Applied Advisor Network

Thanks to the USSC marriage equality is here; however, once my girlfriend and I married, we did not know what to do about (1) financial planning, (2) consolidating households, (3) paying taxes, (4) making investments, (5) knowing when to apply for social security; or (6) when to retirement. We found an excellent estate attorney who referred us to Kathy at Applied Advisor.
We are newlyweds and cannot believe we could find an excellent trust attorney and superb financial planner within months of marriage–
Kathy is a a top-​notch professional who has been very patient with us (and our long list of questions). We got as organized as possible so Kathy could give us the best advice, guidance, and options.
We feel so relieved after Kathy gave us sage advice and reasonable options.
We plan to be ready for tax season, too.
Thank you, Kathy! We are so very fortunate and grateful to have been referred to you.
You have earned our trust in you and
the 5 stars on Unilocal.
Cris and Susan

Hubby and I FINALLY got around to dealing with our cluster-​mess of assorted 401ks, stocks, IRA’s, savings accounts opened when we were teens, …you get the idea.
It took at least six months for us to finally track down Kathy Hentges.
I found her by cross-​referencing licensed financial planners on the CFP website against Unilocal reviews. It took a lot of work because most CFPs based in San Francisco want to work with the newly rich tech crowd, not those of us who are slow, steady savers. It was humiliating to be told that I didn’t meet a financial planner’s «customer profile».
Kathy had no «profile» and she had a DIY financial model which was also important to us. After hearing horror stories on the news about shady investors, we weren’t going to give someone total control of our financial future.
Our first visit with Kathy was a meet and greet. We liked her right away. She is passionate about financial planning, numbers and trending models. We agreed to work with her on two services — (1) Are we saving enough for retirement? (2) How can we streamline this assorted collection of investments into a solid performing portfolio?
She gave us a price range based upon hours. We signed the agreement and paid the deposit by credit card.
Our first service came it at the lowest number quoted. In order for her to review our investments, we dug through boxes and found copies of every investment, bank statement, mortgage, car payment, 401ks, …and uploaded them to a password protected client website. Two weeks later, Kathy met with us and showed us that we were slightly outside the ideal track for retirement. She used a computer model to show us our assets/​debts and investments related to retirement. We talked about different options and Kathy would make the changes in the model to show the impact. It took a very small tweak of moving money to different investments to get us right on track.
The second service came it right in the middle of her quoted range. She pulled the investment information from every one of our accounts (and we had lots of 401ks from so many jobs over the years). We reviewed the pros/​cons of each investment. She then suggested alternative investments based upon our individual risk tolerance. I wanted to take more risk so my suggestions were different than my husband who is more risk averse.
In the end, we walked away with a huge binder of all her models, suggestions, plans for next steps, etc… Kathy also sent us all the documents via her password-​protected website. We’ve already made plans to meet with her one year from now to review our financial situation and make tweaks.
I liked that Kathy worked alone and not in a huge firm because I really felt like I got personalized, caring service. She has a very focused practice and makes decisions on what she can do. If you read the negative reviews (I’m talking about you Rose Y.), you can see that Kathy offers great service but don’t blame a solo practitioner for not wanting to be your $ 99 H&R Block tax prep service.
Now I feel like a real grown-​up with a solid retirement plan!

Kathy has been preparing my husband and my taxes for over 10 years and doing a fantastic job with that.
Recently, she helped us put together a financial plan which included tax planning. This saved my husband and I a huge surprise this April as well as some likely penalties with the new same-​sex tax rules.
As some of the reviews point out, and I concur with, Kathy isn’t for everyone. I have time enough to gather my financial information together — but when I need to make long-​term, strategic decisions given my current financial position and long-​term goals — Kathy is an enormous help.
She stays current with the goings on in the financial and tax world so that I don’t have to.

