Plan Today… Enjoy Tomorrow!
Asti Financial Management, LLC was founded out of a desire to help individuals gain control over their finances and to maximize their wealth in order to realize their goals and dreams. Using our financial skills and knowledge, we help clients live a healthy, balanced life that is free from the stress of worrying about their financial futures.
Asti Financial Management, LLC is not just a business – it is an extension of our personal values. We are happy to use our extensive knowledge of finance and investing to help others optimize their financial situations. We work to provide honest, high quality, easy to understand, and implement financial planning advisory services to individuals and small businesses in order to facilitate comfort and balance in their personal and financial lives.
Asti Financial Management, LLC was founded over 10 years ago out of a desire to help individuals gain control over their finances and to maximize their wealth in order to realize their goals and dreams. Using financial skills and knowledge, we work to help clients live healthy, balanced life, trying to reduce the stress of worrying about their financial futures. The firm has always been completely independent and not affiliated with any broker/dealer because we want to be 100% objective in any strategies or products recommended to clients. This business is built on our reputation. The advice provided to clients is the best possible solution, in our opinion, for each client’s goals and needs.
Asti Financial Management, LLC is not just a business – it is an extension of personal values. We are happy to use our professional knowledge of finance and investing to help others optimize their financial situations. We work to provide honest, high-quality, easy-to-understand, and implement financial planning advice to individuals, their families, and small businesses.
I bring my clients over 25 years of experience in the financial services and investment management industry having worked with small independent financial firms to world-class organizations like Barclays Global Investors, creating and launching their iShares products.
I earned my Certified Financial Planner™ credential in 2006. I attended the University of California, Berkeley, and received a Graduate Certificate, with honors, in Personal Financial Planning (2005), as well as a Bachelor of Science in Finance, Banking and Real Estate from San Francisco State University (1991). I am licensed health, life, and long-term care insurance agent with the State of California (#0E67228).
I am an active member of the Financial Planning Association of San Francisco, having served on the Board and as President of the Board during my membership.
I am a Bay Area native and enjoy spending time with my family and friends, exploring the Bay Area in all its uniqueness, as well as traveling around the US and abroad.
Frank has 14 years of experience in financial services. He started as a Risk Analyst and Corporate Trainer at TD Waterhouse. Later he was the head of the new hire training program for Quick & Reilly, which became Bank of America Investments (through a merger/buyout).
At Quick & Reilly/Bank of America, he developed, facilitated, and managed sales and systems training for financial advisor new hires. He also managed the continuing education program for the existing salesforce based out of New York City, Charlotte, NC, and Boston.
After leaving the training department, he was the Northeastern Relationship Manager, managing a team of 15 advisors. His primary responsibility was as a mediator and liaison between the front and back office and vendors.
From Bank of America Investments, he transitioned to JP Morgan/Chase as a Financial Advisor, managing roughly $70mm in assets.
He enjoys his children, yoga, traveling, literature, and film, and is a bit of a foodie.
Jessica Benitez – Office Associate
Jessica is our newest team member, joining our firm in July 2021. She brings with her over 12 years of experience in customer service, specializing in business and office administration. She is fluent in Spanish and has an Associate’s Degree in Health Services Administration, working 9 years in the medical field, focusing on insurance. Jessica keeps the business running smoothly, managing all client information and communications, while ensuring we are organized and efficient!
Jessica lives in Tampa, Florida with her two children Isabella (10) and Elijah (5). She enjoys going to the beach, reading a nice book, or bingeing on favorite shows in her free time. She was born in Massachusetts but has a love for visiting the mountains with her family and creating fun memories.
We partner with Ruby Receptionists to provide clients with a high-quality customer service experience every time they call in. Ruby Receptionists connects you to the staff at our firm and provides your messages on a timely basis. For more information, please visit: www.callruby.com
We believe your investment portfolio is a tool to help you live the kind of life you want to live. We can work with you to create an investment strategy and portfolio allocation that makes sense given your goals, your tolerance for risk, and your investment preferences.
We believe in a diversified portfolio that incorporates different investment asset classes (i.e., large company value, intermediate-term bonds, real estate, international) because we believe that over time, this strategy leads to lower overall risk and better returns.
