Top financial advisors working with minority clients in California

Jared Fruth is a financial advisor at Northwest Asset Management with four years of industry experience. He holds a Series 65 designation and previously worked at Securities America, Inc., KMS Financial Services, Inc., Oppenheimer Funds, and John Paul Mitchell Systems. Northwest Asset Management is a registered investment adviser managing approximately $3.6 billion for nearly 3,000 clients, including individuals, pension and profit-sharing plans, charities, and corporations. The firm employs a customized, fiduciary approach using Modern Portfolio Theory and strategic asset allocation, combining fundamental and technical analysis to build diversified portfolios with periodic rebalancing.

David Hart is a financial advisor with Martin Wealth Management, LLC in Irvine, CA. He holds a Series 65 credential and has 15 years of industry experience. Hart previously worked with Safeguard Investment Advisory Group and LifePro Asset Management. He is also a Certified Financial Fiduciary and volunteers as an instructor with the Foundation for Fiduciary Education, providing unbiased fiduciary financial education to the public. Martin Wealth Management offers investment advisory services primarily to individuals and high-net-worth clients by co-advising and directing accounts to a third-party money manager, Matson Money. The firm focuses on client onboarding, documentation, and ongoing review of third-party manager accounts rather than direct asset management.

Alan Toman is a financial advisor with Regal Investment Advisors LLC in Los Angeles, CA, holding Series 63 and Series 65 licenses and having nine years of industry experience. He has worked at Regal Investment Advisors since 2018 and has prior experience with Lincoln Financial Securities Corporation and Bankers Life. Outside of his advisory role, Toman is active in the insurance sector, offering accident and health insurance, fixed and indexed annuities, and traditional life insurance products through American Senior Benefits and as an insurance agent. Regal Investment Advisors LLC provides discretionary investment management services to independent advisers and other registered advisers, serving a diverse client base including individuals, charitable organizations, and businesses. The firm offers proprietary and third-party model portfolios across various asset classes, with advisers selecting allocations and granting Regal authority to implement and manage strategies.

Mher Khukoyan is a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley with 15 years of industry experience. He holds Series 63 and Series 65 licenses and has previously worked at Wells Fargo Clearing, Bank of America, Merrill, and J.P. Morgan Securities. Khukoyan is based in Los Angeles, CA. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management provides a range of advisory services to individuals and institutions, offering tailored financial planning supported by firm-approved tools and modeling techniques. The firm manages approximately $2.74 trillion in client assets and delivers both direct and employer-based financial planning programs.

Taylor Reed is a financial advisor at Oppenheimer with 25 years of industry experience. He holds Series 63 and Series 65 licenses and has worked at firms including Atlas Capital Advisors LLC, New York Life Insurance Company, and NYLIFE Securities LLC. He is based in San Francisco, CA. Oppenheimer serves a broad client base including individuals, corporations, pension and profit-sharing plans, and charitable organizations. The firm provides advisory and brokerage services such as discretionary and non-discretionary investment management, consulting, retirement services, and financial planning, utilizing a range of asset allocation and investment strategies.

We focus on providing honest and personalized life and financial guidance, as independent fiduciary advisors and coaches, to help you achieve your most abundant life. We are comprised of our CEO who is a CPA/PFS, CFP and have psychologists on board for financial and life coaching to accompany our technical advising. Our founder, Abel Soares III, had the vision to build a group of member firms where he would be able to share and utilize his knowledge to give back to those trying to better themselves and their lives. As a devoted husband and proud father of two boys, Abel set out to start a business where he could build a legacy for his family and be available for his family and clients. Abel is part Native Hawai'ian; and he grew up in Southern California, Idaho, and Oahu, Hawai'i. Abel obtained his Masters in Accounting Taxation from Boise State University and went on to work for regional and international CPA and Consulting firms for over 5 years. In these roles, he learned a great deal about various types of business models, industries and the secrets to success. He started his own successful tax and consulting business after obtaining his CPA (Certified Public Accounting License), and soon after discovered his true passion in personal financial planning. After a total of 8 years in the accounting and financial arena, his vision began to grow on how he could best serve clients. Once he obtained his CFP (Certified Financial Planner) and PFS (Personal Financial Specialist) designations, his vision for Hui Malama Advisors LLC and the member firms started coming into focus. Along the way, he noticed that the biggest factor of effective financial management, outside of being educated about finances, was the individual's mindset. This meant that someone with expertise in addressing the human psyche was necessary to provide a more holistic approach to financial planning. Abel set out to find business partners who could help him turn his dreams into a reality. He naturally started with his best partner of all – his wife, Sadé - who is currently completing her doctoral degree in clinical psychology. Together, they made Abel’s vision a reality by incorporating both financial and life coaching; and Hui Malama Advisors LLC was born. Abel has paved his own path into the world of entrepreneur-ism and has also invested in other businesses. He looks forward to using his years of experience in financial planning, consulting, and accounting to assist you in living your most abundant life through The Hui Malama Advisors LLC member firms.

