We're an independent, fee-only fiduciary firm based in La Jolla, working with high-net-worth households across San Diego County.
The complexity here tends to come from four places. Founders and executives in life sciences and technology, paid substantially in equity that vests on a schedule nobody planned around. Physicians and academics whose careers are portable and whose retirement plans are not. Business owners whose largest asset is the thing they run. And households who bought property here decades ago and now hold an appreciated asset that dominates the balance sheet.
In every case the pieces pull on each other: a vesting schedule changes a tax year, a tax year changes what a gift should be, a property changes what an estate plan has to solve. Coordinating that is the work, and how we work sets out how we do it.
Most financial advice is written as though state lines don't matter. Four things here say otherwise.
Probate is expensive, and it is calculated on the gross value of an estate. Attorney and executor compensation follows a statutory sliding scale rather than being negotiated, and it is applied to the gross figure rather than the net. A mortgaged home in La Jolla is counted at its full value, not at your equity in it. The California courts publish how the process runs, and this single fact is why a funded revocable trust usually pays for itself here when it might not in a cheaper state. We wrote about the choice in do you need a trust, or just a will.
California does not levy its own estate tax, so the federal threshold is the one that governs. That removes a whole category of work other states require, and it moves the effort to where it actually pays here: basis, probate avoidance, and the federal exemption, which has moved repeatedly.
State income tax is among the highest in the country, and the Franchise Tax Board publishes the current schedule. Practically, it raises the value of everything that depends on timing: which year income is recognized, which account a withdrawal comes from, when a concentrated position is sold, and whether a charitable gift goes as cash or as stock. A decision worth a modest amount in a no-tax state is worth considerably more here.
Proposition 19 changed what happens to inherited property. The parent-to-child exclusion that once let a family keep a low property tax basis on an inherited home was substantially narrowed in 2021. For a household whose La Jolla property has appreciated for thirty years, that is not a detail; it can change what the next generation can afford to keep. The State Board of Equalization sets out the current rules, and it belongs in the same conversation as the rest of your estate plan.
If you're paid in restricted stock or options, concentration isn't a choice you made once. It arrives on a vesting schedule, and your career and your net worth end up depending on the same company at the same time. That's a real risk regardless of how good the company is, and California makes it more expensive to unwind, because the state taxes the income at one of the highest rates in the country.
Two pieces cover most of it: the decisions around RSUs and stock options, and how to reduce a position that has grown too large.
We're an independent registered investment adviser and a fiduciary. We don't sell products, we take no commissions, and we're paid directly by you at a rate agreed in advance. You can verify our registration yourself in the SEC's public adviser database, and we'd rather you did than took our word for it. The difference between a fiduciary advisor and a broker is worth understanding before you hand anyone your balance sheet.
We're at 7596 Eads Avenue, Suite 111, La Jolla, CA 92037, a few blocks from the cove, and you can reach us on (858) 217-5500. Meetings are by appointment, in person here or by video if that's easier. Most of our clients are in San Diego County, though we work with families elsewhere too. Being nearby is convenient, not a requirement.
A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Tell us what's on your mind and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right firm for it. Start there.
Cosmos Wealth doesn't provide tax or legal advice, and nothing here is a recommendation for your circumstances. California and federal rules on probate, property tax, and estate tax are set by statute and change; confirm current specifics with your CPA or attorney before acting.