Best Certified Financial Planners in Los Angeles

Top Los Angeles Certified Financial Planners (CFPs)

Los Angeles’ financial planning landscape reflects the diversity of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area, where entertainment, technology, entrepreneurship, healthcare, real estate, and high-net-worth households create very different financial needs.

From retirement and taxes to equity compensation, cash flow, investments, risk management, and major life decisions, Certified Financial Planners® can help clients navigate increasingly complex financial choices.

The CFPs featured in this curated list represent different specialties and business models, from independent practices and boutique firms to larger wealth-management organizations, each bringing a distinctive approach to financial planning in the Los Angeles market. 

At Digital Reference, we believe credentials are only one part of professional credibility. Experience, communication, specialization, context, and demonstrated impact also matter.

Our research-driven approach uses structured information, verification, and video to provide a more transparent and authentic view of professional expertise. This curated list is not a ranking, but a selection of Los Angeles-area financial planning professionals whose credentials, experience, specialties, and professional contributions make them worth knowing. 

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🎦 Our Methodology: How We Built This List of Top Los Angeles-Based Certified Financial Planners

Digital Reference uses a research-driven approach that looks beyond CFP® credentials. For the Los Angeles selection, we reviewed publicly available information including professional websites, LinkedIn profiles, credentials, specialties, published work, career history, leadership, and community involvement to better understand each professional’s overall expertise and professional positioning.

Our methodology includes:

🔎 Research-driven evaluation: We review public information to understand each professional’s background, specialties, and approach.

💬 Client-focused perspective: We consider communication, client relationships, education, and planning philosophy.

🏆 Professional achievements: We look at publicly documented credentials, awards, publications, media appearances, leadership, and speaking engagements.

🧭 Specialization: We highlight areas such as retirement, tax planning, equity compensation, wealth management, and other distinctive expertise.

📍 Location relevance: Professionals are evaluated within the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area and its financial ecosystem.

🧩 Context and differentiation: We recognize that CFP® professionals can serve very different clients and financial needs.

🔄 Evolving research: The list may change as professionals develop their practices, gain new experience, or meet our research standards.

The result is intended to provide more context, not simply more names.

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🌟 Digital Reference's List of the Best Certified Financial Planners in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is home to a diverse group of Certified Financial Planners who bring specialized expertise, personalized guidance, and distinct approaches to financial planning. From retirement and investment management to tax strategy, business planning, and community-focused advice, these professionals reflect the wide range of financial needs across the region. This spotlight highlights planners who stand out for their experience, specialization, client focus, and ability to make complex financial decisions more approachable. 

🔶 David Rae, CFP®, AIF®

President & Founder at Financial Planner LA | DRM Wealth Management LLC

David Rae brings a particularly recognizable specialty to the Los Angeles financial planning community: retirement and financial planning for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Rae has worked as a Los Angeles Certified Financial Planner® and Accredited Investment Fiduciary® since 2003, helping individuals, couples, and families organize their finances, develop investment strategies, and prepare for retirement. His practice also places a strong emphasis on LGBTQ+ financial planning, making this specialization a central part of his professional positioning.

That focus reflects the reality that financial planning can look different from one household to another. Rae has developed educational content addressing financial questions specific to LGBTQ+ couples and families, including considerations around marriage, retirement, and broader financial planning. His work highlights the importance of building financial strategies around each client's circumstances rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.

💡 Specialized client perspective: Rae has developed a strong public identity around financial planning for the LGBTQ+ community while also serving clients beyond that niche.

📈 Long-term planning: His practice addresses investment strategies and retirement planning rather than focusing exclusively on individual investment products.

📰 Public education: Rae has written for and contributed to a range of media outlets. His biography notes work with Forbes, The Huffington Post, Investopedia, and The Advocate, as well as financial commentary appearing in publications and media outlets including TIME and VOGUE.

🚴 Community involvement: His charitable work is another significant part of his professional story. His biography notes participation in AIDS/Lifecycle, including seven completions of the 545-mile ride, and states that Team Popular, which he founded, has raised more than $1 million for HIV/AIDS-related causes.

🏅 Industry recognition: His public biography notes recognition from Investopedia as one of the Best Los Angeles Financial Advisors and inclusion among the 100 Best Financial Advisors in America in 2020.

What makes Rae stand out is his blend of financial planning, retirement expertise, public education, community involvement, and specialized knowledge. His career shows how an advisor can build a clear niche around a specific community while still providing comprehensive financial planning. For Los Angeles clients seeking an advisor who understands the unique financial considerations of LGBTQ+ households and values education and community engagement, Rae offers a distinctive and highly relevant approach. 

