Financial Planning

When you’re ready to grow your wealth, it’s wise to consult a financial advisor. Working with a financial planner doesn’t mean turning over control of your finances. An advisor is a guide, showing you different options and helping you understand your financial choices. At Gosho Financial Group, we see our role as supporting our clients in living their best lives through every phase of life, including retirement. 

There are many qualified and competent Certified Financial Planners (CFPs), and, in many cases, one financial advisor is the same as the next.

Not Gosho Financial Group.

We never create cookie-cutter plans that put your money into managed funds. These funds are designed to meet specific goals for risk and return, but they aren’t designed for you.

We build a plan based on your goals and our detailed study of the market. To do that, we choose individual stocks tailored to meet your needs.

A custom portfolio of selected stocks is a service that is generally only available to the wealthiest individuals. We think people at all income levels should be able to benefit from an individualized stock portfolio.

A stock portfolio designed just for you has many benefits. Here are just a few. We can discuss this further during your initial consultation.

Passive income

Our portfolios are designed to help you to live off the income from your investments without being forced to sell stock. Mutual fund returns are determined by the fund’s manager, which can make it hard to plan for retirement. With a financial plan from Gosho, you maintain your portfolio and merely draw down the dividends during retirement.

Flexibility to meet market challenges

While every investment carries risk, a portfolio of carefully curated stocks will give you resilience, even in challenging market conditions. And you have greater flexibility to pull the levers to take advantage of changes in the market.

After-tax income

We determine the ideal timing for converting your tax-deferred investments, so you don’t have to pay tax when you withdraw funds after you retire. After-tax income is another way our custom portfolios help you confidently meet your financial goals. 

Deep market experience

Carol Gosho has been picking individual stocks for over four decades. Her depth of experience as a market watcher and investment expert is unmatched. When you get a Gosho financial plan, you benefit from an advisor with a history of creating wealth. Her clients are so loyal that some are now second-generation, the adult children of her original clients who want Gosho to manage their finances.

Personalized service

A Gosho client isn’t a number on a ledger sheet; with us, you’re a member of the family, and we’re invested in your success. Life crises don’t always happen between 9 and 5; we’re the financial advisors who will take your call when an urgent situation arises on a night or weekend. We’re here to help you succeed through all the challenges life can throw at you.

Here’s what to expect from the financial planning process with Gosho Financial Group

Connect with a Gosho Financial Group advisor

The first step is a short phone call to determine what you’re looking for and if we can help.

Use our online questionnaire

Our online questionnaire provides the information we need to understand your financial situation, which helps us help you. We build our financial advice on a solid understanding of all your financial obligations and income sources. 

We start with your questions

We offer a complimentary 30-minute meeting to get started. This meeting is an opportunity to let us know your concerns and what’s important to you. We answer your questions about stocks, bonds, IPOs, 401(k)s, or other financial instruments or investing strategies.

We find it’s best to have this get-acquainted meeting in person, though we can also meet over Zoom if an in-person meeting isn’t possible. We can meet at our San Mateo or San Francisco office. In addition, our office has access to Pacific Workplaces office suites so that we can arrange an in-person meeting at many locations throughout the Bay Area and beyond. We offer evening and Saturday appointments as well to accommodate busy work schedules.

You approve the proposal 

In our initial meeting, we take stock of your financial needs and develop a plan for our work with you. We’ll send you a written proposal outlining our fee schedule and the anticipated cost of the financial plan. 

We don’t begin until you approve the proposal.

Understanding your life situation

Once we have agreed on your proposal, we work with you to gather the information on which to base your investment strategy. We have experience, both personal and professional, working through life challenges, including end-of-life illness, mental health issues, and much more. We approach each client’s plan with compassion and a determination to make your financial resources work for you.

A plan for your life

We design financial plans to help you meet your investment goals, whether that’s passive income to maintain your standard of living through retirement or leveraging an IPO windfall into long-term financial security. Whether you want a down payment for a house, to purchase a second home, or to care for an infirm parent or relative, we can craft a custom stock portfolio that delivers what you need when you need it.

Putting your plan into action

Once we complete your plan and you approve it, it’s time for implementation. We’ll design an investment portfolio for you that we manage to help you meet your objectives. Our investment management services, like all our services, are fee-only. We never take a commission, so all your returns go directly to you.