important to allow self-doubt to slow her down.” –Evelyn Zohlen
in Transition?
especially if it's unexpected.
Comprehensive Wealth
Management
Taxes should not be one.
Founded in 2003, Inspired Financial™ is a fee-only Registered Investment Advisor providing comprehensive wealth management services. We strive to be the “kind of advisor our clients didn’t know existed” by providing a level of personal care and understanding that goes beyond expectations.
Your Trusted Partner Through Life’s Transitions
An Inspired Financial™ approach will enable you to:
- Help and protect your family
- Enjoy and maintain your lifestyle
- Plan ahead for the expected and unexpected
- Create a legacy
- Feel secure knowing that your financial affairs are in order
Our goal is to empower clients – primarily women and families – to feel comfortable managing their financial lives, especially during and after times of significant change. Our passion derives, in large part, from our own personal experiences with life-altering events.
We help you make the best use of the resources you have to benefit your life, your family and your community. “Wealth” is not just the money you have, it is your ability to use money to achieve the kind of life you want. We invite you to learn more about how we can benefit you and your family.
FAQs
Think about the uncertainties you face in the many facets of your financial life. From insurance to cash flow to investing to saving for your goals while still enjoying the lifestyle you want today, it’s a lot to navigate on your own. You need to make complicated decisions and each choice impacts other choices you face. Add to that the stress and anxiety of a major life transition—like divorce or widowhood—and it can all be a bit overwhelming!
What if you knew the right decisions to make? What if you could make those choices with confidence? Imagine having all those uncertainties identified, explained, and planned into actionable steps for you. Imagine if you had someone to walk with you through the financial decision-making process who is educated and experienced in helping people like you—someone who is an objective third party that puts your best interests first (as a fiduciary
, no less!) while helping you at every financial crossroads, ensuring you choose the right path.A fiduciary is a person who acts on behalf of another person, or persons to manage assets. Essentially, a fiduciary is a person or organization that owes to another the duties of good faith and trust. The highest legal duty of one party to another, it also involves being bound ethically to act in the other’s best interests. A fiduciary might be responsible for general well-being, but often it involves finances — managing the assets of another person, or of a group of people, for example.
That’s what financial planning can do for you. We’ll be there every step of the way, offering professional and highly-qualified advice no matter what goals you want to reach. Having a true financial plan built by a CFP® professional will give you even more confidence to help you create the life you want using the resources you have.
Most of our clients fall into two main groups: women and families.
Because we take a comprehensive or “holistic” approach to financial planning, our clients feel that we work with them rather than just their money.
One of the benefits of this approach is the help we provide clients as they face a transition from one life stage to the next. For our female clients, this might mean managing her financial affairs through life issues such as:
- Loss of a spouse or loved one
- Divorce
- Job/Career change
- Sale of a business
- Retirement
For families, these transition issues include children and grandchildren going to college, the move into retirement, family and relationship changes, caregiving and dealing with aging parents.
We offer clients a unique insight into the particular issues that concern them. For some, we act as an educator. For others, a coach or mentor. For most, we are an important catalyst and trusted partner that empowers them to take control of their financial lives.
Our job is to help you make the best use of the resources you have—to benefit your life, your family, and your community. We are not just talking about your money but the effect that it has on your life today and in the future, too.
To achieve the goals that are important to you, we have a disciplined and structured approach with all our clients
After many years of helping women and their families, we’ve determined that our services best address the financial challenges of those with $2 – $25 million of investable assets (the assets are a rough proxy for the complexity of their financial lives and are open to discussion). Our minimum annual retainer is $18,000 (billed $4,500 quarterly) and we are happy to provide a fee quote customized for your situation at our Discovery Meeting. We want to be sure our services make good financial sense for you, so we can help you maximize your “return on life.”
These fees are for all our Comprehensive Wealth Management services (no nickel and diming!).
To determine if we are a good fit, our initial consultation and Discovery Meeting are always complimentary.
Learn more about how to get started and what to expect here.
No! Inspired Financial helps people across the country. We can meet with you by phone, virtually (via Zoom or Skype), or in-person if you’re in Southern California (or, as needed in other parts of the country). Given the traffic here in southern California, even our local clients sometimes choose the virtual model for some of our meetings!
Anyone can call themselves a “financial planner” or a “financial advisor.” But only professionals who fulfilled the certification, education, training, and renewal requirements of the CFP Board can display the CFP® certification marks. That’s why it’s important to look for the CFP® designation when considering who to hire as your financial planner.
Here’s what’s required to be a CFP® professional:
Education – Complete a comprehensive course of study, which covers the financial planning curriculum approved by the CFP Board.