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🔶 Kevin Lum, CFP®

Founder of Foundry Financial

Kevin Lum brings an entrepreneurial and retirement-focused perspective to the Los Angeles financial planning landscape. As the founder of Foundry Financial, he built his practice around helping clients gain clarity around money and retirement. His professional journey is distinctive, beginning with entrepreneurship and becoming a Dish Network dealer at a young age before moving into nonprofit and social-impact work, including leadership roles connected to poverty reduction and a national network that grew to thousands of members across the U.S. and internationally.

Lum’s transition into financial planning was shaped by a deeply personal experience. After his father died prematurely, he helped his mother search for financial advice and became frustrated with an industry model he felt was too focused on selling financial products. That experience ultimately influenced his decision to establish Foundry Financial, where his entrepreneurial background and personal understanding of financial uncertainty inform a more planning-focused approach to helping clients prepare for retirement and make confident decisions about their financial futures.

🎯 Retirement specialization: Foundry Financial centers its planning work around retirement, particularly for people approaching retirement who want greater clarity around whether they can actually make the transition.

🧠 Financial clarity: Lum's public writing frequently challenges simplistic retirement rules of thumb and emphasizes the interaction between spending, healthcare, Social Security, taxes, and market uncertainty.

🎙️ Education platform: He is the host of Retirement Made Simple, a podcast and YouTube channel focused on retirement planning and financial education.

📚 Consistent publishing: Foundry Financial publishes extensive educational material covering retirement, tax planning, Roth conversions, Social Security, investment strategy, and other financial planning topics.

📊 Research-informed investment philosophy: Foundry Financial describes its investment approach as drawing from academic research, modern portfolio theory, and quantitative finance rather than attempting to consistently outperform markets through active management.

🌎 National reach: Although based in Southern California, Foundry Financial serves clients beyond Los Angeles.

Lum's approach to financial planning emphasizes the human side of retirement, recognizing that leaving the workforce can affect identity, routines, spending, relationships, purpose, and confidence—not just income. This perspective is especially relevant in Los Angeles, where professionals often come from entrepreneurial, creative, corporate, and specialized careers, making retirement a transition that requires more than portfolio projections. His work demonstrates how retirement planning can become a broader conversation about financial freedom, confidence, purpose, and thoughtful decision-making. 

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🔶 Danilo Kawasaki, CFP®, CPWA®

Vice President COO, & Co-Founder of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management

Danilo Kawasaki represents the entrepreneurial side of Los Angeles wealth management.

Kawasaki is the Co-Founder, Vice President, COO, and Chief Compliance Officer of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management. He also serves on the firm’s Board of Directors and Investment Selection Committee. His career brings together international experience, athletics, finance, wealth management, and executive leadership, giving him a broad perspective on both the business and client sides of financial planning.

Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Kawasaki grew up during a period of hyperinflation, an experience that his firm biography says taught him the importance of wealth management from an early age. He later moved to the United States as a scholar-athlete and became a three-time All-American tennis player at the University of Redlands, an achievement that adds a distinctive athletic dimension to his professional background.

🎾 Athletic background: His experience as a high-level tennis player adds an unusual dimension to his professional story.

🌎 International perspective: Growing up in Brazil and later building his career in the United States gives Kawasaki a distinctly international background.

🎓 Financial education: He earned a BS in Business Administration from the University of Redlands, completed personal financial planning education through UCLA, and later earned a wealth management certificate through Yale School of Management.

🏦 Advanced designation: Kawasaki holds both CFP® and CPWA® credentials, with the latter focused on sophisticated wealth management for high-net-worth clients.

🚀 Entrepreneurial leadership: He co-founded Gerber Kawasaki following the 2008 financial crisis with a goal of challenging traditional institutional approaches to financial advice.

🧩 Operational expertise: His responsibilities extend beyond advising individual clients. As COO and Chief Compliance Officer, he is involved in the firm's operations, compliance, leadership, and investment-selection processes.

🏆 Industry recognition: Gerber Kawasaki notes that InvestmentNews named Kawasaki a Top Financial Advisor in 2025, alongside prior recognition from Forbes, the Los Angeles Business Journal, and other organizations.

The larger Gerber Kawasaki platform adds another dimension to Kawasaki’s Los Angeles identity, with an emphasis on diversity, multilingual communication, and serving clients from different cultural and international backgrounds. His work reflects how modern financial planning can extend beyond investment management into entrepreneurship, global wealth management, leadership, and culturally responsive client service. As a firm leader, Kawasaki represents the strategic and entrepreneurial side of financial planning, helping clients navigate increasingly complex financial lives while building a wealth-management practice designed for a diverse clientele. 

