When I left the corporate world and started doing contract work on my own I wanted someone to help me grow my retirement plan. A friend recommended Dave Magnuson and I haven't looked back. Dave is incredibly smart, knowledgeable and very easy to work with. He took the time to get to know me, my longterm goals and what I was comfortable with. He is great with communication and lays out options in a way that you understand but also feel empowered as you gain more knowledge of your financial health. After seeing my retirement portfolio grow we have now added financial planning for our children. We feel so secure with Dave handling all of our family's needs. Last summer my mom retired and back we went to Dave to make sure she was making the best decisions for her life during retirement and that she would have a comfortable financial future. My mom feels very stable in the decisions they made together and so appreciates the comfort level she felt with Dave during a huge life change. read more

David is exactly what I was looking for - an extremely bright guy (Stanford grad, Georgetown law) who can advise on and manage all of my financial needs. Not only can he manage IRA and other retirement accounts, he can advise on employer's 401k investment options (even though he can't manage them directly) and he can take care of estate planning and other family-related legal needs. He's super friendly and easy to talk to - not pushy or salesy, and very patient with questions. He makes complicated investment concepts easy to understand, and backs up his strategy with decades of data. read more

I needed someone who could help me manage my money, and I'm so glad I found David! David was a great teacher and was able to explain the market to me and his investment strategy in a way that was easy for me to understand. I get overwhelmed easily when it comes to all of the investment options out there and it has been hard for me to know what is in my best interest. I've talked to other financial investors who made me feel as though they were selling me something that was going to benefit them much more then it would benefit me. I can't tell you how refreshing it was the first time I sat down with David and he explained his take on investing in the most transparent and straightforward way possible. I've now achieved exactly what I set out to accomplish. I have a very sensible portfolio that performs well and is rebalanced by David and his team, I understand the strategy he has employed for me, and my net worth has continued to grow. Working with David has taken the edge off of investing, which will be just what the doctor ordered when the market inevitably cools. In the meantime I've enjoyed watching my portfolio grow in value and I'm relaxed about my financial future. read more

I highly recommend trusting David Magnuson for your financial advisory needs. For many years Dave has been a trusted advisor for me and my family on topics ranging from investments, real estate, estate planning, and start-up options agreements and acquisitions. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone else with his qualifications - a law degree with experience in estate planning and corporate transactions, and a financial planning certification. Dave recently designed a balanced portfolio for us to invest savings from the sale of our primary home. He was excellent when it came to listening to goals, risk tolerance and explaining the asset breakdown of his proposals along with fees and historical performance. He'll explain it as simply as my grandmother would want, or dive into standard deviations on 10-20-30 year best/worst scenarios if you prefer. He also analyzed one of our retirement accounts and recommended a new investment allocation that will save us around $50k in fees over the next 25 years. If there's something Dave doesn't know, he'll research it and find the information you need to make the best decision. read more

Others have noted that David is an unusual investment advisor, and I would like to second that notion. He has a sharp mind and a kind and patient personality. I had tons of questions for him, and he answered each and every one with a thoughtful response. My family has a longstanding relationship with a local bank, but I felt like I could do better, and the fees were high. It took a lot for me to break away and find an independent advisor. It's great to have a nice advisor at a well-established bank, but I if I want a nice dinner, I'll go out with my friends on my own dime. I've never been impressed by wining and dining. Give me substance! Working with David has been quite an education, and I'm happy to report that my family is considering following my lead. I found exactly what I wanted, an ethical advisor who can explain complex concepts clearly and who speaks frankly about fees and performance. In some ways I feel like the veil was lifted the minute I set foot in David's office. I've always found the inner workings of the stock market a bit mysterious, and I'll admit this has made me a bit fearful about investing in general. With David's help, I now have a solid grip on the fundamentals, and it's been liberating to relax and settle into a good investment strategy and let him lead the way. read more

David is a great fit for fellow investors with the fortitude to ignore short-term market craziness and focus on the end game. He is patient. He is smart. And his strategy is explainable, data-driven, and verifiable. Sometimes straightforward is the right answer. I have watched friends and colleagues work like crazy to outsmart the market. Derivates trading, futures and options, trading on margin, commodities, you name it. And I have watched them get burned time and time again. Portfolio performance with David has been very good, and I like having a sounding board for my financial concerns. I've been very happy with him as my advisor. I also like the fact that he owns his office and isn't going anywhere, and a recent shout-out in the New York Times made it clear I'm not the only one who considers him an expert. read more

