MagnifyMoney 
Given the sheer number of options to choose from, finding the right financial advisor in San Francisco may feel like an uphill battle as steep as the city’s famous hills. What the search really comes down to, however, is identifying your unique financial goals and needs, and figuring out how much you’re comfortable spending on an advisor’s services.
Still, it can feel overwhelming to sift through all of the Golden City’s firms and their data points. In the hopes of making your search easier, we compiled the most pertinent information on the best financial advisors in San Francisco for you, which we identified by determining which firms in the city manage individual accounts and offer financial planning. The firms that met those criteria were then ranked based on assets under management (AUM). All data used in our methodology comes from each firm’s most recent Form ADV filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Our ranking won’t definitively decide which firm may be the best choice for you, but it can help make your search easier. Read on for the rundown on San Francisco’s top advisors.
| Firm name | Minimum assets required | Fee structure |
|---|---|---|
| Hall Capital Partners LLC | No set minimum, but generally advises on over $100 million |
|
| Jordan Park Group LLC | $50 million |
|
| Baker Street Advisors, LLC | $5 million |
|
| Wetherby Asset Management | $10 million |
|
| Osterweis Capital Management | Varies by account type |
|
| Seven Post Investment Office LP | $50 million |
|
| Parallel Advisors, LLC | $240,000 |
|
| Sentry Advisors, LLC | $1 million |
|
| Perigon Wealth Management, LLC | No set minimum |
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| Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC | No set minimum |
|
To start off our list of the best financial advisors in San Francisco, we have Hall Capital Partners LLC. Founder and co-chair Kathryn Hall originally started the firm in 1994 to manage money for a few wealthy families and their private foundations. Today, the firm continues to provide investment services to high net worth individuals, a threshold the SEC defines as either $750,000 under management or a net worth of at least $1.5 million. The firm also works with institutional investors such as foundations, endowments and others.
While Hall Capital Partners does not state a set minimum investment requirement, most of its clients are accredited investors, meaning they have particular investing privileges because they meet certain income or asset thresholds. It also notes that for the majority of its client relationships, it advises on over $100 million in investment assets.
The firm is headquartered in San Francisco with an additional office in New York City. Hall Capital is privately owned, largely by the firm’s partners.
The team at Hall Capital Partners generally creates custom portfolios unique to each client. Typical asset classes used include global equities, fixed income, hedge funds, private equity and cash. The team also helps clients factor environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into their investment decision making.
Hall Capital Partners does not buy and sell individual publicly traded stocks. Instead, client money is usually invested through underlying managers including private funds, separate accounts and some mutual funds. Final approval for these third-party managers is given by founder Kathryn Hall and the firm’s two chief investment officers.
Hall Capital Partners lists no disclosures over the last 10 years, giving the firm a clean disciplinary record. The SEC requires all registered investment advisors to disclose on their Form ADV paperwork any disciplinary actions against the company or an employee or affiliate that clients would find material to their evaluation of the firm or the integrity of the management team.
To learn more, view the firm’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosures (IAPD) page.
Jordan Park Group’s bread and butter offerings are investment management and financial planning for high net worth individuals and families as well as institutions including foundations, charitable organizations, pooled investment vehicles and others. In addition, the team offers family office services, such as bill paying, tax and insurance analysis, budgeting and forecasting and charitable giving and estate planning.
Founded in 2017, this independent registered investment advisor has offices in San Francisco, New York and Hampton, N.H. CEO and president Frank Ghali is the primary owner of the private firm.
Jordan Park Group manages clients’ funds through discretionary relationships, meaning the client gives the advisor control over deciding what trades should be made in the account. The firm primarily invests client assets in one of three ways:
The firm also has a specific advisory team to assist clients interested in aligning their values with their investments in areas such as the environment, social and governance.
Jordan Park Group has a clean disciplinary record. This means the firm has had no disclosures over the last 10 years against the company or its employees or affiliates that would be material to a client’s evaluation of the firm.
To learn more, you can visit Jordan Park Group’s IAPD page.
The team at Baker Street Advisors, LLC caters to high net worth individuals and charitable organizations, providing them with investment advisory services. Separately, the firm also provides financial planning services, such as trust and estate planning, insurance and risk management, bill paying, income tax consulting and more. The firm generally requires its clients to have accounts of at least $5 million.