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🔶 Scott Shagrin, CFP®

Managing Director & Co-Founder of Beverly Hills Private Wealth

Scott Shagrin brings an institutional wealth-management perspective to the Los Angeles financial planning community.

He is a Managing Director and Co-Founder of Beverly Hills Private Wealth, a firm whose leadership team brings together professionals with backgrounds in investment management, capital markets, financial planning, and tax.

The firm's model is particularly relevant to clients who want independent fiduciary oversight while still having access to a coordinated team.

🏛️ Institutional background: Beverly Hills Private Wealth describes its team as bringing decades of experience from global financial institutions.

🤝 Coordinated approach: Client relationships are supported by a team that includes portfolio managers, tax and planning professionals, and wealth advisors.

🧭 Independent positioning: The firm emphasizes independent fiduciary oversight rather than a traditional product-centered wealth-management model.

🏡 Beverly Hills presence: The firm's office is located on South Beverly Drive, placing Shagrin directly within one of the region's most recognizable financial and professional communities.

📊 Wealth-management orientation: His role as Managing Director and Co-Founder places him at the intersection of client advisory work and firm leadership.

Shagrin’s positioning stands out through the combination of direct client access, institutional experience, and family-office-style wealth management. His practice recognizes that high-net-worth planning often extends beyond investments to include tax strategy, estate planning, concentrated assets, liquidity, and family governance. For Los Angeles clients seeking a boutique advisory experience without giving up sophisticated wealth-management capabilities, Shagrin offers a compelling balance of personalized service and institutional-level expertise. 

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🔶 Brent Kessel, CFP®

Co-Founder & Financial Advisor at Abacus Wealth Partners

Brent Kessel brings a distinctly values-based approach to wealth management. As Co-Founder and Financial Advisor at Abacus Wealth Partners, he has helped shape a firm focused on relationship building, innovative thinking, and expanding what clients believe is possible with money.

Kessel’s philosophy is closely connected to his personal experiences. Growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, a childhood experience involving the death of his family’s nanny’s baby led him to think deeply about racial and economic inequality. After immigrating to the United States, he began investing with social and environmental impact in mind in 1993, an approach that eventually contributed to the founding of Abacus in 1996.

🌍 Values-driven wealth: Kessel's professional philosophy connects financial planning with broader questions about what clients want their money to accomplish.

🌱 Impact orientation: His personal investments and philanthropy are focused on issues including climate change, gender and racial justice, animal welfare, and poverty alleviation.

🏢 Long-term firm leadership: He founded Abacus in 1996 and remains one of the firm's key leaders.

🤝 Nonprofit engagement: Kessel serves on the board of LIFT, an organization focused on economic mobility and financial stability.

💭 Purpose-centered planning: His public philosophy asks clients to consider not just how to accumulate wealth, but how wealth can support personal goals and contribute to causes they care about.

📚 Thought leadership: Kessel's public professional identity is closely connected to conversations about money, purpose, impact, and values.

What distinguishes Kessel is his view of money as a tool for achieving meaningful goals rather than simply measuring financial success. His approach connects traditional financial planning with clients’ broader values, whether that means spending more time with family, supporting nonprofits, investing in climate solutions, creating economic opportunity, or building a lasting legacy. By shifting the conversation from “How much wealth can you build?” to “What is your wealth for?”, Kessel brings a purpose-driven perspective that gives him a distinctive place in Los Angeles’ financial planning landscape.

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🔶 Kevin Campbell, CFP®

Co-Founder of Periscope Wealth Advisors

Kevin Campbell represents a planning model built around the intersection of retirement and tax planning. As Co-Founder of Periscope Wealth Advisors, he is part of a team that brings together diverse educational and professional backgrounds to address retirement planning from multiple perspectives.

This combination is especially valuable for clients approaching retirement, when financial priorities can shift significantly as earned income declines. Retirement planning becomes not only about building wealth but also about how to structure income, manage taxes, and make assets last, making Campbell’s integrated approach particularly relevant for those preparing for the next stage of their financial lives.

📊 Retirement planning: Periscope's public positioning centers retirement as a major component of its planning work.

🧾 Tax awareness: The firm's approach explicitly brings tax planning into the broader retirement conversation.

🧩 Multidisciplinary team: Campbell works within a team that includes professionals focused on planning, investments, client service, and retirement-related credentials.

🤝 Relationship-oriented philosophy: Periscope says it believes clients become friends and team members become family.

