Insights from SkyOak Capital
Articles written by SkyOak Capital’s advisors on the questions clients actually bring: how to draw retirement income without paying tax you were never required to pay, what a move between California, Oregon and Nevada does to a plan, what the 2026 estate tax law changed for families who planned for a cut that never came, and how to tell a financial planner from a salesperson. New Insights are added monthly. Nothing here is personalized advice; the first conversation with an advisor is where that begins.
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How to Choose a Financial Advisor
I spent the first twenty years of my career at Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch, and I have spent the sixteen since running an independent firm. I have been the advisor a client was choosing, and I have sat across from people deciding whether to leave the advisor they had. So I will tell you…
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The Four Pillars of Wealth Building
A client came to me years ago with a spreadsheet of eleven investment accounts at four custodians, a rental property, a whole life policy she did not remember buying, and a question: was she rich? She had no idea. Neither did I, from the spreadsheet. What she had was a lot of decisions made one…