Independent, general estate planning guidance financial advisors in San Francisco, CA

The right financial advisor for you depends on how you weigh location, expertise, experience, the clients they typically serve, and how they work with you.

When you're organizing your estate to ensure your assets go where you want, you need guidance that understands the full picture of your financial and family situation. Without a clear plan, you risk leaving your heirs with unexpected tax burdens or legal complications.

  • Property tax nuances. California's Proposition 13 limits property tax increases, so ask how they factor this into your estate plan.
  • Asset distribution clarity. Confirm they help you create documents that clearly specify who gets what, avoiding family disputes.
  • Tax impact awareness. Estate plans should consider high state income taxes and how they affect your heirs' inheritances.
  • Independent advice. These advisors operate without firm constraints, which can mean more personalized attention to your unique estate needs.

Here are top matches to get you started. Review each profile to compare experience, credentials, and approach.

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Roger W

Series 63, Series 65

San Francisco, CA

Wittlin Advisory

Roger Wittlin is a financial advisor at Wittlin Advisory with eight years of industry experience. He holds Series 63 and Series 65 licenses and has worked at firms including True Capital, Monroe Capital, and PCCP. Wittlin Advisory is a fee-only investment management firm serving high-net-worth individuals, families, and foundations, with a notably international client base. The firm provides discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management, utilizing fundamental analysis and ongoing monitoring to guide asset allocation, including traditional funds, private placements, and digital assets.

Private / alternative investments
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Brett J

Series 66

San Francisco, CA

Ameriprise

Brett Jennings is a financial advisor at Ameriprise in San Francisco, holding a Series 66 designation with three years of industry experience. His prior roles include positions at Modern Woodmen of America and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Ameriprise offers retirement-income planning services primarily for individuals with significant investable assets, combining research, modeling, and tax-efficiency analysis to deliver tailored Recommendation Reports. The firm provides a broad range of advisory, brokerage, and insurance solutions through affiliated companies.

Retirement income strategy Income planning Social Security optimization Retirement withdrawal strategies Approaching retirement
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Darren K

CFP®, Series 66

San Francisco, CA

Creative Planning

Darren Kalb is a CFP® and holds the Series 66 designation, with 14 years of industry experience. He has worked at Creative Planning since 2017 and previously spent three years at Polaris Greystone Financial Group, LLC. He is based in San Francisco, CA. Creative Planning provides wealth management, financial planning, and retirement-plan advisory services to individuals, pension plans, trusts, foundations, and corporations. The firm employs a financial-planning-led investment approach that emphasizes low-cost indexing and buy-and-hold strategies for long-term goals, supplemented by selective private market exposure and various tax-efficient strategies.

Private / alternative investments Tax-loss harvesting ESG / Sustainable investing Retirement plans for business owners (SEP, solo 401k) Retirement income strategy Founder/Business Owner Executive Retired
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Abu F

Series 63

San Francisco, CA

Raymond James & Associates

Abu Farukh is a financial advisor with Raymond James & Associates, holding a Series 63 designation and bringing 46 years of industry experience. He has been with Raymond James & Associates since 2012. The firm is a large, dually registered broker-dealer and SEC-registered investment adviser managing approximately $501 billion in assets. It serves a diverse client base, including individuals, institutions, and municipal entities, offering financial planning and non-discretionary investment consulting through various advisory programs.

General retirement planning Retirement income strategy Business succession planning Founder/Business Owner Executive
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Giani K

Series 65

San Francisco, CA

Global Key Advisors

Giani Kurniawan is a financial advisor at Global Key Advisors with a Series 65 license and one year of industry experience. He has held roles at FrontSignal, Inc. and Global Insight Advisors, LLC alongside his current position. His work history also includes engagements with several educational and entrepreneurial organizations. Global Key Advisors provides integrated financial planning and investment management primarily through separately managed account portfolios branded InsideTrack®. The firm employs a statistically driven investment process utilizing proprietary screening and back-testing, focusing on concentrated long-only equity and fixed-income strategies without market timing.

Active portfolio management Factor investing / smart beta Wealth management
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Scott M

Series 63, Series 65

New York, NY

Morgan Stanley

Scott Mahoney is a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley in New York, NY, holding Series 63 and Series 65 credentials and bringing 34 years of industry experience. He has been with Morgan Stanley since 2009, including roles at Morgan Stanley Private Bank, N.A. Outside of his advisory work, he is involved with Giants Foot Cubed LLC. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is a large SEC-registered investment adviser and broker-dealer that serves both individual and institutional clients. The firm offers a wide range of advisory programs and financial planning services supported by structured planning tools and broad investment resources.

General estate planning guidance
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Kayla S

Series 63, Series 65

Warwick, RI

Mass Mutual Investors Services

Kayla Santos is a financial advisor with Mass Mutual Investors Services in Warwick, RI, holding Series 63 and Series 65 licenses and having 10 years of industry experience. She has worked at Mass Mutual Investors Services since 2017 and previously at MetLife Securities. In addition to her advisory role, Santos is an independent insurance agent, offering life, fixed annuities, disability, long-term care, and health insurance products. Mass Mutual Investors Services, LLC is a broker-dealer and SEC-registered investment adviser that serves individuals, business owners, trusts, estates, charitable organizations, and employers. The firm provides financial planning, asset management, wrap and money-manager programs, and educational seminars, structuring engagements as annual collaborative relationships focused on goal analysis and written recommendations.

