Financial North Partners
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Tax-focused wealth management in the Santa Clarita Valley

Retirement is a series of irreversible decisions.

Most of them are made once, and most of them are hard to undo. We work with families in the years where those decisions come due, and we spend more time on taxes than on markets.

Schedule an Intro Meeting

Twenty minutes, virtual, and nothing to prepare.

Financial North Partners is a wealth management and financial planning firm based in Stevenson Ranch, in the Santa Clarita Valley. We work with families nationwide, though most are Californians or former Californians.

Credentials and custody

CFP®

Certified Financial Planner. A certification in financial planning held by advisers who complete coursework, pass an examination, and meet ongoing requirements.

AIF®

Accredited Investment Fiduciary. A designation in the practices and duties of serving as an investment fiduciary.

Custody at Charles Schwab

Client accounts are held at Schwab, an independent custodian. We do not hold client funds or securities.

Our View

Why we start with taxes

It is not what you make, it is what you keep. That is as true of investment growth as it is of income, because some share of every dollar a portfolio earns eventually goes to taxes, and how large that share is depends partly on decisions you make.

Most people come to us with a portfolio question. What should we own, how much risk is right, are we positioned correctly for what is coming. Those are reasonable questions and we answer them. But by the time someone is within a decade of retirement, the portfolio is rarely the thing that will change the outcome most. The tax decisions are.

The difference is that portfolio decisions are reversible and tax decisions usually are not. If an allocation is wrong, you change it. If you convert too much in a year when your income was already high, or you take Social Security at a moment that stacks badly against a required distribution, that year is closed. The cost is permanent and it compounds through every year that follows.

California raises the stakes further. The state taxes retirement income the way it taxes everything else, and the interaction between federal brackets, state treatment, and the timing of withdrawals produces outcomes that are not obvious from looking at any one of them alone. For clients who are considering leaving, the calculus changes again, and some of what matters has to be decided before the move rather than after.

So we build the tax picture first. We look at what the next ten or fifteen years of income actually look like, where the low-bracket years are, and which decisions have deadlines attached. Then we build the portfolio to fit that. It is a less exciting conversation than what the market did last quarter, and in our experience it is the one that matters more.

What we do

What we work on

  • Tax Planning

    We run projections across multiple years rather than one, so we can see where the low-bracket windows are and which decisions need to happen before they close.

  • Roth Conversion Strategy

    The years between retirement and required distributions are often the least expensive time to convert. We work out how much makes sense, in which years, and what it costs in the year you do it.

  • Relocation Planning

    A move out of California changes what gets taxed and when. Some of that depends on decisions made before you go, so we look at the years on either side of the move together.

  • Retirement Income

    The order you draw from accounts affects what you pay over a retirement, sometimes substantially. We build the sequence and revisit it as the tax picture changes.

  • Investment Management

    We manage portfolios at Charles Schwab, built around the plan rather than alongside it, with attention to where each asset is held and what it costs in tax to move.

  • Estate and Legacy Coordination

    We check that account titling and beneficiary designations match your documents, and we coordinate with your attorney so the plan and the paperwork say the same thing.

How we approach this work

Who we serve

Who we work with

  • Thoughtful about retirement

    You are already thinking about how the next phase works rather than waiting for it to arrive, and you want to understand the reasoning behind a recommendation.

  • A picture complex enough to matter

    There are enough moving parts, in income, accounts, or a business, that the planning decisions meaningfully change what you keep.

  • Open to a partnership

    You want an advisor you talk with over years rather than a transaction, and you are comfortable bringing us into decisions before they are made.

Process

How the first two conversations go

No cost, no obligation, and no expectation that you continue past either one.

  1. Intro

    A twenty-minute virtual conversation to see whether we are a good fit. We will learn about your goals and what prompted you to reach out, and we will tell you how we work and what we charge. No preparation is needed. Just come ready to talk about what you would like your money to accomplish.

  2. Findings

    Ahead of this meeting you will send us a few documents, and we will work through them before we meet. We will tell you what we found, what we think the real question is, and how we would approach it. Afterward, you will receive a written proposal covering the work we would do and what it costs.

Schedule an Intro Meeting

Before Findings

What we will ask you to send

  • Your most recent tax return
  • Your current investment statements

We do not need Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers, or full account numbers, so please black those out if you would prefer.

Case Studies

How the work looks in practice

These are hypothetical situations, not clients, built to show the kind of analysis a Findings meeting produces. The numbers are illustrative and rounded. Yours will not look like these, but the questions usually rhyme.

Recently retired

Staying in California with $2 million in an IRA

A paid-off house, $3 million invested, and two adult children who are already doing well.
The question was not whether the money would last, but how much of it would reach them.

Read the full analysis

Approaching retirement

Planning around an inheritance that may never arrive

Both 60, with $2.5 million invested and a decade of living in different cities ahead of them.
Planning around money that may not come is a decision in itself.

Read the full analysis

After a business sale

Unwinding a position that is half the portfolio

At 55, out of the business he sold, with more than half of $12 million in one stock.
Diversifying meant realizing gains on a very low basis, so the question was over how many years.

Read the full analysis

The examples shown are illustrative and do not represent any actual client. The situations are constructed, and the figures are rounded and chosen for illustration. They are not a projection, a recommendation, or an indication of results any client did receive or should expect to receive. Individual circumstances vary, tax rules change, and the analysis appropriate to one situation will not apply to another. Financial North Partners and NewEdge Advisors do not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting professionals before making decisions based on the strategies discussed.

Team

The people you will work with

Carl Ermelbauer, CFP®, AIF®

Investment Advisor and Managing Partner

Steven Levin, MBA

Registered Support Manager

About

Start with a conversation

The first meeting is scheduled for twenty minutes and there is nothing to prepare. We will ask what prompted you to reach out and what you would like your money to do. You will learn how we work and what we charge. If it is not a fit, we will say so.

Schedule an Intro Meeting

Twenty minutes by video. There is nothing to prepare.

Schedule an Intro Meeting