Iran Zaranda Velazquez is a Wealth Management Advisor with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Since joining the firm in 1991, he has provided wealth management services to a diverse clientele through The Filsouf Cox Wealth Management Group, which serves clients across 25 states. His client base includes successful business owners, oil and gas executives, retirees, affluent women who have experienced divorce or loss of a spouse, and members of the medical community. Mr. Velazquez is a qualified Portfolio Advisor who assists clients in pursuing their investment objectives by recommending strategies from Merrill Lynch Wealth Management or approved third-party investment managers. His services include aligning investment and retirement planning with wealth transfer, education funding, and liability management. He meets clients according to their schedules and often visits their homes, offices, or hospitals to provide tailored support. He earned a bachelor's degree from West Texas AM University and holds the Personal Investment Advisor (PIA) designation. Fluent in Persian, Polish, and English, Mr. Velazquez is active in community organizations such as March of Dimes, Serra Club, Amarillo Downtown Lions Club, and St. Thomas The Apostle Church. Outside of work, he enjoys chess, football, music, soccer, spending time with his family, and traveling.

Michael Braswell is the principal of Braswell Capital, LLC in Arlington, VA, with two years of experience as a financial advisor. He holds a Series 65 credential and has a background that includes roles at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, as well as legal experience at Latham & Watkins LLP. He maintains an inactive sole practitioner law firm, Erwin Osborne Law, PLLC. Braswell Capital provides financial planning and investment advisory services primarily to individuals and small businesses in disadvantaged communities. The firm offers hourly, low-cost financial planning focused on cash flow, retirement, and debt counseling, emphasizing a fiduciary standard and fundamental investment analysis without charging asset-based fees or taking custody of client assets.