Examination – CFP® professionals must successfully complete CFP Board’s comprehensive examination, which tests an individual’s ability to integrate and apply their financial planning knowledge.
Experience – Three years of financial planning-related experience before one can use the CFP® marks.
Ethics – Ascribe to the CFP Board’s code of ethics and additional requirements as mandated. This includes the fiduciary standard or acting in the client’s best interest.
In addition, CFP® professionals must earn 30 hours of continuing education credit every two years to maintain their designation. In our ever-changing financial environment, this ongoing education is critical, and our planners regularly exceed the required hours.
Who We Serve
Most of our clients fall into two main groups: women and families.
Because we take a comprehensive or “holistic” approach to wealth management, our clients feel that we work with them rather than just their money.
One of the benefits of this approach is the help we provide clients as they face a transition from one life stage to the next. For our female clients, this might mean managing her financial affairs through life issues such as:
- Loss of a spouse or loved one
- Divorce
- Job/Career change
- Sale of a business
- Retirement
For families, these transition issues include children and grandchildren going to college, the move into retirement, family and relationship changes, caregiving and dealing with aging parents.
We offer clients a unique insight into the particular issues that concern them. For some, we act as an educator. For others, a coach or mentor. For most, we are an important catalyst and trusted partner that empowers them to take control of their financial lives.
Client Stories
We would love to share a few client stories with you to give you an idea of the types of real-life situations that we’ve navigated with our clients.
Over the years, we have been privileged to work with clients through the various “ages and stages” of their lives.
In fact, much of the planning we do involves helping people plan ahead for both the expected and unexpected. If we can contribute in even a small way to helping ease those life transitions, we feel we have done a good job. Often, our work spans family generations.
For example, our client Gini and her husband George came to us as a referral from her mother and father. We had been helping Gini’s parents with their planning since the mid-eighties and were happy to provide the same service to their daughter’s family. Sadly, both Gini and her mother Helen were widowed and turned to us to help them deal with their new lives. Helen ultimately had to move into an assisted living community, and we helped her and her family as they worked through the challenges of long-term care.
When Helen died, we helped Gini and her brother with this change. Recently, Gini has decided to move from a family home where she had lived for forty years into a 55+ community. Today, we continue to play an important role as she goes through yet another life change.
Gini is a terrific client because she views us as a partner in helping her make good financial decisions. She is collaborative and consults with us extensively during these important inflection points in her life. It is gratifying and a bit humbling to have been included in this journey, and it is exciting to know that we’ll be walking the path with her when she encounters her next transition.
Beth and Steve both held management positions in their respective companies.
When Steve had an opportunity to take an assignment in Australia, Beth retired (at age 60) and joined him in Perth. We helped “mind the shop” for them while they were overseas and ensured that not only their investments, but also every facet of their financial plan, remained on track. Steve enjoyed his work in Australia, but increasingly looked towards the day when he felt comfortable enough to manage his work on his own schedule and spend more time with Beth. This meant moving toward a retirement where he had control.
When the couple returned to the US, we worked with them to define this new life and some of the financial considerations that would create the life they wanted. In addition, we helped them navigate the complex process of consolidating many, varied employer-sponsored retirement plans and executive compensation packages. To provide them with even more comfort, our planning discussions showed Steve and Beth that they had plenty of resources to retire, travel, play golf, and spend more time with their young grandchildren. Steve and Beth looked at us as their partner in helping them use their financial resources to create the life that they wanted for the future.
While we have many individual clients, we also work with many families and generations.
Our clients, Julie and Peter, are at the stage where they have enjoyed great financial success in their careers, while raising their two children. As the kids grew into adults, we helped them start on a strong financial path that now includes their spouses. Today, Julie and Peter are at the point where work has become an option, and they are able to spend more quality time doing the things they really want to do like volunteering at their church and in their community.
Not only do we work with Julie and Peter, but in addition we were able to help Julie’s mother when she was widowed. We have also been able to meet both children in our role of managing their trusts. This provides us with a unique perspective through which we can provide help for three generations and be actively involved in discussions on how to pass not just wealth but values, too, from generation to generation. Wealth planning is truly a “family activity” and we are honored to share our insights, experience, and understanding as grandmother, parents, and children plan for the future.
When Wendy, 63, decided that she should sell her business after 30 years and transition to a new and exciting phase of life, her organization coach suggested that she contact us to help out.
Not only were we able to help her optimize the value of her company and exit smoothly from the business, we also helped her plan for the next phase of her life. This next phase included moving to Montreal, Canada to be near her son and grandchildren.
