I started out needing financial planning in the early 2000's and worked directly with Jackie…read moreKleinman. I then founded PeopleThink and realized that my financials were becoming more complicated and I was going to need more council as my business grew. As an entrepreneur with a million and one things to accomplish, I needed to have trusted financial advisors to guide me with my financial decisions. The team needed to be knowledgeable, have my best interest in mind and provide me with ideas and options as my business grew. I get this type of service from KB Advisors. Their team are experts who take the worry out of investing.

Landon was my advisor for their "On Your Way To Wealth" service ($325/mo), for 7 months. The…read moreservice was quite basic. It could be worth it for folks who don't have basic knowledge in personal finance. For professionals who are in the accumulation phase, if you already understand the benefits of index fund investing, asset allocation, I'd say this service doesn't provide a great deal of additional value. The $325/mo covers a once-a-year planning (approximately a couple hours of work), and email/phone support in between. Problems: - Non-responsiveness. I asked questions mostly via email, on average one thread per month, perhaps with 1-2 followup questions. The support was not responsive. Average response times were 3 days, even for 1-sentence answers. But several times there would be no response at all until I followed up 4-7 days later. What exactly am I paying monthly for? Even to initially sign up I had to email twice, which should have been a red flag. There was not even an acknowledgement when I cancelled. My friend also used him and had the same frustrations with lack of response, so this isn't an isolated event. - Simplistic advice. I asked for advice on a couple situations, but responses usually lacked quantitative justifications. I would have liked to see upside/downside scenarios laid out and their impact calculated, rather than general advice based on his intuitions and personal philosophies. In fairness, the pros: + Their basic investing advice/philosophy is sound, though it's what you can easily gather from reading online. + Their website has good articles e.g. on stock compensation. + Tax filing service is included (they partner with McCarthy Tax Preparation), they were professional and did a good job, though my tax situation was also straightforward.

I highly recommend Sean Burgess' financial planning services. I chose Sean because of his…read moreaffordable, one-hour consultation session offering. I wasn't looking to spend thousands of dollars to have a financial advisor provide ongoing money management services. I really just wanted an expert to look at my situation in detail and provide advice that I could execute on myself. That's exactly what I got, and it was an incredibly valuable hour for me. Going into our session, I felt overwhelmed and without a plan for achieving my short and long term financial goals. Sean examined my situation (via a detailed questionnaire he had me complete in advance of our meeting) and provided, in a kind and straight-forward manner, both high-level perspective and clear guidance on specific actions to take. The greatest benefit of my meeting with Sean was that I came away with a much-increased clarity of my financial picture, which improved my sense of control and reduced my stress. I wouldn't hesitate to consult him again in the future when the need arises.

It has been several years since I went to see Sean so please keep that in mind but I just came…read moreacross his Yelp profile and realized I should add a review as meeting with him has stuck with me since then. I went to see him originally as I was searching for a financial planner that would really dig into my specific situation and help me "tune" my finances. At that time I had a general idea of finances, more than most people but less than some. I had read up on compound interest, opportunity costs... blah blah... and I had been saving about 50% of my paycheck and maxing out my 401k for decades. I've also tracked my spending in Quicken for about 20 years so I have an amazingly detailed view on exactly where all my money goes. With all this data, I was looking for a partner to put things over the finish line as I wrapped up my last few years of working. So now was the time that I needed another set of eyes on my finances to put an exit plan together and double check my math. It turns out that Sean isn't the person for this type of work. Although a SUPER nice guy with a passion for helping others, his advice from our one meeting was just the very basic fundamentals of financial planning. For example, for retirement he recommended that a person have X percentage of their current salary saved for a certain number of years. This is a common boiler plate idea that is a good starting point for thinking about finances. Unfortunately, this didn't fit my goal of seeing him as I wanted to "tune" my finances, not just keep sacking away as much as possible and use an off the shelf formula to determine success. I was willing to pay for personal advice but what he offered wasn't helpful or tailored to me in any way. I pointed out that this calculation doesn't apply to me because half of my salary as well as my max 401k match shouldn't be calculated into what I need to save for retirement. Will I keep saving 50% of my income during retirement? Of course not. When I pressed him on this, he didn't seem to have an answer. There were many more examples like this where he used a very basic spreadsheet to determine net retirement needed, current savings rates... which, for the right client, would be a great place to start. I do see that some people will get real value from working with Sean because they might not understand these concepts. What I am thankful to Sean for is that he inspired me to take matters into my own hands and dig deep into this project myself so I was able to retire at 50. This wouldn't have happened if I stuck with Sean. All of the resources that Sean brings to the discussion can easily be found for free on most any 101 planning website. But, if you want someone to walk you through these new concepts, Sean is easy to talk to and pleasant to be around. I would also plan on moving on from him fairly quickly as you will be doing yourself a disservice to stick with the basics that he provides for very long. Lastly, I would echo Daniel F's review almost verbatim.