David has been a trusted investment advisor for my family for several years. We are able to go to him with a variety of topics ranging from estate planning to our entire investment portfolio and he always gives sound and honest advice. But equally as important, he helps simplify some very complex and complicated concepts and makes them easy to understand. His knowledge of financial markets always gives good results. It was very important to us to find someone we can relate to and who's advice we can really trust, and we found that with David. He always gives us honest advice, timely feedback, and is really just a pleasure to work with. I look forward to working with him for many, many more years. read more

I found David after meeting with several investment advisors. Finding an advisor is not a fun process, so I thought I would share the criteria that guided me in the hopes it will help someone else make an informed decision. First, I wanted someone with broad experience, education and the skillset to manage my investments. David is not only a Certified Financial Planner, but also a practicing attorney. That's a very rare combination (in case you didn't know), and it would be hard to ask for a more educated advisor. I mean, Stanford, Georgetown and NYU, seriously? Oh, and Honors graduate from law school, Alumni of one of the top law firms in the world (no, really), experienced estate planning attorney, AND a partner at one of the top independent investment advisory firms in the nation. Second, I wanted an advisor who was the right age. Yes, I know this sounds like age discrimination, but I wanted someone who would guide me all the way into my retirement years (I just turned "40"). In short, I wanted someone who would be around for at least the next 2-3 decades, but not some freshly scrubbed 30-year-old who lacks life experience and perspective. David is in his 40s, has kids, and oozes common sense. Third, it was important to me that my advisor was a fee-only fiduciary. Only after some research did it become clear to me why this is so important. Traditional stockbrokers are not fiduciaries, and this means that they don't legally have to do what's in my best interests. As a fee-only advisor and a fiduciary, David does. Throw in attorney-client privilege, and David is subject to every ethics standard imaginable. I also like that he's a former naval officer and a gentleman. Combined with the fact that I can use Schwab as my custodian, and I feel very secure. Fourth, I knew what I didn't want, which was any advisor who would try to sell me an annuity or life insurance contract. Too many advisors peddle complicated garbage that produces poor returns and makes them wealthy in the process. David's investment philosophy is straightforward and incredibly effective. Beating the market on a fee-adjusted basis is very hard, and only a rare breed can do it over a long period of time. While I value David for much more than the returns he gets me, I have to say, I'm very pleased. Finally, I wanted someone who could put it all together for me and not only manage my investments, but also offer solid estate planning advice and financial planning guidance. Check, check, and check! One thing to keep in mind is that David has a $500k minimum for assets under management. Most advisors I interviewed have a similar requirement, and many require more than $1M. Those that accepted less than $500k seemed to lobby hard for creative investments with sky-high fees, which struck me as a terrible idea. I got the impression that David is very careful about who he takes on as a client, and I found this comforting. He is not sales-y in the least, and while he is warm and welcoming, I sensed he was also evaluating whether we would be a good fit. I'm glad I found David, and I look forward to working with him for many years. read more

When I decided to make a major shift in my investment strategy I found Dave to be the perfect fit for my needs. I don't consider myself a particularly savvy investor, but I've been both steady and fortunate and have done well over the years. Before I made the decision to have Dave manage both my retirement and investment accounts, I talked with other people who were using Dave. Their recommendations were all stellar and after working with him for a while, it is clear to me why. Dave has a strong background in estate planning and family law (he is a lawyer) and I trust his expertise and honesty completely. But I've also found a lot of other experts out there. From my point of view what distinguished Dave from several other planners I've both talked with and worked with over the years was he put his energy into really understanding my needs, and particularly my fears, rather than trying to impress me with his expertise and razzle-dazzle me with his proposals. He explained his proposals to me in a way I could easily understand them, taking as much time as I needed to feel comfortable with any issue or question. Probably the most important recommendation I can make is this: I trust Dave with my life savings. read more

David was a pleasure to work with from start to finish. I have a background in finance and investing myself but I no longer enjoy micro managing the bulk of my own portfolio. Unlike other advisers I've used he had nothing to hide and gave me realistic knowledgeable answers to all my questions. He fully understands the principals and challenges involved with long term growth investment. The process of transferring my various accounts to his fund was the smoothest I've experienced as well. I initially chose David because an associate told me what an intelligent, honest and well educated guy he is. I was not let down at all. Five stars. read more