In our conversations with Wendy, we gained an understanding of those creative and volunteer opportunities that she had put on hold while she managed her business as well as the life issues, needs and concerns that she held for the future. We created a strategy that helped her maintain her standard of living and created a wealth plan that made her comfortable in her new life.
Team
The experienced professionals at Inspired Financial are well positioned to be your trusted long-term partners.
Our collaborative style is client focused and results oriented. We are a highly credentialed team that is passionate about continuing education to remain on the forefront of our profession.
Evelyn M. Zohlen, MBA, MS, CFP®
President
Read Bio →Evelyn M. Zohlen, MBA, MS, CFP®
President
My own life-changing transition inspired me to start Inspired Financial so that I could help other women and their families navigate their difficult life transitions and emerge confident, financially secure and empowered to deal with future life events.
Evelyn M. Zohlen, founder of Inspired Financial, has served on both the personal and the institutional sides of financial services for nearly 20 years. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas, her Master of Science from the Joint Military Intelligence College, and her Master of Business Administration (with a concentration in Finance/Portfolio Management) from Villanova University. Prior to founding Inspired Financial, Evelyn was a Relationship Manager at The Vanguard Group in Malvern, PA where she was the trusted advisor for clients with retirement plan assets ranging from $175 million to $500 million.
Evelyn is a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) professional and serves as Chair for the Financial Planning Association (the membership association for CFP® professionals with 23,000 members!). She served as President for the Financial Planning Association in 2019. She was an adjunct professor in the Personal Financial Planning Program at the University of California at Irvine and serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Investment and Wealth Management at UCI. In addition, she is a community leader who currently serves on the Board of Governors for the premier business club in Orange County, the Center Club. She has served on the Board of Directors for WomanSage, the Board of Directors for the American Poetry Review, and the President’s Council at Immaculata University. Evelyn is a frequent contributor to periodicals such as The Wall Street Journal, The Journal of Financial Planning, USA Today, Investment News, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Real Simple and Consumer Reports. Prior to entering the financial services profession, Evelyn served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force.
Evelyn is married to the fabulous Mark Prendergast who shares her passion for food, wine, running (it counters the food and wine), reading and travel. Her perfect vacation combines great food/wine before and/or after a race while visiting their three terrific kids and their spouses. Good times!
Fun Facts:
- During my service as a US Air Force intelligence officer, I had the thrill of “taking the stick” of an F-16 fighter jet during a nighttime mission.
- I ran a marathon (in costume!) with Mark in Bordeaux, France that included 23 Grand Cru wine tastings along the course.
- My favorite volunteer activity is providing pro bono financial planning for low-income women and their families. I rarely pass up an opportunity to help these ladies.
- I love public speaking—the bigger the crowd, the better! My largest “gig” so far was to an audience of nearly 3,000.
Mark L. Prendergast, MS, CPA, CFP®, CDFA®, MPAS®
Director of Tax Strategies
Read Bio →Mark L. Prendergast, MS, CPA, CFP®, CDFA®, MPAS®
Director of Tax Strategies
I’m a problem solver and pride myself on my ability to recognize tax nuances, evaluate complicated estate and tax planning issues and provide sensible easy-to-understand solutions that fit each unique client situation. 95% of financial planning has tax implications, and most wealth management firms do not have the estate and tax horsepower that we have at Inspired Financial.
Mark Prendergast has 40 years of experience in tax, estate and financial planning. He started his career working for Ernst & Whinney, then Price Waterhouse, before venturing out on his own in 1986. His education includes a Masters of Science Degree, Personal Financial Planning. Mark regularly teaches on income tax, estate and divorce topics at professional conferences (FPA, NAPFA, CalCPA, WealthCounsel, Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts).
Mark serves on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Financial Planning (2002-current) and on the Advisory Board for The Center for Investment and Wealth Management at the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine. In the past, he served on the national Board of Directors for the Financial Planning Association (FPA) from 2011-2013, as well as volunteering at local chapter, regional, and statewide FPA leadership positions.
Over his career, Mark has served many roles in non-profit organizations, including the Board of Directors for New Life for Girls (women’s recovery home), The Birthing Center (birthing advocacy group), Valley Christian Center (church), and Fresno New Connections (a substance abuse clinic).
Mark is married to Evelyn Zohlen, and they truly enjoy life’s adventures together from work-to-travel-to-Disney and beyond! They miss their three adult children who live too far away for his pleasure: Alison (MBA), Josiah (JD), and Martha May (RN/MSN), all successfully launched in their careers.
Fun Facts:
- I’ve run 20 marathons, including Boston in 2005 and Bhutan in 2017.