🎯 Long-term perspective: The practice is designed around helping clients make coordinated decisions rather than treating individual financial products as isolated choices.

For those approaching retirement, coordinated planning can be essential because investment withdrawals, Social Security, taxes, healthcare, insurance, estate planning, charitable giving, and lifestyle choices are often interconnected. Campbell’s position at Periscope reflects this broader approach, focusing on how these financial pieces work together rather than simply asking “How much do I have?” This model is particularly relevant for Southern California households with wealth spread across multiple accounts, properties, businesses, or investment portfolios, treating retirement as a comprehensive financial transition rather than just a portfolio review.

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🔶 Jason J. Hamilton, CFP®, CRPC®

Founder of Keep It Simple Financial Planning

Jason J. Hamilton has built his financial planning practice around a straightforward idea: retirement planning should be clear, coordinated, and practical. As the founder of Keep It Simple Financial Planning, Hamilton primarily works with individuals and couples approaching retirement, helping them navigate the complex decisions involved in turning accumulated savings into sustainable retirement income.

His approach is also shaped by personal experience. Hamilton’s family owned an Italian restaurant in Willow Glen, California, and during the 2008–2009 financial crisis, he witnessed the financial stress his family faced without the benefit of coordinated planning. That experience influenced his decision to pursue financial planning and eventually led him to launch his firm in 2016, with a focus on making retirement decisions more organized and easier for clients to understand.

🧭 Retirement-focused: Hamilton specifically works with people approaching retirement.

🔄 Coordination over complexity: His approach emphasizes aligning spending, income sources, taxes, and investments rather than optimizing each component independently.

💰 Fee-only model: Keep It Simple describes itself as a fee-only firm and states that it does not rely on product sales or commissions.

⚖️ Fiduciary commitment: The firm states that its CFP® professionals are committed to acting in clients' best interests.

🌎 Virtual reach: The firm operates virtually and serves clients across more than 30 states.

🎓 Financial education: The firm has supported financial education initiatives with schools and universities, including UC Irvine and UC Davis.

Hamilton’s approach highlights the idea that sophisticated financial planning doesn’t have to feel complicated. Retirement can involve countless variables, but clients often need clear explanations, practical guidance, and a strong understanding of their options rather than endless spreadsheets. By focusing on clarity, communication, and actionable advice, Hamilton’s practice helps turn complex retirement decisions into a more understandable and manageable process. 

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🔶 Curtis Hill, CFP®

CEO & Founder of Serenity Wealth Management

Curtis Hill brings more than three decades of financial-services experience to the Los Angeles-area planning landscape, with a practice focused on retirement, wealth management, income planning, and legacy planning. As founder of Serenity Wealth Management, Hill is identified as a CFP®, wealth manager, retirement planner, insurance professional, and Investment Advisor Representative.

His philosophy centers on helping clients prepare for their “next chapter,” reflecting a broader view of retirement planning. Rather than focusing solely on accumulating assets, Hill emphasizes how those assets can be transformed into an income strategy designed to support clients throughout retirement while also addressing long-term wealth and legacy goals.

🕰️ 30+ years of experience: Serenity Wealth Management states that Hill has more than 30 years in the financial industry.

🌅 Retirement specialization: His practice focuses heavily on retirement income planning, wealth management, and legacy considerations.

🧩 Holistic planning: Serenity's stated process combines financial planning, wealth management, income planning, and legacy planning.

👂 Discovery-first approach: The firm's “Roadmap to Serenity” begins with listening to client goals and concerns and identifying potentially conflicting priorities between spouses.

📚 Author and educator: Hill and Irina Hill have written The Wealth Conspiracy: Avoid the Dark Side of Wall Street and The Financial Blind Side: How Your Investment Advisor's Bias Limits Your Wealth.

🎓 Financial education: The firm offers financial education classes covering retirement tax planning and protecting savings from market downturns.

Hill’s practice stands out for making client education a central part of retirement planning, based on the idea that informed clients are more confident in their financial decisions. His approach recognizes that retirement involves more than withdrawals, taxes, healthcare, Social Security, and market risk—it also involves personal goals, relationships, lifestyle choices, and legacy planning. For retirees seeking a retirement-focused and education-driven approach to wealth management, Hill offers a model that combines financial strategy with clearer, more meaningful decision-making.

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🔶 Derek Munchow, CFP®, ChFC®

Founder & Managing Partner of Augustus Wealth LLC

Derek Munchow brings one of the most specialized approaches in this selection: financial planning for professionals whose wealth is heavily tied to company equity. Augustus Wealth describes itself as a fee-only fiduciary registered investment advisor specializing in equity compensation planning, particularly for pre-IPO shareholders and professionals navigating complex compensation structures.

