping
Double-entry books, every transaction categorized, bank feeds connected and reconciled.
Month-end close
Each month closed and checked, with a short weekly review of what moved.
Financial statements
Profit and loss, balance sheet, and general ledger — current, not a year late.
Taxes, ahead of time
Quarterly estimates before they're due, and sales tax tracked as you collect it.
Cash flow
Where the cash went, what's coming in and going out, and how much is truly yours to take.
Debt
Every loan and line of credit in one place, with what each one actually costs.
Owner pay
What you pay yourself, documented — and business and personal money kept apart.
Records
Receipts and the paper trail behind each deduction, kept where an auditor would look.
Valuation
A range for what the business is worth, built from its real books.
The technology behind it
The technologyComing soon
BFOS
Business Financial Operating System
We do this work for you today. BFOS is the platform it runs on — the books, the cash, and the owner's side of the business in plain language, with your accountant given a seat of their own.
- Built so a non-accountant can read it
- Your accountant gets their own access
- In English and Spanish
I Protection · Sequence Insurance
Protection, sized to what you'd actually lose.
Insurance is planned inside your sequence, never sold ahead of it. We start from what would actually go wrong — a lost income, a long illness, a family left short — and size the coverage to that, no more and no less.
Coverage
Life insurance
Term, whole, universal, and indexed universal life — for the people who depend on your income.
Coverage
Annuities
Fixed, fixed-indexed, and multi-year guaranteed annuities — for protected growth and retirement income.
Coverage
Long-term care
Traditional and hybrid life and long-term-care coverage, for the cost of extended care.
Coverage
Disability income
Replaces part of your paycheck if illness or injury keeps you from working.
01
Sized in your plan
Coverage follows the diagnosis: what you'd lose, and for how long.
02
Every option, side by side
Carriers and policy types compared on the same page.
03
Our pay, disclosed
The commission on each option is shown to you before you sign.
The technology behind it
The technology
Quote & Apply
Instant quotes and online applications
Compare carriers side by side and apply online in one sitting — no paper forms, and no waiting on a callback to see a price.
Powered by BackNineGet a quote
Instant quotes are available in select states. Don't see yours? Tell us where you live and we'll let you know how we can help.
My state isn't listed →Loading the quote engine…
Insurance products are offered through Sequence & Co. LLC where it is licensed. Product availability varies by state and by carrier, and guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurer.
Coming soon
E Education · Sequence Foundation
The lessons most people were never taught.
Sequence Foundation, our education arm, is building complete, teacher-led courses in personal finance and business — starting with kindergarten through eighth grade.
K–8
Personal Finance
Earning, saving, spending with confidence, and giving — so kids grow up comfortable with money.
K–8
Business & Entrepreneurship
Spotting a problem worth solving, making something, and asking someone to buy it.
For churchesPlanned
A program for the congregation
Stewardship and household money for the congregation.
For re-entryPlanned
For people preparing to come home
A fresh start with money and work for people coming home.
Teacher-led · Print and video · Secular and Christian editions
F Our Story
Every meaningful goal begins with a decision.
Whether you're building wealth, growing a business, preparing for retirement, or creating opportunities for the next generation, the path forward isn't defined by one investment, one strategy, or one transaction. It's shaped by the sequence of decisions you make along the way.
That's why we created Sequence & Co.
We founded Sequence & Co. because we believe there is a better way to serve individuals, families, entrepreneurs, and business owners. Too often, financial advice is influenced by products, commissions, or siloed expertise, while business owners are left to navigate growth without the strategy, systems, and trusted guidance they deserve.
We believe people shouldn't have to choose between a financial advisor and a business advisor — they deserve a team who understands how both work together.
Sequence Advisory
Financial AdvisoryClear, coordinated planning to help clients build, protect, and preserve wealth with confidence.
Sequence Insurance
ProtectionCoverage sized to what you'd actually lose, with every option shown and our pay disclosed on each.
Sequence Business
Business AdvisoryHelping entrepreneurs build stronger businesses through strategy, operational systems, leadership, and scalable processes that create lasting value.
Sequence Foundation Coming soon
EducationK–8 personal finance and business courses, with programs for churches and re-entry to follow.
Why we build our own technology
Most firms rent the same off-the-shelf tools and fit the client around them. We engineered ours around the sequence itself — so your order of operations isn't a document in a drawer. It's the system you use.
Together, these disciplines create a more complete approach — one that recognizes personal wealth and business success are deeply connected. By helping clients make better decisions in both, we help them build stronger businesses, stronger financial futures, and a lasting legacy.
Because lasting success isn't built in a single moment. It's built through the right sequence of decisions.
The Founders
Efrain Santiago
Co-Founder
Before founding Sequence & Co., Efrain Santiago built his career as an engineer specializing in process improvement, operational excellence, and systems standardization for multi-billion-dollar organizations. After years of helping large enterprises streamline operations and scale efficiently, he recognized that many small businesses face the same challenges — but without access to the strategic expertise needed to overcome them.
Today, Efrain combines that engineering mindset with financial planning and business advisory to help individuals, families, and business owners build stronger financial foundations, scalable businesses, and long-term success. His approach is rooted in one principle: every lasting result begins with the right strategy, the right systems, and the right sequence of decisions.
Marlyn Santiago Foma'i
Co-Founder
Marlyn Santiago Foma'i is the Co-Founder of Sequence & Co., where she helps individuals, families, and business owners make confident financial decisions and execute strategies that build lasting wealth.
