Avoid if you have RSUs -- Incompetent with Tech Equity & Unprofessional…read more I am writing this to warn anyone in the tech industry with RSU or stock compensation to avoid BFM Wealth Management. I had a disastrous experience where this firm attempted to double-tax me on $14,000 of income that was already correctly reported on my W-2. The Technical Error The issue was straightforward: they failed to apply the Adjusted Cost Basis to my RSU sales. Brokerages often leave the basis blank or at $0 on the 1099-B; it is a standard professional requirement to adjust this so the client isn't taxed twice. Despite me performing the investigative work to identify the issue, sending a Supplemental Tax Statement, and providing specific instructions on how to reconcile the W-2 income with the stock sale, they refused to make the correction. When I pushed for them to follow the IRS instructions for Form 8949 (Adjustment Code B) to fix the "phantom" capital gain, they chose to stop working with me entirely rather than admit a technical error through the secure message system. Lack of Transparency & Accountability The communication was highly unprofessional. I sent a detailed, multi-point explanation of the error with supporting math to ensure a clear paper trail existed. Instead of a professional response, I was met with a vague message simply telling me to "call." The entire purpose of a secure portal is to provide a space for documented communication regarding sensitive financial matters. Many clients, myself included, prefer written responses so we can read, digest, and fully understand the technical details being discussed. I proactively called their front desk to explain that I was in a significant time crunch and was unavailable for a phone call, which is precisely why I required a response within the portal. I informed the representative that a "call me" brush-off was unacceptable after the effort I put into walking them through their own mistake. Instead of a resolution, BFM chose to terminate our engagement simply because I insisted on a documented explanation rather than a phone call. This refusal to communicate in writing suggests either a hidden agenda to avoid accountability or a complete lack of regard for the client's time and need for clarity. The $3,000 Reality Check It made no sense for my return to swing from receiving thousands to owing thousands. I took the exact same documents to a different professional, and the results speak for themselves: * BFM's Error: Claimed I owed thousands of dollars by double-counting $14,000 in wages as capital gains. * New Professional: Correctly adjusted the basis, resulting in a $1,444 Federal refund and a $1,048 State refund. A total swing of nearly $3,000 in my favor just by hiring someone who actually understands the "V" code on a W-2 and how to read a supplemental brokerage report. If you value your hard-earned equity and expect professional, transparent communication, go elsewhere.

When looking for Excellent Tax Services.... Patrick Fovel is…read moreon Top of the Game.... Best of Luck

My wife and I have financed two Reverse Mortgages with Tim Pedersen. In both cases, Tim was…read moreknowledgeable, professional and helpful with all the arrangements that had to be made. He was clear in presenting us with the different options available to us. He handled all the forms and paperwork expeditiously. He was available to answer all our questions via phone and email I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Tim to anyone looking to get a Reverse Mortgage.

Once again Tim Pedersen came through for my mom! She has the security that she needs in order not…read moreto worry about finances. This is the second time that we have dealt with Tim. He has been a class act and very helpful both times!!

My family and I have been working with CPA Michelle Matlin for 5 years and cannot say enough about…read morehow how she has helped us through a very difficult Trust since my parents passed away. She is knowledgeable, competent and encouraging, and saved us money with her expertise---which is extensive! I feel so fortunate to have found her. She is a professional and cares deeply about her clients. I would recommend her to anyone needing an excellent CPA. Many thanks, Michelle!! Debbie and Les Tong

Awful experience, does not communicate timely, does not complete task timely, and conflicting…read moreinformation given by Michelle when asked for updates. I would never recommend Michelle.

Sharons been doling our taxes for years. She is 5 Star service in our book! Excellent job,…read morequick, informative and well organized! Highly recommend her. Mark

I had the opportunity to meet with Chuck D. Gibson and Melanie A. Pelayo with Financial…read morePerspectives. I have to say that I felt very comfortable with both of them right away. I did not feel rushed and they were looking out for my best interest. They asked a lot of questions to get a feel for who I was and what my outlook was on my financial future. They provided great information about my needs on investing and what it would take for me to retire. They continue to service my needs and keep me up to date on my portfolio and give me well thought out investment strategies that I have a say in. They are an independent fee only firm and they do not sell you products like some other financial planning service companies. What I like best is that they make money when I make money. So when you think about it the more money I have to pay them the more money they are making me. Another reason why I like Chuck and Melanie is that I am busy running two businesses. One for profit and the other because of satisfaction. I don't have time to do the financial research nor am I an expert so I rely on them to be my eyes and ears. I leverage my time and delegate the financial stuff to the experts. They provide a great service and help you invest on your own terms. If you want a little or a lot of direction you can have it your way. At Financial Perspectives they believe that outstanding financial planning is the Eighth Wonder of the World. I highly recommend their services you can't go wrong. Tell them Gary W. sent you.