When I was 18, I joined the military. My service in the Air Force for five years provided me with what I’d call an unfair advantage for my work later in the financial industry. My experiences living abroad first in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia during a 1995 Desert Storm tour, then in Fusa, Japan, 1996-1999, both helped me understand life and financial planning, along with the value of a hard-earned dollar. I grew up over there, and my values are strongly rooted in the same ones belonging to my parents, both educators, but also firmly molded by my service to our country and through military discipline. As military, we were tested and challenged, and we persevered in taxing and uncomfortable conditions because we always had a plan. Living in the middle of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, our unit worked directly with the 82nd Airborne Division, specializing in parachute assault operations. As a journeyman, my responsibility was to maintain and ensure the safety of the Hercules C-130, an aircraft known to fly into the eye of a hurricane. While the 82nd stood ready to respond to crisis contingencies anywhere in the world within 18 hours, our job was to make sure they arrived at their destination. We relied heavily on formal flight, maintenance and safety plans. These experiences helped inform my subsequent financial planning career through my appreciation for a well-designed, communicated, and formally written plan. My time in the military also exposed me to certain sources of waste that to me, was not logical. My fellow soldiers were buying clothes as if they were in college. I could not understand why someone needed five pairs of new pants when, on five out of seven days, we were required to wear our military uniform. “No seas codo Jose,” my friend Mike, who was half Puerto Rican, would tell me (slang for “don’t be cheap”). This was also the case with music. My friends all loved to purchase countless CD’s from their favorite musical artists. I was not conditioned to spend money that way. Instead, I used a cassette player and recorded Saturday morning radio on KANW, 89.1, when I visited New Mexico. This was the music I grew up with and what I loved. While living abroad, no amount of clothes, CD’s or stuff could fill my heart like the oldest FM Radio station in New Mexico playing on my “Walkman” portable cassette player. While living in Japan and being single, and I had some down time and I became bored. When I say “bored,” I am reminded of my dad's response to me whenever I told him I felt that way. He would say, “Ok, let's get to work,” and in Japan, that is what I did. I found out about an opportunity to work at a club as a bar-back. Within six months, I was promoted to bartender, then lead bartender. Some nights I would pocket over $100 in tips! I also was being paid $10 per hour which was not bad back then. As a sidenote, I was bartending the night I turned 21, while my friends back home were taking birthday trips to Vegas to celebrate their 21st birthdays. I feel that I earned and saved money while having fun. I believe that money is more of a tool than a luxury, and what my Puerto Rican friend Mike didn’t know is that much of my money was going to purchase the one thing that isn’t manufactured any more except in Hawaii...I wanted land! If Mike had asked me back then, “Why are you working so hard, Jose?” my answer was clear. I always wanted to buy my own piece of land, perhaps many acres in the beautiful New Mexico landscape. While this was my goal as a child, it turned out to be a rather poor investment from a monetary standpoint, yet I was enriched by the experience and education. From that point in my 20s, I understood the discipline and dedication it took to achieve any milestone. One of my jobs after the military, while I was in graduate school, was selling life insurance. After a year, I realized that this was not for me. While I value the importance of insurance, I despised the promotion of products through unscrupulous sales tactics. This was my first indication that financial planning was broken. I worked directly for a legend in the industry who took me under his wing. I learned a lot from him, most of which I did not like. While I won awards and trips, I hated the fractured process. The financial services industry and its legends focus its sales force on selling their product, not on the process or maintenance of financial planning. Since that day, I have been focused on financial planning - the process and fiduciary responsibilities that come with it. I might add that I achieved my certification as a financial planner through arduous work since I’m challenged with dyslexia, but that has never stopped me. Before serving in the military, I grew up in a small community and was raised by a village of less than 200 individuals and two great parents who recently celebrated 52 years of marriage. They had four children of their own, and I am the youngest. My parents were challenged with the loss of my brother when “God zapped him up.” He was the second oldest, and at age 16, was struck by lightning on a baseball field while doing what he loved, playing sports with his friends. I was only 13 at the time. This introduced thoughts about life insurance that impacted me later in my professional life. Through this experience, I learned that catastrophe can happen in an instant. Also, a seed was planted that grew into my interest in risk mitigation planning. While growing up in Glorieta, New Mexico, I worked a few jobs including being a gas station attendant and in yard maintenance for an affluent family in Santa Fe. Presently, when I am not working, I enjoy spending time with my wife Jasmin who is a residential realtor and a loving mother to our three children. We struggled to have kids, with over seven miscarriages which included molar, ectopic, and several with no heartbeats. The eighth tenacious pregnancy led to our first born, a perfect baby girl. We chose to have a home water birth and it was successful. The positive momentum did not stop there. We became doubly blessed with a different type of pregnancy, a twin birth with healthy boys. I love my wife so much for enduring the challenges of motherhood. Jasmin is my biggest fan and my best friend, and she is beyond brave! Before she married me, she completed over 200 jumps from perfectly working planes, including an occasional C-130 and hot air balloons. Now that the twins are walking, life often means going out on adventure with our five fedoras hats on and our two adopted, four-legged kids Sol, Bella and Duke. We are dog lovers and have a soft spot for rescues. Our close friends have referred to us as the Fedorable Five, now with our dogs we are the “Fedorables.” Whenever I can find a little bit of free time, I love to fly fish and get out in nature. I make time weekly for riding my mountain bike despite my hatred for pesky goat thorns that ruin my best tires. If my clients were to talk about me behind my back, I would guess they would say I’m a really nice guy who listens carefully. I’m patient and persistent and I ask a lot of questions, some that made people cry in a good way. They might mention that I’m detailed but I keep things simple. They also look forward to my family newsletter. Any new client who walks in the door can expect to share the identical experience. Read Jose's blog here: https://josevsanchez.com/free-resources

After 15+ years as a financial planner working for high net worth families and successful business owners, I decided to follow my dream of starting my own firm, to serve people like myself: ambitious, increasingly complex life, and curious to examine my relationship to money. A true high-touch concierge service to go beyond the numbers by understanding what you want from life and what motivates you. We specialize working with AAPI and underserved communities, to undercover your money story to get a deeper meaning of your values and priorities.