I was a customer of Kathy’s for over 5 years. Through out working with Kathy, I find her organized but really non personable. I decided that what I needed in a tax accountant was organization, attention to detail and I shouldn’t judge them on being non personable. Kathy essentially got the job done, but she never went the extra mile to help me out. When i would email her with followup questions about returns, she would bill me for the amount of time it took her to answer the email to the minute…
Today I just received a form letter saying that she was cutting down clients who used her tax services (not spending enough $$). So after 5 years, she is not going to be able to do my taxes for me in 2013 (this is about 3 hours of work for her max) and cannot help me find a new accountant because everyone she knew were not taking new clients. But hey there are hundreds of accounting firms in SF, so good luck.
Honestly I didn’t expect much, but this is just the worst costumer service interaction I’ve ever had for someone who I pay over a hundred dollars an hour to. WTF? I guess this review doesn’t matter to her because she is cutting back on clients and not taking new clients, but if you’re thinking about using Kathy’s services, don’t.

I’ve worked with Kathy for a few years now, and find her service outstanding. She’s done portfolio reviews for me, evaluating my investments in accordance with my risk appetite, recommending ways to rebalance my investments. She is an independent, so she does not try to sell you any investments — which having dealt with the larger financial services firms in the past, is a welcome relief. She also does taxes too!

My situation is very straightforward. She worked quickly and met all deadlines. Too bad she moved to NJ! I may continue to work with her remotely.

Kathy was great. Unlike what some of the other reviewers have said, I found her to be personable and she spent a lot of time explaining everything to me. She helped me with some investments and I really trust her advice. It was clear that she is really knowledgeable. She will be honest with you, good or bad, so if that’s not what you’re looking for, then you should go elsewhere. For me, I want the person who is dealing with my finances to be a straight shooter who doesn’t candy coat anything… and I really love candy, so I think that says a lot.

Kathy was a referral from a friend who had been using her for a couple of years and had nothing but good things to say. I’m not rich by any means, but that wasn’t a big deal. Kathy works by the hour not by the size of your bank account, so people like me with only a little saved, but a decent income have somewhere to go.
She does a free first meeting to go over what you need and you can ask questions. There was no pressure or sales pitch which was nice. She gave me tons of paperwork to fill out and I had to bring in copies of all of my financial paperwork. We got together two times and now I have a plan!
She says upfront that you have to be a do-​it-​yourselfer and she not kidding. It was up to me to make all the recommended changes in my 401k and open a new IRA at the company she recommended to move my old IRA into. I also have to be the one to stick to the plan. It was easier then I thought. It actually feels good to take more control. She also got me to an estate planning attorney (the wonderful Susan at Jewel and Stoneman).

Kathy has done my taxes for the past four years. Not only is she a great person, but I can always count on her to do what’s right for my situation. I feel confident in recommending her services to anyone that is looking for a personable, practical tax preparer. I’ve also begun utlilizing her financial planning services because she is fee-​based, meaning I know she’s not trying to sell me a specific product so she can make money. That’s happened to me in the past and it doesn’t feel good to know that someone you trusted with your money didn’t care about you. You definitely don’t have to worry about that with Kathy — I like that she is helping me do what’s right with my money, but, almost as importantly, I appreciate that she educates me in the process.

Contrary to what you might read on her website, Kathy isn’t the right fit for someone who is just starting to build up their nest egg. On my second meeting with her, I left feeling terrible about my finances and about myself. I definitely felt I had been belittled because of how new all of the financial planning stuff was to me at the time. I wish she’d taken the time to explain some things to me, but it’s okay because my experience with her gave me the motivation to feverishly read a bunch of books about financial planning. And now my friends, most of whom are just starting to save and invest, are asking me for advice and resources.
If you’re not rich, but you can read, you don’t need a financial planner. Suze Orman taught me that. I’m well on my way with my savings and investments. Oh, and if you don’t have a crazy amount of assets, you don’t need a tax preparer, either. Seriously, DIY is a good thing.

Kathy Hentges is straight forward, easy going, practical financial advisor with very easy to follow advice and a plan that will work. My husband and I hired her to review and create a financial plan to achieve some short term and long term goals, and she was comprehensive in detail and advice. After follwing her advice for about 6 months, I feel a helluva lot more secure financially than ever.
I searched for financial advisors and talked to about three of them before I found Kathy, and everyone else was snotty if you didn’t carry a balance of over millions of dollars — Kathy is project fee based — which is great, and she expects you to do some of your own homework — it really comes down to you acting on her advice — and you need to provide some organization in your financial affairs that she demands of you. Totally organized and very trustworthy, she keeps on top of her game and is worth every penny she charges.