- Evelyn and I climbed Mt. Whitney in a day: 17 hours of marital bliss!
- I competed in international Frisbee disc competitions when I was in college.
- In 1976, I rode my bicycle from Boulder to Minneapolis with my best friend Luke. Later that summer, we hopped a freight train in Texarkana and ended up in Kansas City.
- I once got stuck in a tree while skiing, and my buddies had to untangle me.
Claire Thornton, CFP®
Lead Financial Planner
Read Bio →Claire Thornton, CFP®
Lead Financial Planner
I believe in fostering a relationship with your personal finances. Once you begin to understand what deeply matters to you, the way you put your dollars to use becomes an expression of those values. When you can orient yourself to view your spending as a reflection of who you are, you’re able to exercise control over how your money moves; there is great power in that.
Claire Thornton is the latest addition to our planning team and a newly-minted resident of Southern California. Claire is originally from Highlands Ranch, CO and has spent most of her life in the Philadelphia, PA area. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Muhlenberg College with a double major in Finance and English Literature.
Throughout her career, Claire has worked in both operational and financial planning roles in the financial services profession, allowing her to bring a holistic perspective to those we serve. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Claire has discovered a passion for navigating the financial complexities unique to women and families.
Professionally, Claire is an active member in national networks focused on elevating women in their respective fields and fostering interdisciplinary growth and learning. Personally, Claire is an avid runner set on exploring trails up and down the coast as she gets to know her new home state!
Fun Facts:
- I followed in my brother’s footsteps by running Track & Cross Country at Muhlenberg College, where we both still hold records in the men’s & women’s 4×800 meter relay respectively!
- I love to spend my dollars on special trips. After earning my CFP® professional designation, I took a two-week trip to Japan as celebration. Up next: I’ll be spectating at the track & field US Olympic Trials with my equally running-enthused parents.
- During my cross-country move from Philadelphia, my top priority was transporting hundreds of well-loved books…if you have any reading recommendations to share, I am always looking for something new to dive into!
Maria Castillo Dominguez, MS, CFP®
Lead Financial Planner
Read Bio →Maria Castillo Dominguez, MS, CFP®
Lead Financial Planner
Infuse your life with action. Don’t wait for it to happen, make your own future.
Maria Castillo Dominguez is a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) professional. She is originally from Spain and moved to the United States in 2010 after obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Master’s degree in Finance from the University of Sevilla.
Maria has over ten years’ experience in operations, compliance, personal banking and personal finance. She became interested in personal finance after she moved to the United States and realized the potential for helping others improve their lives. Maria most recently worked as a Financial Consultant with TD Ameritrade before transitioning to our firm.
Maria and her husband Brandon enjoy their free time hiking with their dog Lola, travelling, and spending as much time as they can at the beach.
Fun Facts:
- As a typical southern Spanish girl, I can dance flamenco and play castanets.
- My favorite hobby is travelling and going on new adventures. I have ridden a camel in the Sahara Desert and snorkeled with sea turtles in Hawaii, to name a few.
- I am a dog lover! I volunteer at dog shelters any time I can, and every dog I have had has been rescued from a shelter.
- I enjoy multicultural environments, and I am proud to say I have made friends from all over the world.
Christine Sun
Client Services Manager
Read Bio →Christine Sun
Client Services Manager
I think there’s nothing more amazing than helping others every day. One kind word can change someone’s entire day.
Christine Sun is our newest Client Services Manager and is a returning resident to Southern California. As a Client Services Manager on our team, she is a co-operational lead with our custodian, back office services provider, and other systems that support our work with our clients. She is also responsible for new account establishment, account transfer and rollover processing. Christine loves building relationships with clients and colleagues, but her secret super-power is expert troubleshooting for client concerns.
Christine brings over 14 years of Client Services and operational experience to the role from prior work as Client Associate at UBS Financial in Dallas, TX and New Business Manager at Armstrong Advisory Group in Needham, MA, before transitioning to our firm. She is originally from Dedham, MA, but has lived in Plano, TX and just spent the last few years back east living near family. Christine attended The University of Massachusetts at Boston majoring in Liberal Arts. She In her spare time, Christine spends time with her husband Alan and enjoys jogging, yoga, tennis and any day at the beach.
Fun Facts:
- If I was not a financial client service professional, my dream job would be becoming a personal private chef.
- While living in Texas I spent three plus years taking weekly tennis lessons to be able to play alongside of my husband. My goal was to win…
- Yoga enthusiast and currently learning the power of meditation.
- I always want to know your favorite book, and why!
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Warren Buffett
How We Help
Major transitions in life such as retirement, death, divorce, income fluctuations, or sudden wealth provide opportunities for us to help you smooth the passage through the financial life cycle.