They're very helpful and reliable, and responds to your needs quickly. Highly recommended!read more

Tom was excellent! He helped me out significantly with a 30 minute appointment to see if he and I…read morewere a good fit. Because of particulars of my case, we were not a good fit, but he recommended several people who would be. He also told me what to look for in a financial planner/wealth management specialist. It was incredibly helpful. Tom was great at active listening and making sure he was getting the correct information from me. While other specialists I've talked to were knowledgeable, they were not as careful or thorough as Tom about making sure they understood my assets, income, living situation, and goals as Tom was.

My husband and I had a great 30-minute session with Tom. He was very thorough in understanding our…read moresituation and assessing what next steps are based on our goals. As someone who isn't particularly confident managing my personal finances, it was reassuring to have a professional like Tom take us through what we should be thinking about and how to work toward our goals. We left with some recommendations that will help us stop being ostriches and actually learn to manage better long term.

My husband and I have been working with Evor and Johnny for 4 years now and couldn't be happier. We…read morefound them through a website that listed fee-only financial management firm. This appealed to us because we were looking to hire someone who would manage our investments according to what would be best for US, not where they would get the most commissions. I don't like dealing with accounting stuff and was dreading the process before our initial appointment, but they ended up making it fun for us, yes, FUN! We did some exercises that helped us define what kind of a life and future we wanted, where we saw ourselves and the process from there was pretty easy. Evor and Johnny exceeded our expectations as far as the services they provided. We were expecting someone to manage our accounts, but they went over our trust documents, disability insurance, taxes, and had great referrals to the best of people in all those areas. What I like most about working with Evor and Johnny is that they are very pleasant to deal with, easy to get ahold of and answer any questions you may have, personable, transparent, have high level of integrity, and truly care about your personal goals and future. I have been recommending them to friends and family and anyone looking for a trustworthy financial advisor.

Evor's services are great! Read my story below:…read more I met Evor doing a small construction project at his home years ago. I found out what he did for a living and we ended up talking about my investments. I could tell immediatly he was on his game. I had a hodge podge group of investments new and old both, brokerage, IRAs, Roth's, etc. that just ended up in a box - unwatched. Even though I dreaded changing all the accounts over, Evor made the process seamless! He filled out ALL the forms, made all the calls, gave me my tax info, all I had to do was sign the forms... Now I have the peace that he is taking care and watching my investments. He emails or calls me when he feels we should move money from one sector to the next, sends out an informative news letter AND I now get all my investment info in one nice package that is easy to understand. To top it off the fees he charges are very resonable. I would highly recommend his services.