Baker Street Advisors was founded in 2003 as a San Francisco-based registered investment advisor. Today, the firm is owned by its partners as well as Affiliated Managers Group (AMG), a publicly traded asset management company that has also taken equity interests in some other investment management firms.
Rather than recommending that clients buy and sell specific stocks, the team at Baker Street Advisors suggests that clients invest with independent, third-party investment advisors, mutual funds or private investment pools — including hedge funds and private equity funds — that align with their objectives.
These unaffiliated fund managers have control over trading decisions in the client’s account. Baker Street Advisors’s role in the process is to identify the appropriate managers based on a client’s goals, risk tolerance and other factors, and then closely monitor their investment strategies and performance. The firm recommends how client money is spread among these managers and when changes are necessary.
The firm has a clean disciplinary record over the last 10 years. This means that neither Baker Street Advisors nor its employees or affiliates have been subject to any civil, criminal or regulatory actions within that time frame.
Learn more about the firm through its public disclosures available on its IAPD page.
Founded in 1990 by Debra Wetherby, Wetherby Asset Management provides investment management and financial planning services, such as income tax planning, education planning, risk management, retirement planning and estate planning.
The firm’s clients are primarily high net worth individuals, although it does serve some individual investors who do not meet the threshold for high net worth (defined by the SEC as having $750,000 under management or a net worth of at least $1.5 million) despite its $10 million account minimum requirement. Wetherby Asset Management also serves institutions including charitable organizations, foundations and endowments, among others.
Today, Wetherby Asset Management is primarily owned by its employees, with 23 team members holding ownership along with four non-employees. In addition to its San Francisco headquarters, the firm also has locations in Los Angeles and New York.
With a few exceptions, Wetherby Asset Management typically recommends that clients invest in open-end, no-load mutual funds or other pooled investment vehicles rather than investing directly in individual stocks, bonds or ETFs. Some client assets are put into private investment funds and separate account vehicles, or strategies managed by unaffiliated advisors, some of which do invest primarily in individual equities and bonds.
The team at Wetherby also addresses how clients can advance certain social and environmental goals in addition to financial returns. In fact, it has implemented impact investments across nearly all asset classes.
Wetherby Asset Management reports no disciplinary disclosures in its Form ADV paperwork filed with the SEC. For reference, the SEC requires all registered investment advisors to disclose any civil, criminal or regulatory events from within the last 10 years involving the company or its employees or affiliates.
To learn more about Wetherby Asset Management, go to the firm’s IAPD page.
John Osterweis, the firm’s current chairman and co-chief investment officer, founded Osterweis Capital Management in 1983 to manage money for wealthy families, foundations, endowments and other institutions. Based out of San Francisco, Osterweis Capital Management is currently privately owned by its employees and two outside directors, with no one individual owning more than 25% of the firm.
Presently, the team at Osterweis Capital Management offers portfolio management services primarily to high net worth individuals, though its current client base also includes some individuals who do not meet this threshold as well as trusts, institutions, mutual funds and other entities. In addition, the firm offers certain financial planning services, including the preparation of personal net worth statements, cash flow projections and other reports that can help clients define their goals and risk tolerance.
On the whole, Osterweis Capital Management takes a fundamental approach to investing, meaning it is attentive to the particulars of the companies in which it invests in addition to noting the overall market environment. The firm typically uses managed accounts to invest client money in one of five strategies: Core Equity, Strategic Income, Flexible Balanced, Small Cap Growth and Total Return. Clients can further customize these strategies to their individual goals and risk tolerance if they are so inclined.
Accounts usually include stocks, bonds or a mix of the two. Generally, Osterweis focuses on U.S. stocks, with international equities serving as a potentially important but secondary option. In addition, the team also serves as an advisor to a handful of mutual funds that are available to the general public and require much lower investment minimums compared to the firm’s separately managed accounts.
Osterweis Capital Management has a clean disciplinary record, meaning it has no civil, criminal or regulatory events from over the last 10 years to disclose in its Form ADV paperwork filed with the SEC.
You can learn more about the firm by visiting its IAPD page.
Out of its single location in San Francisco, Seven Post Investment Office LP provides investment management, financial planning and family office services to high net worth individuals and institutions. Notably, the firm generally prefers to work with clients who have investable assets over $100 million, and it has a minimum portfolio requirement of at least $50 million.
Seven Post Investment Office was founded in 2011 and is privately owned by its managing directors and principals.