To achieve the goals that are important and unique to each valued client, we have a disciplined and structured approach.
Our Comprehensive Wealth Management services will often involve insurance, tax and estate planning, and sound investment management. We have developed a consultative process that we follow with each client to ensure that our solutions meet your needs now and into the future as your life changes.
If you are a new or potential client, we want to spend time getting to know you to ensure that there is a fit between our firm and your circumstances and that our relationship is comfortable from the onset. We accomplish this goal be taking you through our New Client Process.
The one thing our clients have in common is a need for a partner who understands their unique situation and can help them understand their planning opportunities—both today and tomorrow.
Our job is to help you make the best use of the resources you have to benefit your life, your family, and your community. We are not just talking about your money, but the effect that it has on your life today and in the future, too.
Our comprehensive wealth management services include:
To achieve the goals that are important to you, we use a disciplined and structured approach with all of our clients:
To ensure that our partnership with you is a good fit, we offer a complimentary analysis of your current portfolio and total financial situation. Learn more about the fees for our work with you here.
Financial planning is a process designed to help you reach your specific long-term financial goals and improve your life. Understanding that one size does not fit all, we tailor our advice to your exact situation.
Since each piece of your plan impacts the other pieces, we consider all of your goals as a whole. For example, while many clients consider preservation of wealth as their first financial priority, they also want to minimize taxes, plan for the transfer of their wealth on their terms and make an impact on others through charitable giving.
Our advice is objective and unbiased, and with four CFP® professionals and a CPA on staff, we are uniquely qualified to address a myriad of situations. We also work with a network of professional experts, such as estate attorneys, to implement our recommendations.
Inspired Financial employs a variety of tax planning techniques. Here are a few strategies that we use to reduce your tax bill.
Roth Conversions
Tax-free for life is a wonderful thing. Roth conversions can be a key component to building your tax-efficient wealth. Roth IRAs grow and are distributed tax-free for you and your heirs.
Tax-Efficient Retirement Planning
In building your retirement plan, we focus on helping you save, invest and distribute in a manner tailored to your lifestyle. We build and manage tax-efficient portfolios and seek Tax Alpha using techniques such as tax-loss harvesting, opportunistic rebalancing and strategizing withdrawals from your tax-deferred accounts.
Charitable Giving
From simple and straightforward to the complex, we help find the charitable strategy that is best for your situation. Whether it be donating from your IRA, gifting appreciated securities, or using a Donor Advised Fund, we are your resource for all things philanthropic.
It’s critical that your wealth management plan have the right approach to managing your investment nest egg. After all, the money that you entrust with us represents the resources you will have to build the life that you want.
Your investments should be managed based on where you are in your life, not where the markets are!
We also understand that you want all of your money working for you. We pay particular attention to keeping fees as low as possible and to reduce taxes that may take money out of your pocket.
Inspired Financial is one of a select group of firms authorized to offer its clients investment strategies managed by Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), an investment partner who shares our investment philosophy and:
- Takes a disciplined and structured approach to identifying investment opportunities in all market conditions
- Bases their approach on an academic foundation, taking the “guesswork” out of investment management
- Does not try to time the market or speculate
While we have access to leading edge solutions and have gathered a cadre of professionals to undertake the design and implementation of your plan, we will always ensure that we have a clear understanding of your situation prior to making any recommendations.
We are inspired every day to help our clients use their success to achieve the kind of life they want. We believe that our work with our clients will help them enjoy simple and elegant lives through all of the ages and stages of their journey.
We make a point to spend the required time upfront to really get to know new clients to ensure that the relationship gets off on the right foot and that the initial plans that we put in place are the correct ones. Our initial Discovery Meeting is always complimentary and you can learn more about the fees for our work with you here.
Our new client process involves the following meetings:
Once a client, we have regular progress meetings at intervals convenient to you that provide us an opportunity to review any major changes in your personal or financial situation. If these changes mean that we need to make adjustments to your plan, we do so. We also review your overall progress toward your long-term financial goals.
After many years of helping women and their families, we’ve determined that our services best address the financial challenges of those with $2 – $25 million of investable assets (the assets are a rough proxy for the complexity of their financial lives and are open to discussion). Our minimum annual retainer is $18,000 (billed $4,500 quarterly) and we are happy to provide a fee quote customized for your situation at our Discovery Meeting. We want to be sure our services make good financial sense for you, so we can help you maximize your “return on life.”
These fees are for all our Comprehensive Wealth Management services (no nickel and diming!).
To determine if we are a good fit, our initial consultation and Discovery Meeting are always complimentary.