I've had the pleasure of working with Chuck at Financial Perspectives in two capacities. First, he…read morehas been managing my mother's retirement money since around 2009 or so. Second, I've been using his services to learn more about managing my own money. I'm not the kind of person who writes yelp reviews much, but Chuck has been awesome, so here's my experience. . . I'm very involved in my mom's financial situation so I've been interacting with Chuck quite a bit from the beginning. I felt better that my mom having someone professional to manage her money instead of me doing it for her. It gave us both peace of mind, but I secretly felt that I could do just as good as Chuck using a simple balanced portfolio of index funds with low expense ratios, buy-and-hold, then rebalance. So after a few years I compared what how my mom's portfolio did under Chuck's management with performance given what I would have done if I were managing it. I was certain that I would have outperformed since I did not include any fees for my "service." All along, I assumed my mom has been taking a small financial hit in order to get peace of mind of having a pro manage her money. Chuck is super nice, and genuine and my mom likes him, so that was all fine. Well, I was simultaneously disappointed and pleased to find that Chuck's plan did better than mine even including his fees. That bastard! Even though he "passed" my test, that was a fairly silly, and even unfair, test to put him through. Chuck doesn't claim to predict the market to outperform it. His overall philosophy, as I understand it, is to allow your money to grow with the market, but to limit loss as much as possible from major downturns in the economy. He's seen what's happened, for example, with the housing crisis where people lost half of their retirement money, and he made it his mission to prevent that for himself and his clients. My mother and I are very appreciative of that philosophy. I've been quite interested in investing and planning for retirement for many years now. I've read several books and quite bit online, and am part of a finance lunch group at work. I've made several large spreadsheets that help me re-balance my portfolio across asset classes, sectors, etc, while minimizing my expense ratios. I've written code to automatically download financial data online for my spreadsheets. Yes, I'm a math and computer nerd, and finances became somewhat of a hobby for me. I thought I had it all figured out. Recently, I've been talking with Chuck a lot about my investment strategies as part of his services and I'm ashamed to say he has opened my eyes quite a bit. I'm now convinced that this strategy of limiting major losses is both possible and clearly better than my previous strategy of buy-and-hold + rebalance. To paraphrase, portfolios that lose the least are the ones that perform the best. Plus there's less of an emotional roller coaster along the way. It's not some crazy plan that someone cooked up, it's a well studied strategy that he's implemented in way that can be customized to someone's risk preferences. He is super passionate about it, super knowledgeable, and he takes time to explain it well. I'm continuing to work with him to learn how to do it on my own. Since, he's been great managing my mom's money, I'd would let him manage mine, but that would take away one of my few pleasures in life. So for now, I'm using his services to learn how to do it.

I have been a client for 7years and I don't regret it. Cindy's service is outstanding and has the…read moregreatest assistant Lorena! I know that at any time i'll be help with my insurance needs. She always gives me the information I need from college accounts to live, car, renters and home INS. And is just here in town "Livermore " !!!!! God bless this place

she is awesome. She is very helpful and will give you all the information you need without feeling…read morethe pressure to go about it, My whole family has insurance with her and she has been so good to us. She is very open on times and you can easily show up if shes not too busy and she will take care of everything right away, she does not take her time to do things and is always concerned about her clients. She also has a good assistant Lorena who is on top of everything as well just is Cindy she is concerned about the service your are given and shows how important you are to her.

Deborah Bell is the Director at the tax department of this Williams Adley office. I've been self…read moreemployed and/or run companies including international multi-million dollar companies overseas and have 30 years of business experience and I've dealt with a number of CPAs over that time. Deborah and her team are simply the best I've ever encountered. her meticulous attention to detail, unwavering integrity and dedication to her clients is remarkable. I've recommended Deborah and her team to every one of my acquaintances without hesitation and continue to do so. Deborah mastery of accounting and deep understanding of the tax system has on numerous occasions help dissipate the panic that comes with a letter from the IRS. She rocks. Really!

I had high hopes of working with Deborah Bell Fisher, the Director at the tax department of this…read moreWilliams Adley office. However, after she stood me up for two appointment times that I scheduled with her to do an initial phone consult, I gave up. I spoke to her initially long enough to explain the services I needed and we agreed to do an initial phone consult for 30 minutes on a specific day at 9:00am. I called her at the agreed upon time (~9:01am) and she didn't pick up the phone so I left her a vmail. I had previously explained to her that I had a hard stop at 9:30am. She did call me back around 9:25am but by then I was transitioning to my next meeting for the day. She left a vmail apologizing for not being in the office to take my call. I understand that things can happen to make someone be late or miss an appointment from time to time, so I was willing to give it a second try. I called a couple of days later and spoke to her again and rescheduled for another specific day at 9:00am. On that day, I called her at 9:00am and she didn't pick up again. I thought surely this time she would call me back within minutes given that she missed our first appointment to speak. The fact is, it's now been a week and I still have not received a return call. Deborah has certainly not lived up to the positive reviews here on Yelp or on Berkeley Parent's Network. I don't know what's going on with her but at this point I have zero confidence that she can execute and push things along to conclusion. With me, she never even got out of the starting gate.

My wife and I had private health insurance that had a huge deductible and was going up in price,…read moreagain! I contacted Janelle and she helped us set up group health insurance through our company. Our premiums actually went down and it is saving us $200/ month. Janelle was super helpful in getting us set up online, making sure the auto pay was set up , and walking us through the whole process. She has excellent customer service skills and deep knowledge of health insurance variables.

Janelle is my go to person for all matters related to health insurance. She gets to the bottom line…read morequick and follows through with service.