Seven Post Investment Office typically takes control of the day-to-day management of a client’s account, known as a discretionary relationship. Once the team and the client have discussed their goals, risk tolerance and other factors that may impact their portfolio, the team at Seven Post Investment Office will recommend a custom asset allocation and portfolio.
Advisors at the firm lean on some core investments for the foundation of client portfolios, and then tack on ancillary strategies based on the client’s needs and risk tolerance. The firm often taps third-party managers and model portfolio providers for outside recommendations.
Seven Post Investment Office has a clean disciplinary record, meaning there have not been any material disciplinary actions against the firm or an employee or affiliate within the last 10 years. The SEC requires all registered investment advisors to disclose such information in their Form ADV paperwork.
You can view these public disclosure forms for Seven Post Investment Office on its IAPD page.
Founded in 2006, Parallel Advisors, LLC is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Dayton, Ohio; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Oklahoma City. Services offered by Parallel Advisors include investment management, retirement plan services and financial planning, addressing topics such as estate planning and insurance. The firm also offers tax preparation services.
Parallel Advisors’s client base consists largely of individual investors who are not considered high net worth as well as high net worth individuals and families. The firm also serves institutions like pension and profit-sharing plans, charitable organizations, corporations, businesses and others.
Because the firm generally requires a minimum fee of $3,000 for its investment advisory services, it recommends that clients have at least $240,000 in investable assets so their fee does not exceed 2% of their managed assets. For investors starting out, however, the firm also offers an automated, online investing program that requires only a $5,000 account balance.
The firm is owned by its founder and CEO Jerry Rendic.
Parallel Advisors invests client money primarily in various fixed income securities, mutual funds and ETFs, as well as with independent managers. The firm also uses options as well as long-term and short-term purchases, meaning stocks held at least a year and those sold within one year, respectively. Clients give the firm discretionary control over their account, which means the team can make the daily trading decisions without the client needing to sign off.
When researching various investment products, the team uses numerous methods of analysis. This includes fundamental factors, such as studying current data to predict future performance, and more technical analysis, such as analyzing historical relationships and patterns around prices and market trends.
Parallel Advisors has a clean record. The firm discloses no material disciplinary actions over the last 10 years against the firm or its employees or affiliates on its Form ADV paperwork filed with the SEC.
You can learn more about the firm by visiting its IAPD page.
Founded in 2015, this registered investment advisor serves individual investors both with and without a high net worth as well as charitable organizations, trusts, businesses and pension plans. The firm, which generally requires a minimum investment of $1 million for its services, provides investment management and financial planning. The latter can include a comprehensive analysis of a client’s financial life, or a consultation on a single topic.
Headquartered in San Francisco, the firm has an additional office in Issaquah, Wash. Its owners are its managing members, Alex Flagg and Greg Powell.
Sentry Advisors says it does not recommend one primary type of security over another, since clients’ needs vary greatly. Instead, the firm provides a long list of securities it recommends in its individually managed accounts, ranging from the traditional stocks, bonds and mutual funds to sophisticated options and futures contracts, venture capital or private equity, to alternative investments such as variable life insurance, annuities, real estate and oil and gas. Advisors also may recommend mutual funds offered through an affiliated company, or that clients invest with outside sub-advisors.
To choose the recommended investments, the team utilizes many different types of analysis, including digging into a specific company and industry on factors such as the management team and product line, as well as more technical analysis, such as studying historical price and volume patterns and relationships.
The firm notes that tax efficiency is typically not its primary consideration when managing a client’s assets, unless specifically said otherwise. So clients should be sure to work with a tax expert since the firm’s strategies and investments may have significant tax consequences.
Sentry Advisors reports no material disciplinary actions against either the firm or its employees or affiliates. This includes any civil, criminal or regulatory events from within the past 10 years.
Read more about Sentry Advisors by visiting its IAPD page.
Perigon Wealth Management, an investment advisory firm established in 2004, serves individuals (both high net worth and not), trusts, estates, businesses and retirement plans. It offers investment management, financial planning, an automated investment advisor, consulting services and retirement plan advisory services.
Headquartered in San Francisco, the firm has additional locations in New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Florida and Montana. It’s owned by Perigon Financial Holdings, LLC.
Perigon Wealth Management uses either independent managers for client accounts, or it places client assets into one of its model portfolios. Investments used by the firm include mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds and options contracts.