Hubby and I FINALLY got around to dealing with our cluster-mess of assorted 401ks, stocks, IRA's,…read moresavings accounts opened when we were teens, ...you get the idea. It took at least six months for us to finally track down Kathy Hentges. I found her by cross-referencing licensed financial planners on the CFP website against Yelp reviews. It took a lot of work because most CFPs based in San Francisco want to work with the newly rich tech crowd, not those of us who are slow, steady savers. It was humiliating to be told that I didn't meet a financial planner's "customer profile". Kathy had no "profile" and she had a DIY financial model which was also important to us. After hearing horror stories on the news about shady investors, we weren't going to give someone total control of our financial future. Our first visit with Kathy was a meet and greet. We liked her right away. She is passionate about financial planning, numbers and trending models. We agreed to work with her on two services - (1) Are we saving enough for retirement? (2) How can we streamline this assorted collection of investments into a solid performing portfolio? She gave us a price range based upon hours. We signed the agreement and paid the deposit by credit card. Our first service came it at the lowest number quoted. In order for her to review our investments, we dug through boxes and found copies of every investment, bank statement, mortgage, car payment, 401ks, ...and uploaded them to a password protected client website. Two weeks later, Kathy met with us and showed us that we were slightly outside the ideal track for retirement. She used a computer model to show us our assets/debts and investments related to retirement. We talked about different options and Kathy would make the changes in the model to show the impact. It took a very small tweak of moving money to different investments to get us right on track. The second service came it right in the middle of her quoted range. She pulled the investment information from every one of our accounts (and we had lots of 401ks from so many jobs over the years). We reviewed the pros/cons of each investment. She then suggested alternative investments based upon our individual risk tolerance. I wanted to take more risk so my suggestions were different than my husband who is more risk averse. In the end, we walked away with a huge binder of all her models, suggestions, plans for next steps, etc... Kathy also sent us all the documents via her password-protected website. We've already made plans to meet with her one year from now to review our financial situation and make tweaks. I liked that Kathy worked alone and not in a huge firm because I really felt like I got personalized, caring service. She has a very focused practice and makes decisions on what she can do. If you read the negative reviews (I'm talking about you Rose Y.), you can see that Kathy offers great service but don't blame a solo practitioner for not wanting to be your $99 H&R Block tax prep service.. Now I feel like a real grown-up with a solid retirement plan!

Contrary to what you might read on her website, Kathy isn't the right fit for someone who is just…read morestarting to build up their nest egg. On my second meeting with her, I left feeling terrible about my finances and about myself. I definitely felt I had been belittled because of how new all of the financial planning stuff was to me at the time. I wish she'd taken the time to explain some things to me, but it's okay because my experience with her gave me the motivation to feverishly read a bunch of books about financial planning. And now my friends, most of whom are just starting to save and invest, are asking me for advice and resources. If you're not rich, but you can read, you don't need a financial planner. Suze Orman taught me that. I'm well on my way with my savings and investments. Oh, and if you don't have a crazy amount of assets, you don't need a tax preparer, either. Seriously, DIY is a good thing.

I highly recommend Cortland L. Golightly at Element Wealth Management as a Financial Advisor. As…read moreCo-founder and Managing Partner, Cortland brings over two decades of industry experience to his office in Walnut Creek. He serves as a compassionate and attentive partner who genuinely cares about our financial goals and has methodically tailored our accounts to meet them. As a mom, it means everything to have a trusted advisor who understands the dedication it takes to build both a stable future and a nurturing home for our family. Cortland and his team check in with us several times throughout the year to ensure my family's questions are answered and strengthens our confidence by patiently explaining financial strategies and concepts. I learn something new every time we chat with him. If you're looking for a trustworthy and dedicated financial advisor, I wholeheartedly recommend Cortland! Feel free to message me if you have further questions!

I saw myself as financially hopeless before I went to see Kathryn. I mean, I was living check to…read morecheck and not always making it. I knew I was capable of getting things under control, but the road from here to there just seemed to hard to navigate without a map. Kathryn gave me that map. Gently, over the course of several sessions (and without judgment -- I can't tell you how valuable THAT is) Kathryn helped me and my sweetie figure out where our money went -- and then start channeling it in more productive ways. One cool thing about her is that Kathryn tries to get to the bottom of why you behave the way you do around money. (It's like food or sex -- it makes you act weird and crazy, but you can change all that if you respect what got you to this place, right?) She doesn't scold or shame you -- just has a great, positive attitude to help you go forward. I'll admit, it seems daunting, when you already have money woes, to spend a chunk of change on financial counseling. But when you're set up with a debt-reduction plan, monthly and yearly spending plans, and most important of all, a three-tiered savings plan, you'll see what a good investment that is.

All athletes know that to enable them to get the best results in any sport, they need a coach…read more How about in life? Do you know how deal with money? Whether you do or don't, I strongly recommend hiring a coach. A person - who will help you get rid of negative spending habits and encourage saving habits. I can only recommend one such person. Her name is Kathryn Amenta, and she is a money coach. As a mortgage broker, I helped many of her clients with their mortgage needs, after Kathryn's money coaching to help them create positive cash flow. Kathryn Amenta is the ultimate professional money coach to help you to accumulate savings.