Frequently asked questions.

Wealthbridge Financial is a CFP®-led wealth management firm in Sherman Oaks, California. We coordinate investment management, retirement planning, tax-efficient strategy, estate planning, and risk management for medical professionals and business owners. Investment advisory services are offered through Acrylic Financial (our partner RIA), with client assets custodied at Charles Schwab.

Yes. As a CFP Board Certified Financial Planner, Aram Tony Urfalyan is held to a fiduciary standard and is legally required to act in clients' best interests. Investment advisory services offered through Acrylic Financial are provided subject to the fiduciary obligations applicable to registered investment advisers under federal securities laws.

"Financial advisor" is an unregulated title — anyone can use it. CFP® (Certified Financial Planner) is a rigorous credential issued by the CFP Board, requiring college-level coursework across six planning disciplines, a 10-hour board exam, thousands of hours of real client experience, a clean ethics record, and ongoing continuing education. CFP® Professionals are held to a fiduciary standard on all planning advice. When the advice involves your entire financial life — not just product sales — the CFP® credential matters.

Your assets are custodied at Charles Schwab — one of the largest independent custodians in the U.S. Neither Wealthbridge Financial nor Acrylic Financial ever takes custody of client funds. You retain 24/7 online access through Schwab, and any movement of money goes through authenticated Schwab channels. This structure is how reputable RIAs have operated since the Madoff era — the advisor manages the plan, a third-party custodian holds the assets.

Wealthbridge is fee-based. Investment management is charged as a percentage of assets under management through Acrylic Financial. Certain insurance and risk-management products are commission-based when they're the right tool for the job. All compensation is disclosed in writing before you sign anything, and we explain which hat we're wearing on every recommendation. If you'd prefer a flat-fee planning engagement instead of AUM, we can discuss that too.

Minimums and fees depend on the scope of engagement. Our typical investment management fee is tiered — it declines as assets grow. For planning-only or hourly engagements, we quote a flat fee up front. The initial consultation is free and carries no obligation. We'll give you a clear number before you decide anything.

The 1% figure you see quoted is the industry average for AUM-based advisory. Our fees sit in that neighborhood and scale down for larger portfolios, but the real question is value: are you getting coordinated investment + tax + insurance + retirement planning, or just someone rebalancing a model portfolio? For clients with complex situations — business owners, physicians with 1099 and W-2 income, families planning multi-generational transfers — the integrated approach typically pays for itself in tax savings alone.

Physicians, dentists, and other medical professionals face a specific financial pattern: late earning start due to training, high six-figure incomes in a top tax bracket, heavy student-loan exposure, meaningful malpractice and disability risk, limited time for financial self-education, and complex retirement-plan options (cash-balance plans, mega-backdoor Roth, 457(b)s, etc.). Generic advice misses these. We've built the practice around that specific playbook.

Yes — this is one of the most common setups we see. Mixed 1099/W-2 income opens real planning opportunities: a solo 401(k) or SEP-IRA against the 1099 side, W-2 retirement plan optimization, quarterly tax planning to avoid underpayment penalties, and potentially pass-through entity structuring. We coordinate directly with your CPA to make sure the tax and investment decisions are rowing in the same direction.

Yes. Medical professionals often carry six-figure student loan balances, and the right strategy depends on employer type, income trajectory, and time horizon. We walk through the tradeoffs between PSLF, IDR plans, private refinancing, and aggressive payoff — and how each interacts with your retirement and tax planning. For nuanced cases we also refer to student-loan specialists we trust.

Business-owner planning is threefold: what the business owes you (salary, distributions, retirement contributions), what the business shields you from (insurance, entity structure, buy-sell agreements), and what happens when you exit (succession, sale, or wind-down). We coordinate with your CPA and attorney to align the plan across all three, from cash-balance and defined-benefit plans to key-person insurance to exit-timing strategies.

Yes. While our office is in Sherman Oaks, we serve clients throughout California and in other states. Investment advisory services through Acrylic Financial are offered in registered jurisdictions; we'll confirm availability during your initial consultation. Meetings happen in-person, by phone, or via video based on what works for you.