Perigon aims to meet client’s range of investing goals through the use of a combination of core and non-core investment strategies, with each strategy intended to meet a specific goal. The core strategies comprise the “core” of a client’s portfolio, and each strategy uses large-cap U.S. securities. Then, the remainder of the client’s assets are allocated to non-core strategies, which are used to complement the risk-adjusted return.
Perigon Wealth Management reports no disciplinary disclosures on its Form ADV filings with the SEC. This means that neither the firm nor its employees or advisory affiliates have had any civil, criminal or regulatory issues within the past 10 years.
Learn more about the firm and view its Form ADV by visiting its IAPD page.
Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC, wraps-up our list of the best financial advisors in San Francisco. The firm offers a variety of services, including financial planning, portfolio management, the selection of other advisors, advisory consulting services and family office and wealth planning services. It works with individuals who both are and are not considered high net worth, in addition to pooled investment vehicles, charitable organizations and businesses.
Alongside its San Francisco headquarters, Robertson Stephens has offices in California in Santa Rosa, Corte Madera and Pasadena. It also has locations in Idaho, New York, New Jersey, Texas and Colorado. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Robertson Stephens
Holdings, LLC, the firm has been registered with the SEC since 2017.
Robertson Stephens Wealth Management creates asset allocations for each client based on their particulars, including their investment objectives and risk tolerance. The firm offers an array of investment strategies, including the use of third-party money managers as well as the investment of a client’s assets in one or more model portfolios developed by the firm.
The firm’s investment committee is responsible for overseeing, advising on and approving investment frameworks in recommendations, though advisors ultimately determine the suitability of recommendations for clients. Investments that Roberston Stephens advises on include equities, fixed income, mutual funds, ETFs, options and private funds.
Robertson Stephens Wealth Management has no disclosures. This means the firm has a record free of any civil, criminal or regulatory events from within the last decade.
For further information, visit Robertson Stephens Wealth Management’s IAPD page.
When it comes to income taxes, California is generally considered a high-tax state, with a top income tax rate of 13.30% for single filers with incomes greater than $1 million. The state does not have its own estate or inheritance tax, although a federal estate tax may still apply for the very wealthy.
No, each advisor has their own unique specialties, which may include retirement planning or something else, such as family office services. Be sure to ask each potential advisor for their list of specialized services, as well as the types of clients they typically work with, to help you find the best fit for your needs.
To find an advisor you trust, you’ll want to go through a careful vetting process. Ask all potential advisors a list of specific questions to make sure you fully understand how they are paid and what your all-in costs will be. Also take the time to learn about any disciplinary actions they may have by using either the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)’s BrokerCheck or the SEC’s Action Lookup.
You also might be able to more quickly narrow your search to reliable, experienced advisors by looking for advisors with certifications that require adhering to certain ethical standards and passing an exam. Certified financial planner (CFP) is one such example of a highly esteemed designation. You can find CFPs in your area by using the search tool at letsmakeaplan.org.
The designation “financial advisor” is a largely unregulated nomer, meaning anyone who sells insurance, stocks or other financial services can use the title. A fiduciary financial advisor, however, must act as a fiduciary to their clients, meaning they are legally required to put their clients’ best interests above their own. By working with a fiduciary financial advisor, you can be more confident that your advisor is making the best recommendations for you.
In our search for the best financial advisors in San Francisco, we looked at firms throughout the city. All the firms considered are bound by fiduciary duty, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and offer individual account management and financial planning services. Information for our methodology criteria is taken directly from each firm’s most recent Form ADV filing and brochure, found in the IAPD database.
To localize our results for this list of the best financial advisors in San Francisco, we exclusively looked at firms that met the above criteria and had their headquarters in Georgia, per the address provided in the Form ADV. We only considered those firms that offer financial planning services and portfolio management to individual investors. To be considered for this list, firms also could have no more than one disciplinary disclosure in the past 10 years. From there, the remaining firms that met all of the above stipulations were ranked in order of highest to lowest AUM, as this is an indication of a firm’s size and how many assets it has been entrusted to manage.
Our reviews have also listed several other key features that will help you determine which financial advisor may be most fitting for your investing style and financial needs. While our ranking system and methodology can help you compare firms, it does not indicate which firm may be best for you. All information here is accurate as of March 9, 2022, but don’t hesitate to check out any firm’s Form ADV for yourself on the SEC’s Investment Advisor Public Disclosure site.
Amanda GenglerAmanda Gengler has been researching and writing about finance for more than 15 years. She honed her personal finance writing as a journalist at Money magazine for a decade.
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