Financial Advisor Recommendation?
My husband and I are trying to figure out the best way to save for retirement, pay off student loans, and put a down payment on a house. We would like to talk to a financial advisor who can help us figure out what to prioritize and set up a schedule for specific amounts to put each month towards each category. Does anybody have recommendations? We live in El Sobrante, and would prefer to find someone in the East Bay, but are willing to travel to San Francisco. Thanks in advance!
Nov 11, 2019
Parent Replies
I've recommended our advisor to several friends and we are all very satisfied. Sean Burgess lived in SF for a long time but moved his family to portland and conducts all business over Video and online. He is a licensed fiduciary and does not manage our money, which is what we were looking for. https://www.burgessfinancial.com/
We've been very happy with Jarrett Topel at Topel & DiStasi in Berkeley (near the Claremont Hotel). We initially had a long meeting with Jarrett to discuss our goals, and he now checks in with us every 6 months to see if we need anything. He also (as authorized by us) automatically shifts things around as necessary. We recently met with him to get a handle on retirement, and were very pleased (and surprised) with what we learned. Here's the website: https://td-wm.com/
Gavin DiStasi at Topel & DiStasi Wealth Management. Very nice fellow, knowledgeable, reasonable, and helpful. He helped me a lot, and I continue to seek advice from him.
2907 Claremont Ave, #111
Berkeley, CA 94705Phone: 510.898.1270
Fax: 510.898.1604
I did a bit of research to find a financial advisor who would talk to me and my husband about retirement accounts and college savings. I really wanted to find someone who would charge by the hour, not take a percentage of accounts they set up for us. After a string of referrals to people who said they "didn't exactly do that" we ended up seeing Julie Asti. She was really fantastic, and helped clarify all of the questions we had, and seemed extremely competent, smart and efficient. She charged us $300 and hour and we met with her for 2 hours. It felt incredibly worthwhile, and I cannot recommend her enough. It seems really rare to find someone who will just charge by the hour to offer objective advice, not try to sell you financial products. We are pretty set for now with all of the information we need to move forward financially, but I anticipate that we will have more questions at some point in the future and we will definitely go back to her. Her website is https://astifinancial.com/
I highly recommend Alicia Ivanovich at Financial Healthy. I have been working with her for a couple of years and find her enormously helpful. She is has helped me set long and short term goals and find the path toward meeting them. I am in much better shape financially now than I was before I began working with Alicia. Can't recommend her highly enough. Plus she's a Berkeley parent herself! Her office is in downtown Oakland. Here is her contact info
Alicia Ivancovich, CFP®
Principal and Certified Financial Planner™ practitionerFINANCIALLY HEALTHYA Registered Investment Adviser firmFinancial Advice and Investment Management1999 Harrison Street, Suite 1800Oakland, CA 94612Phone: (510) 496-4567alicia [at] financially-healthy.com (alicia[at]financially-healthy[dot]com)
Rick Prime. He's on Domingo near the Claremont Hotel.
https://primewealth.com/
He's an absolute gem of a person, and he's not looking to sell you anything or make a buck. He's just a wonk who knows tons and wants to share info. I can't say enough about him (you sound exactly where my husband and I were when we were referred to him by another friend).
We love working with Jack Rabuck of West Coast Financial. He is smart, attentive, progressive, thoughtful, and so understanding. We connected with him as we were feeling anxious about retirement, paying for college, moving — it was all on the table — and he helped get us to a place of confidence and calm. He can be reached at 510-925-1668. His email: jack [at] wcfinc.com. His office is in Oakland, but he visits us at home.