Divorce financial planning General estate planning guidance Multi-generational wealth transfer Cash flow / budgeting Founder/Business Owner Attorney Executive Married/Couples/Partners Divorced

Gordon B

Series 66

Luling, LA

Edward Jones

Gordon Brown III is a financial advisor at Edward Jones with 18 years of industry experience. He holds the Series 66 designation and has been with Edward Jones since 2008. Edward Jones is a full-service wealth management firm serving over four million individual and institutional clients, with approximately $1.01 trillion in assets under management. The firm offers a range of advisory programs and investment options, operating under a fiduciary standard.

Retirement income strategy General estate planning guidance Multi-generational wealth transfer Wealth management Oil & Gas Engineering Professional
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William S

Series 63, Series 65

College Station, TX

Smith & Wyatt

William Soltow is a financial advisor at Smith & Wyatt with 13 years of industry experience. He holds Series 63 and Series 65 licenses and previously worked at CoreCap Advisors, LLC. Outside of advising, he is the founder of Frontier Wealth Management and serves as an independent insurance agent with Goosehead Insurance. Smith & Wyatt serves individuals, including high-net-worth clients, and corporations, managing approximately $207 million across 724 clients. The firm provides tailored financial planning, discretionary portfolio management, estate-planning consulting, and specialized educational programs, utilizing mutual funds and ETFs as primary investment vehicles.

Government Employee
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Thaddeus P

CFP®, Series 63, Series 65

Grand Rapids, MI

Advance Wealth Management Service, LLC

Thaddeus Phelps is a CFP® professional with 28 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has worked at Advance Wealth Management Service, LLC since 2019 and previously spent 14 years with Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. In addition to his advisory work, Phelps owns a tax preparation business and an accounting support service, and he serves in fiduciary roles such as trustee and executor. Advance Wealth Management Service, LLC provides investment advisory and financial planning services primarily to individuals, high-net-worth clients, trusts, estates, and business entities. The firm offers discretionary investment management through a wrap asset management program and emphasizes an individualized approach with asset allocation supported by fundamental, sector, and technical analysis, including risk management strategies such as put options and conservative cash instruments.

College savings (529s, UTMA, etc.) Charitable giving & philanthropy General estate planning guidance General tax planning Options & derivatives strategies
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Jared F

Series 65

Huntington Beach, CA

Northwest Asset Management

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.

Retirement income strategy Wealth management Active portfolio management Founder/Business Owner
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Edwina M

Series 65

Cincinnati, OH

Waverly Advisors, LLC

Edwina Martin is a Series 65 licensed financial advisor with two years of industry experience, currently with Waverly Advisors, LLC. She previously worked at 9258 Wealth Management for five years and was employed at Teradata Corp for eleven years. Martin also serves as assistant director of tax planning at 9258 Tax and Planning, a non-investment related business. Waverly Advisors is a multi-team registered investment adviser managing portfolios for individuals, retirement plans, and pooled investment vehicles. The firm combines traditional equity and fixed-income strategies with alternative and private-market allocations, offering a range of investment management and financial planning services.

Private / alternative investments Real estate investing Options & derivatives strategies Tax-loss harvesting Multi-generational wealth transfer Founder/Business Owner Executive
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Craig M

Series 63, Series 65

Columbia, SC

Capital Investment Advisory Services, LLC

Craig Mcdaniel Jr. is a financial advisor with Capital Investment Advisory Services, LLC in Columbia, SC. He holds Series 63 and Series 65 licenses and has 13 years of industry experience. He has been with Capital Investment Group, Inc. and The McDaniel Corporation since 2012. Outside of his advisory role, he is involved in life insurance sales and serves as an independent agent for annuities and related products. Capital Investment Advisory Services, LLC provides investment advisory and supervisory services to individuals, retirement plans, corporations, trusts, estates, and charitable organizations. The firm offers customized investment management through discretionary mandates, third-party managers, and private-label model portfolios, using a blend of analytical methods with ongoing portfolio monitoring.

Active portfolio management Retirement plans for business owners (SEP, solo 401k) Annuities Options & derivatives strategies Founder/Business Owner Retired
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David H

Series 65

Irvine, CA

Martin Wealth Management, LLC

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.

Medicare planning Annuities
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Sarah C

CFP®, Series 63, Series 65

Boston, MA

Santander Securities LLC

Sarah Currier Barrella is a CFP® professional with 26 years of experience in financial advisory services. She currently works at Santander Securities LLC and Santander Bank, NA, having previously held positions at TD Bank and Citizens Securities, Inc. Barrella is based in Boston, MA. Santander Securities LLC serves a broad retail client base with approximately $3.14 billion in regulatory assets under management across 10,800 client relationships. The firm offers investment advisory services, portfolio management through wrap-fee programs, and financial planning, operating both as a registered investment adviser and a FINRA-registered broker-dealer.

ESG / Sustainable investing Tax-loss harvesting General retirement planning Income planning Founder/Business Owner
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