I launched Focused Finances, a sole proprietorship, in 1994 and transitioned to Focused Finances, LLC, in 2004. My objective then and now is to help individuals and couples with their financial planning and investment needs. My advice and insight have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Tribune, the Huffington Post, Real Simple, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. I am a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), which is the premiere professional association for fee-only financial planners, and the XY Planning Network (helping advisors serve the other 99% effectively). I am a Certified Financial Planner™ and hold an MBA in Finance from California State University, Hayward (now CSU East Bay). I am also a well-trained and avid musician (my undergraduate degree is in music, and I pursued graduate work as well). I specialize in choral singing and an unusual Baroque instrument – the viola da gamba. I perform with the San Francisco Bay Area Chamber Choir, California Bach Society, participate in numerous vocal and instrumental music workshops, and informal musical gatherings. For me, music is an important touchstone; it’s one of the ways I keep my life in balance.

Douglas Buser is a CFP® professional with 30 years of experience in financial advising. He has been with Golden Gate Advisors, Inc. since 1998. Outside of financial services, he is a partner and active real estate broker at Buser Brothers Real Estate. Golden Gate Advisors is a family-office registered investment adviser serving accredited high-net-worth individuals and related entities. The firm employs a multi-manager, core-satellite investment approach with a focus on diversified allocations and both affluent families and institutional plan sponsors.

Kevin Chung is a CFP® and CFA® with 17 years of experience in the financial services industry. He is the founding advisor of Generative Family Office LLC, where he has worked since 2024, following prior roles at JPMorgan Private Wealth Advisors and First Republic Investment Management. He holds an insurance license but is not actively engaged in insurance sales. Generative Family Office advises ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth individuals, families, and related entities, focusing on comprehensive family office consulting rather than direct portfolio management. The firm provides investment oversight and guidance to external managers while emphasizing long-term, diversified portfolio principles and extensive non-investment services, including family governance and life-planning coordination.

Denise Johnson is the principal of Five Talents Wealth Management in Dublin, California, with 17 years of industry experience. She holds Series 65 and Series 66 licenses and has worked at firms including Principal Financial Services and Accenture. In addition to her advisory role, she is the founder and principal of Denise-Danielle Strategy Consulting, where she provides business strategy consulting and authors educational materials. Five Talents Wealth Management is a state-registered investment adviser offering non-discretionary investment supervisory services and financial planning to individuals, charitable organizations, and corporations. The firm employs a diverse investment approach, incorporating technical, cyclical, and fundamental analysis, and provides tailored portfolio strategies reviewed quarterly.

Durga Eedara is a financial advisor at Eedara Financials with a Series 65 designation and over 20 years of industry experience, including a long tenure at Franklin Resources Inc from 2002 to 2021. Eedara Financials LLC, founded in 2025, provides discretionary portfolio management to individual and high-net-worth clients. The firm uses a combination of charting, fundamental, and technical analysis alongside various trading strategies, operating under client-granted discretionary authority.

Samah Naguib is a CFA® charterholder with 13 years of industry experience, currently serving as the sole advisor at Pleasanton Wealth since 2018. Prior to founding Pleasanton Wealth, Samah worked at Charles Schwab for 11 years. Pleasanton Wealth provides comprehensive financial planning and ongoing portfolio management to individuals, families, trusts, estates, business entities, charitable organizations, and retirement/pension plans. The firm employs a discovery-driven financial planning process combined with a mix of technical, fundamental, cyclical, quantitative, and qualitative analysis in portfolio construction, with a notable focus on retirement plan and pension consulting services.

Sunday Peters is the principal of SOBORA Capital and holds Series 63 and Series 65 licenses with nine years of industry experience. His prior work includes roles at Security Industry Specialists, Inc. and various SOBORA entities dating back to 2016. Peters also holds California real estate, mortgage, and insurance licenses and provides related services through affiliated SOBORA entities. SOBORA Capital offers non-discretionary investment management, capital-markets advisory, and financial planning primarily to institutional and business clients, including pension plans, endowments, and firms in real estate, construction, and engineering. The firm combines investment advisory with mortgage, real estate, and insurance services and provides ERISA plan consulting and participant education.