First: slow down. Most liquidity-event mistakes happen in the first 30 days. The right sequence is usually (1) tax reserve — set aside what you owe before touching anything else, (2) safety reserve — build 6–12 months of expenses in cash, (3) debt decisions — pay off what makes mathematical sense at current rates, (4) invest the rest on a schedule, not all at once. We help you think through each step rather than forcing a single one-size answer.

The first 30–45 minute call is discovery, not sales. We listen to where you are and what you're trying to solve, answer your questions about how we work, and tell you honestly whether we're the right fit. There's no pitch, no pressure, and no cost. If we move forward, the next step is a deeper fact-finding meeting where we gather statements, tax returns, and goals.

Evidence-based, tax-aware, and diversified. We build long-term portfolios grounded in decades of academic research on risk and return — not market-timing, hot sectors, or proprietary products. Allocations are tailored to your time horizon, tax situation, and risk capacity. We rebalance with discipline, harvest losses where it adds after-tax value, and review the portfolio against your plan rather than against short-term benchmarks.

Most clients meet with us twice a year for a formal review, with additional check-ins when something changes — a job change, inheritance, home purchase, birth, market event, or tax decision. You have direct access to Tony between meetings by email or phone. We don't gatekeep time.

Yes — and it's one of the things that distinguishes us. Financial decisions rarely live in one silo. We actively coordinate with your CPA on tax projections and year-end moves, and with your estate attorney on trust funding, beneficiary designations, and wealth-transfer strategy. If you don't have these professionals, we'll introduce you to ones we trust.

For employer plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s we provide advice on investment selection and contribution strategy, even though the plan itself stays with your employer's provider. For IRAs, taxable brokerage, and old 401(k)s, we can manage them directly through Schwab. The goal is a coordinated plan — what sits where matters less than how it's all working together.

We don't prepare tax returns, but tax planning is a central part of what we do. We build multi-year tax projections, advise on Roth conversions, capital gains harvesting, charitable giving strategy, and entity structuring — then coordinate with your CPA for execution. If you need a CPA, we'll refer you to one we've worked with successfully.

Term life makes sense when someone depends on your income — spouse, children, business partners — and the coverage gap is temporary (until retirement, until the mortgage is paid, until kids are through college). Permanent life insurance has narrower use cases: estate-tax liquidity for larger estates, buy-sell funding for business owners, and certain tax-advantaged accumulation strategies. We run the math and tell you honestly what you need — and what you don't.

A reasonable starting point is the D.I.M.E. method: Debt + Income replacement (roughly 10x annual income) + Mortgage + Education costs, minus existing assets. Our website has an interactive calculator you can try. The output is a coverage estimate, not a plan — the right number depends on your spouse's earning capacity, expected investment returns, and how long the income needs to last. We refine it during planning.

Most of our clients come to us with accounts scattered across 401(k)s, IRAs, taxable brokerage accounts, and old employer plans. Part of onboarding is reviewing what you have, identifying overlap, costs, and tax inefficiencies, and consolidating only where it benefits you. We never push rollovers or transfers that don't serve you — in some cases, the right answer is to leave an account exactly where it is.

Large brokerage firms typically have product quotas, internal compensation that favors certain products, and high advisor turnover. We're an independent practice: Tony is your advisor for the long term, planning is genuinely customized, and recommendations aren't filtered through a corporate product shelf. You get a CFP® Professional who knows your name, your family, and your plan — not an 800-number that routes you to whoever picks up.

Wealthbridge Financial is the planning and client service firm you work with day to day. Acrylic Financial is the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) through which investment advisory services are offered. This dual structure is common in wealth management — it lets a CFP® Professional focus on planning and relationships while partnering with an RIA for the regulated investment advisory work. It also means your advisory services are delivered under full fiduciary standards.

Call (310) 620-1150 or request a consultation through the contact form on this page. We'll schedule a free 30–45 minute call to understand your situation, answer your questions, and — if we're both a fit — outline the next steps. No pressure, no obligation, no sales pitch.