We do not believe that we can predict what the markets will do next. Instead, we work with our clients to develop a solid financial strategy, implement it, and help clients maintain the objectivity and discipline required over time to be successful long-term investors.
We implement your investment program using mutual funds, both actively and passively managed, or Exchange Traded Funds, rather than using individual securities. Our value to you is provided in taking the time to understand you and your goals and by designing and implementing an overall financial plan to help you accomplish those goals. Individual security selection is something offered with outstanding skill and very low cost by professional mutual funds managers.
We believe in taking a long-term approach to investing and feel that trying to time the market is more futile than fruitful.
We believe that your investment portfolio is best constructed after working with you to understand your individual risk tolerance and your portfolio’s purpose, whether it be funding your retirement, your children’s education, a second home, or leaving a legacy for your heirs.
We measure success in terms of how well we help you improve the quality of your life and providing you financial peace of mind.
First and Foremost = Honesty and Integrity
Asti Financial Management, LLC was started with the sole ambition of helping people organize, manage, and plan for their financial lives. We decided to start our own financial planning practice completely independent and not affiliated with a broker/dealer because we wanted to be 100% objective in any strategies or products recommended to clients. Our business is built on our reputation. We will never recommend a product or strategy based on the commissions or fees it pays. The advice provided to you is the best possible solution, in our opinion, for your goals and needs. We always disclose and explain any fees or commissions that happen to be associated with our recommendations. You can be confident that we take our profession as a Financial Planner very seriously and adhere to the highest ethical standards.
We Understand
We realize that many people have an investment or financial knowledge to make appropriate financial decisions and manage their portfolios very well. Many do it themselves quite successfully. But there are also a lot of people who simply do not have the time it takes to manage their financial lives effectively and efficiently. That is where we come in. We not only set up initial financial strategies for our clients, but we can manage them ongoing.
Julie (Scates) Asti is also a small business owner, homeowner, wife, and mother. She faces the same financial decisions and tradeoffs that many of our clients do, so she truly understands your financial situation.
Certified Financial Planner™
Julie (Scates) Asti is a Certified Financial Planner™. Working with a Certified Financial Planner™ means you are working with a financial advisor who is highly competent, educated, and committed. Many stockbrokers and other financial services providers call themselves “financial planners”, but most do not have sufficient training and experience to provide the full suite of financial services and advice that a CFP® practitioner can. In order to obtain the CFP® designation, a financial planner must satisfy the following requirements:
Education: An individual must become knowledgeable in the CFP Board’s financial planning topics, either through a series of classes or self-study. These topics include investments, tax, the mathematics of financial planning, insurance, estate planning, employee benefits, and retirement planning.
Examination: Passing the comprehensive, 2-day CFP® Certification Examination is the next requirement towards achieving certification. The CFP® Certification Examination assesses an individual’s ability to apply financial planning knowledge, in an integrated format, to financial planning situations.
Experience: A CFP® candidate must have three years of relevant financial planning experience and a bachelor’s degree to fulfill the education requirement.
Ethics: Finally, a financial planner must agree to abide by CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility which puts clients’ interests first, and abide by the Financial Planning Practice Standards which spell out what clients should be able to reasonably expect from the financial planning engagement.
Certified Financial Planner™ certificants are individuals who have met CFP Board’s education, examination and experience requirements, have agreed to adhere to high standards of ethical conduct and who complete CFP Board’s biennial certification requirements, including continuing education, to use the certification marks CFP® and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™. All CFP® certificants have voluntarily submitted to the regulatory authority of CFP Board.
You can learn more about Certified Financial Planners and check the status of an individual planner at the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards website www.cfp.net.
Set up an appointment or talk to one of our team members over the phone to discuss how we might work together.
1101 Marina Village Parkway
Suite 201
Office #275
Alameda, CA 94501
510.525.8557
Phone: 1-510-525-8557
Fax: 866-829-3702
Providing Financial Planning, Investment Advice, Investment Management and Wealth Consulting to the San Francisco Bay Area
Hourly Financial and Investment Advice
East Bay – Berkeley, Oakland, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Richmond and Alameda
South Bay – San Jose, Milpitas, Palo Alto, San Mateo and Silicon Valley
North Bay – Marin, San Rafael, Novato, Petaluma, Santa Rosa and Sonoma County