Keith Weissglass is a financial advisor at Effective Finance LLC in Berkeley, CA, holding a Series 65 credential with three years of industry experience. He serves as a director of operations at Constellation Research Center, Inc., a nonprofit organization, and is also a lecturer at the University of California at Davis. Effective Finance LLC is a fee-only registered investment adviser providing ongoing and project-based financial planning to individuals and high-net-worth clients. The firm focuses on tailored recommendations using modern portfolio theory and asset-allocation strategies, primarily favoring passive funds such as mutual funds and ETFs, while clients implement the recommendations independently.

Jeffrey Elfont is the sole advisor at Pinnacle Capital Management in Walnut Creek, CA, holding Series 63 and Series 65 credentials with nine years of industry experience. He has been with Pinnacle Capital Management since 2001 and has prior experience in accounting, taxation, and auditing from his career in CPA firms. Pinnacle Capital Management serves institutional clients and pooled investment vehicles while also working with a small number of individual, non-high-net-worth clients. The firm emphasizes transparent custodian selection and explicit conflict-management policies in its investment management and advisory services.

Matthew Rittmann is the sole advisor at Rittmann Capital Management Co. in Moraga, CA, holding a Series 65 designation with 22 years of industry experience since founding his firm in 2004. He specializes in discretionary asset management and financial planning. Rittmann Capital Management Co. provides tailored investment strategies and financial planning services to individuals, small businesses, trusts, estates, pooled investment vehicles, and charities. The firm employs a combination of fundamental, technical, and charting analysis, managing assets actively with a focus on high-net-worth clients and larger accounts.

Eugene Demmler is a financial advisor with LPL Financial in Castro Valley, CA, holding a Series 63 designation and over 33 years of industry experience. He has been associated with LPL Financial since 1996 and operates E. Demmler & Associates, an independent investment advisory firm, since 2002. Through this firm, he provides financial planning and consulting services. LPL Financial offers advisory and brokerage services to a diverse client base including individual investors, retirement plan sponsors, institutions, and high-net-worth households. The firm supports its investment advice with in-house research and a broad range of portfolio management options, combining advisory operations with non-advisory product offerings.

Eric Hull is a CFA® charterholder with 20 years of industry experience. He has been with Evergreen Wealth Advisors, Inc. since 2005, serving as the firm's sole advisor. Evergreen Wealth Advisors, Inc. is a fee-only independent registered investment adviser offering discretionary investment management and consulting services to individuals, families, trusts, estates, corporations, and retirement plans. The firm’s investment approach combines strategic and tactical asset allocation with economic trend analysis, emphasizing risk assessment and portfolio volatility control.

Hariharan Iyer is a Series 65-licensed financial advisor with five years of industry experience. He is the sole advisor at WealthPaver and has worked at Wefea Capital LLC since 2018. Additionally, he serves as Chief Compliance Officer at Wefea Capital and works as an SCM Architect at Nvidia. WealthPaver focuses on helping students and their families accelerate repayment of student loan debt through discretionary portfolio management delivered via a proprietary web-based platform. The firm uses client-selected risk profiles and term lengths to guide investment decisions, emphasizing maintaining the chosen term to meet repayment goals.

Nicholas Fullerton is a CFP® professional with 17 years of industry experience, operating Fullerton Advisors, LLC since 2008. The firm is an independent advisory practice based in Alamo, CA. Fullerton Advisors serves individuals, trusts, estates, charitable organizations, pension and profit-sharing plans, and corporate entities. The firm provides discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management, modular financial planning, and pension consulting, using diversified asset-allocation portfolios built primarily with ETFs and mutual funds guided by fundamental and cyclical analysis.

John Knolle is a CFP® professional with 10 years of experience, serving as the principal of Saranap Wealth Advisors since 2016. He operates as the sole advisor at the independent firm based in Walnut Creek, CA. Outside of his advisory practice, he maintains involvement in rental real estate. Saranap Wealth Advisors provides portfolio management integrated with financial planning and investment consultation to individual and high-net-worth clients, small businesses, and retirement plan sponsors. The firm employs a blend of fundamental, technical, and cyclical analysis with strategies such as active asset management and core-plus-satellite construction, and it is known for serving pension and profit-sharing plan clients as well as offering employer-facing workshops and employee benefit analysis.