Munchow has more than two decades of financial-services experience, with CFP® and ChFC® credentials and a long tenure at Ameriprise before founding Augustus Wealth in 2022. His current practice takes a more focused approach, helping professionals understand and manage the financial implications of equity compensation as it becomes a significant part of their overall wealth.

📈 Equity compensation: Augustus Wealth focuses on stock options, RSUs, and other forms of company equity.

🚀 Pre-IPO planning: The firm specifically works with shareholders preparing for liquidity events and public offerings.

🧾 Tax strategy: The firm's educational material addresses AMT, ISO exercise strategies, RSU taxation, and the tax implications of concentrated equity.

🧠 Worker-to-Investor framework: Munchow has developed a framework around the transition from earning wealth through employment and concentrated company stock toward diversified investments and long-term wealth.

📰 Current thought leadership: His LinkedIn profile shows frequent publishing on major technology-company equity situations, including SpaceX, Anduril, Anthropic, and other pre-IPO environments.

🛠️ Educational tools: Augustus Wealth offers equity-focused tools covering areas such as ISO exercise decisions, AMT, RSU withholding, concentration risk, and tender offers.

Munchow’s practice shows why the CFP® designation alone doesn’t capture the full range of financial-planning expertise. Professionals with significant company equity may face specialized questions around stock options, tax exposure, concentration risk, liquidity, diversification, and post-IPO planning that differ greatly from traditional retirement planning. Augustus Wealth is built around these challenges, while Munchow’s educational content helps clients understand complex equity decisions before they even enter an advisory relationship. For Los Angeles professionals in technology, startups, aerospace, and other equity-driven industries, this specialization gives his practice a particularly distinctive position. 

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🔶 Gabriel Shahin, CFP®, MBA, AIF®

Founder & Principal of Falcon Wealth Planning

Gabriel Shahin combines financial planning, advanced tax planning, investment management, and firm leadership. He is the Founder and Principal of Falcon Wealth Planning and has worked in financial services since 2003, with experience spanning advanced tax planning, portfolio analysis, and investment management.

Before founding Falcon Wealth Planning, Shahin worked as an Investment Consultant at TD Ameritrade, where he focused on asset guidance for high-net-worth individuals. He later transitioned into the fee-only advisory space before establishing his own firm, building a practice that integrates tax strategy, investment management, and broader financial planning.

🧾 Advanced tax planning: Tax strategy is one of the central components of Shahin's public professional positioning.

📊 Portfolio analysis: His background includes investment management and portfolio analysis.

🎓 Business education: Shahin holds a bachelor's degree in business from Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business and a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts.

🏢 Firm leadership: Falcon Wealth Planning has grown into a multi-advisor organization with professionals across several regions.

🏆 Industry recognition: Falcon's biography lists multiple recent recognitions involving Shahin and the firm, including a 2024 CEO of the Year finalist distinction and recognition from organizations including RIA Intel and Investopedia.

🌱 Community engagement: Shahin's biography also notes nonprofit board service and volunteer work.

What makes Shahin particularly interesting is the way tax planning sits alongside investment management.

For high-income households, financial planning often becomes deeply connected to tax strategy, investment returns, retirement goals, charitable giving, and long-term wealth accumulation. Shahin’s work at Falcon Wealth Planning reflects this tax-focused approach while also extending into leadership and the growth of a broader advisory organization. This combination of technical expertise and firm-building experience gives him a distinctive position within Southern California’s financial planning landscape. 

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🎭 Using Digital Reference to Find the Best Los Angeles-Based Certified Financial Planners For Your Needs

Taken together, the CFPS above showcase the diverse approaches to financial planning in Los Angeles, from retirement and tax strategy to wealth management, equity compensation, and comprehensive financial planning. Their expertise reflects the varied needs of entrepreneurs, professionals, families, and retirees across the region.

Financial planning is a trust-based profession, where communication, experience, specialization, and client impact matter alongside credentials. This curated Digital Reference list helps readers explore different planning approaches and identify professionals whose expertise aligns with their financial goals.

Digital Reference promotes a more transparent and authentic approach to professional credibility, helping financial planners document their experience, verify accomplishments, and provide greater context about their work. For professionals, this creates a stronger way to communicate their value. For prospective clients, it offers useful context when deciding who to trust. Explore:

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Ultimately, credibility should be more than a claim—it should be documented, contextualized, and verified. Digital Reference  is helping make that proof more visible while continuing to highlight the professionals shaping financial planning across Los Angeles and beyond.