Before founding the firm, Marlyn built her career as an engineer, helping deliver complex construction projects with multi-billion-dollar budgets while personally overseeing contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. Entrusted with financial oversight, contractor performance, and strategic decision-making, she developed a disciplined approach to solving complex problems that now shapes her work with clients. After transitioning into financial services as an independent contractor, she realized that people rarely struggle because they lack information — they struggle because they lack clarity, confidence, and accountability. That insight became the foundation of Sequence & Co., where she combines analytical thinking with a client-first mindset to help clients execute the right financial decisions, in the right sequence, to build wealth and create a lasting legacy.
Our Mission
We believe every person has been entrusted with resources, opportunities, and responsibilities for a greater purpose.
Wealth is more than money, business is more than profit, and success is more than achievement. They are tools to create value, serve others, and leave a meaningful legacy. Our mission is to help people steward those gifts with wisdom, integrity, and faithful purpose.
The Promise
Built in sequence. Maintained for life.
- A full review of every applicable area — each one addressed, or clearly marked "not needed for you."
- A written order of operations you keep — your findings, ranked in the order to do them.
- Help putting it in place — one piece at a time, in priority order.
- A standing partnership that keeps it in order as your life, your business, the tax rules, and the markets change.
We promise process and coordination — not investment returns.
Q Questions
Straight answers.
What people ask before they start — about the money, the business, and how we work. If yours isn't here, ask us directly.
What does Sequence & Co. do?
Sequence & Co. is a fee-based financial planning and business advisory firm. We engineer your personal wealth and your business as one coordinated system — diagnosing, designing, building, and maintaining a plan in a deliberate order, rather than selling one-off products.
Who is Sequence & Co. for?
Two kinds of people: high earners — often six-figure individuals or households — who make good money but don't have a clear plan for it, and business owners who are stuck working in their business and want the structure and systems to grow it beyond themselves.
What makes Sequence & Co. different from other financial advisors?
Most advisors handle either your money or your business. Sequence & Co. plans both together, so a decision on one side accounts for the other, while your business and personal accounts stay legally and operationally separate. We work in a fixed order — diagnose, design, build, maintain — and explain how we are paid before you decide.
What is the Sequence Method?
A four-stage process applied to both wealth and business: Diagnose (see the whole picture), Design (set the order of operations), Build (put it in place step by step), and Maintain (re-rank as your life, taxes, and the markets change). Nothing skipped, nothing out of order. Implementation and ongoing support are optional; you choose how far we go together.
What is the Sequence Score?
An optional, free assessment that scores your personal finances or your business across the areas that matter most and gives you the single most useful next step — with no pitch and no products. You don't need it to work with us: you can book the free introductory call or explore our services directly.
Does Sequence & Co. help both individuals and business owners?
Yes. The wealth engine, led by co-founder Marlyn Santiago Foma'i, focuses on personal financial planning; the business engine, led by co-founder Efrain Santiago, focuses on the company — and for owners who need both, the two are coordinated as a single plan.
I want to start a business but don't know what to start. Where do I begin?
Start with the numbers, not the idea. Before anything gets filed, we pressure-test whether the idea can actually make money: what it costs to deliver, what someone will pay for it, and how many customers it takes before it's worth your time. If it holds up, we form it properly — the right entity, EIN, and operating agreement — then stand up the first business plan, financial model, and operations. Most people do this in the opposite order and pay for it later.
Do I need an LLC or an S-corp?
It depends on what the business earns and how you intend to pay yourself, which is why the right answer changes as you grow. An LLC is usually the simpler starting point; an S-corp election tends to make sense once profit is high enough that owner payroll saves more than the added complexity costs. We choose the structure as part of forming the business rather than guessing and amending later. This is general education, not tax or legal advice — we coordinate with your CPA and attorney.
How do I know if a business idea will actually make money?
You build the model before you build the business. We rebuild the numbers on our own assumptions — pricing, cost to deliver, volume, and what's actually left over — and tell you plainly whether it works, what would have to be true for it to work, or that it doesn't. That answer is worth more than a logo and a website.
Should I start a business or buy one?
Both can work; they fail differently. Starting means you control everything and earn nothing for a while. Buying means revenue on day one and inheriting someone else's problems. If you're weighing a specific business, we do independent analysis of it — valuation, red flags, and records verified, with a written view on whether it's a good buy — plus education on funding, including seller financing and SBA, and on deal structure.
What does it take to build a business that runs without me?
Three things, in order. First the finances separated and clean, so you can see what is actually happening. Then the systems to operate it — an SEO-optimized website, funnel, automations, and a CRM — connected and live. Then the operation documented, with SOPs written and roles defined, so the work stops living in your head. After that comes the scale roadmap: the org to grow into, with hire order and milestones.
What is the Complete Business Build?
The whole path in one engagement, in one order: the business formed and launched, the systems to operate it, and the whole thing documented and built to scale. It is for someone who wants a business built end to end rather than assembled piecemeal — the same fixed sequence we use on the wealth side, applied to the company.
$ Quote
Get your quote.
Answer a few questions and we build your quote — itemised, at published prices. There is no discovery fee, no hourly meter, and no number you will hear for the first time when it is due.
- 01
Diagnose
Priced inside The Plan.
- 02
Design
Priced inside The Plan.
- 03
Build
Priced per area, quoted at your plan review.
- 04
Maintain
A monthly retainer. Implementation includes the first three months; after that, it continues only if you choose it.
Build your quote
A few questions about what you actually need. At the end we ask where to send it, then your itemised quote appears right here.
Begin
Built in sequence.
Maintained for life.
Wealth, business, or both — tell us where you stand, and we'll take it from there.
No pitch. No products. A starting read.