Kerri Kimball is a CFP® professional with 19 years of experience in the financial services industry. She is the managing partner and co-owner of Apogee Wealth Advisors, an independent firm she established in 2026. Prior to founding Apogee Wealth Advisors, she worked at Commonwealth Financial Network and Cambridge Investment Research Advisors. Kimball is also a co-author of the book *Redefining Success for Female Entrepreneurs*. Apogee Wealth Advisors provides discretionary asset management, financial planning, and retirement-plan consulting primarily to individuals and high-net-worth clients. The firm employs a combination of fundamental and technical analysis and uses both long- and short-term investment strategies, with portfolio management services delivered through third-party platforms and bundled programs.

Kristy Jiayi Xu is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and the founder of Global Wealth Harbor, a fee-only registered investment advisor in the San Francisco Bay Area. She provides financial planning and investment management for clients who are building or preserving wealth. She specializes in working with tech professionals, Chinese immigrants who moved to the U.S. for school, work, or business, and business owners. Kristy also holds the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) designation for helping business owners plan for an exit and analyzing what it means for their personal finances. Kristy was born in China and is a native Mandarin speaker. She moved to the U.S. during high school attended a boarding school in Pennsylvania. She earned her bachelor’s degree from New York University Stern School of Business and worked at Raymond James and The Stanich Group analyzing securities and developing investment portfolios for clients. Kristy then realized she wanted to be a financial advisor and meet the clients she was building portfolios for and help them directly with their investments and financial plans. So, Kristy earned an MBA degree at Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business,, where she met her husband who was pursuing a PhD in Physics and they moved to the bay area after graduation. Kristy got to know a number of tech professionals from Carnegie Mellon University and became their go-to person when they have investment questions because of Kristy's in-depth analysis approach when answering their questions. This is when Kristy made up her mind to start her own company to help those who are great at their work, but need help from a trusted financial professional for their personal finance. Today, Kristy works with clients from a wider range of backgrounds and helps them navigate more varied and complex financial situations, but has kept her promise of delivering in-depth analysis and providing customized services to each of her clients. In her spare time, Kristy enjoys sharing her financial planning knowledge, so you will see her sharing thoughts on New York Times, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Investor Business Daily, Wealth Management, etc. Outside of work, Kristy enjoys spending time outdoors with her daughter.

Michael Wilson is a financial advisor at Blueprint Retirement Advisors LLC in Moraga, CA, holding the ChFC® designation and Series 63 license with six years of industry experience. He previously worked at State Farm Insurance for 13 years before founding Blueprint Retirement Advisors in 2019. Wilson produces educational content through a YouTube channel and conducts workshops. Blueprint Retirement Advisors serves individual investors and business clients, including retirement plan sponsors and small pension plans, by providing advisor selection, monitoring services, and financial planning. The firm does not manage client accounts directly but identifies and monitors third-party money managers who implement asset-allocation strategies using mutual funds and ETFs.

John Cha is a financial advisor at KLESIS Advisors, LLC with 20 years of industry experience. He previously worked at VBL Advisors LLC for five years and TLA Capital Management, LLC / Twin Lakes Capital Management, LLC for 17 years. He holds a Series 63 designation. KLESIS Advisors, LLC is an independent investment adviser serving individuals and high-net-worth clients with investment advisory services, managed accounts, and financial planning. The firm customizes advice based on clients’ objectives, time horizons, and risk tolerances, employing various investment approaches and offering both discretionary and non-discretionary management.

Sammy Sung is a financial advisor with ALE LLC, holding Series 63 and Series 66 licenses and bringing 24 years of industry experience. He has been affiliated with ALE LLC since 2015 and is also involved in real estate brokerage through Exit Excel Realty and Exit Realty Team. In addition to his advisory role, he acts as a trustee for a family trust established in 1997. ALE LLC provides portfolio management, financial planning, and pension consulting services to individuals, pension plans, pooled investment vehicles, and business entities. The firm manages primarily non-discretionary accounts using a range of analytical methods and investment strategies, and is notable for its involvement in real estate brokerage, insurance distribution, and pension consulting.