Find the Best 18 Finance services in Novato, CA (Part 2)

Angelica Klein Recently I refinanced my home with Pinnacle Home Loans. Admit that Im a tough customer but that did not deterred Guillermo Chavez from providing excellent service from beginning to end. Guillermos authentic people to people business style is consistent. He is personable, honest, and professional. He follows through, he returns phone calls within a reasonable time and is always prepared to answer those FAQs. And when the customer does not understand something, Guillermo has the right approach for explaining things with great patience and he is not satisfied until his customer is happy. He has a spirit of excellence with a heart for serving people. As for Pinnacle, I don’t have much to say at this point as the relationship is in its infancy – we are not into the first payment, so I have yet to experience their direct service but if Guillermo trusts them, I trust them. Thank you. Angelica Klein

Sherry Elias Kevin, Sue and Michael, Are the ultimate professional wealth investors. We appreciate their knowledge base and accessibility… We wish them continued success!!

S Sm Troy Evans of Ameriprise did a great job pretending to be my "financial planner," when he wanted me to buy his investments, but when they went bad and my financial life was in ruins, he simply stopped working for me. Like some others, I got really lucky with a stock that I had through a work situation. Because I was now a single "at home" mom, raising two children alone, I thought that Troy could manage my assets, which (as he said) were enough to live on for the rest of my life if I planned correctly. I went to Troy hoping to divest myself of some of my "risky" stock and reinvest in a diversified portfolio that would earn me money and keep me safe financially. This didnt happen. In short, Troy took my money, put it in completely risky investments (google Inland American REIT, which I still cant get out of eight years later) and then didnt do another thing for me except sell his bad investments. He lied to me about Inland American, saying I shouldnt worry about the paperwork that said it could be a very long-term investment. When I called him worried about my investments just prior to the crash, he told me it was novice investor jitters and that I should just hold tight. When I called and asked if I should have the kids college money in a 529 plan or some other safer investment tool, he said no, that he thought it would do much better with him. What I didnt know was that Troy wasnt really developing the best financial plan for me. He was developing a financial plan that would make him money. He put me in more risky investments, that did fine for a short time and then dumped my original investment to about 2/3 of its original value. This might have been ok, if I wasnt living off of the money and didnt have kids headed to college, but this wasnt the case. Troy had simply hadnt built the right protections into place. ( Ironically, if I had held on to my "risky" stock instead of investing with Troy, I would have almost tripled my original investment by now and would have no financial concerns.) Even worse, after he lost this chunk of money, Troy just stopped working on my account. He was still charming and personable on the phone, but when I asked for my financial plans, he couldnt find them. When I wanted him to transfer money to a Roth IRA at the end of the year, he couldnt be found. When I wanted him to re-do my financial plan and re-balance my portfolio, he made up one excuse after another about why he couldnt do it. When I called him during ski season, he was always on the slopes. While my financial life was falling apart, he seemed to be doing great. I talked to another friend who had had the same experience with him. What we didnt know then was that he had apparently gotten some business with employees from Genentech and didnt need to bother with his old clients now that he had his next cash cow. Nice guy. If you need your money, dont trust Troy Evans of Ameriprise.

Colin Hallatt I called to inquire about exchanging money and got hung up on twice

Alan Bleiweiss As an independent consultant small business owner, I have relied up on Linda Panicelli at Morre & Company accountants in Novato for all my tax preparation needs since 2011. Before I was introduced to the team at Morre, I had been burned by a couple different accountants over the years, so I was initially nervous. Linda quickly put that to rest. The work Linda and her team do is beyond invaluable to me, and I am not a normal case. Because I work for myself, from home, Ive moved every couple years across California and to other states. Yet its never a problem for her. The amount of experience and knowledge she has is vast. At the end of last year, I decided it was time to settle down and buy a house. So Ive had a number of questions regarding taxes, including whether I could use funds from my SEP-IRA (where John Morre and Linda had both provided guidance and insight on its setup and related decisions) toward closing costs. So dont just think youre going to get basic run of the mill services with Linda or the Morre team. They offer much more than that, and I am truly grateful.