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August 2024 by jenn lam
Worked with Eileen for a one-off project and she was able to provide some practical guidance and to-do's to help us get our situation sorted. Easy to schedule with clear instructions to prepare. Thanks Eileen!
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July 2024 by Becky Lai
We met with Eileen Loustau from Asti Financial Management and it was one of the best financial decisions we've recently made. We've always managed our finances pretty proactively ourselves but now that we're in our early 40's and retirement doesn't seem like a lifetime away, we wanted to do a full "checkup" of what we've been doing and see if there were any blindspots or missed opportunities to better plan for the future and be more strategic with our investments. It was difficult to find a financial advisor that wasn't trying to pitch their stock tips or convince us to move all of our assets under their management or wasn't more geared towards young adults who are first setting out to create budgets and save for a downpayment on a house or paying off debt. We were referred to Eileen from an advisor at Edward Jones and were so grateful to find her! First we had a introductory call to make sure we were on the same page about what we needed from a financial advisor. Then we provided her with a rundown of all of our finances which was a helpful homework assignment for us to do in and of itself. Then we scheduled a 2 hour session with her (over video chat!) where she went through the various parts of her analysis to point out things that we should consider, a few actions items, and highlighted things that we might want to start planning for. I learned so much in this session and I majored in business/accounting in undergrad so I felt like I already had a pretty good handle on things. We got a much clearer picture in terms of our retirement planning and she answered all of my questions with nuance and detail and didn't dodge or defer any questions with a generic "it depends". She was able to provide different scenarios and examples of other clients she works with and she often grounded her answers in realistic situations and explained why there might be exceptions to a general rule of thumb. During the meeting she also reviewed all of our holdings in our 401K and investment portfolio to show us where we could be a bit more diversified. After our meeting she prepared a retirement analysis for us and was able to heavily qualify it with her own opinions about real estate investments. I'd highly recommend meeting with Eileen if you've been wondering if you could benefit from meeting with a financial advisor but didn't want to meet with someone who was trying to sell you on a service. Eileen was super sharp, full of helpful information, never pushy, and was patient and a great listener to really address all our concerns. The fees for her service were stated upfront, she was transparent about how many hours each task would take and I felt we got the most out of our time together. We would definitely reach out to her again when we need to make decisions around our finances or as we approach retirement and need to fine tune our strategy.
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November 2023 by Winston Struye
We had a fantastic experience with Asti Financial.
We had some specific questions about how we should plan out future and they were very helpful. Their advice was very reasonable and suggested more than a few ways to manage our money we wouldn't have even thought of.
They were also very transparent with their pricing and we feel we got what we paid for and more.
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November 2023 by Google user
We had a fantastic experience with Asti Financial. We had some specific questions about how we should plan out future and they were very helpful. Their advice was very reasonable and suggested more than a few ways to manage our money we wouldn't have even thought of. They were also very transparent with their pricing and we feel we got what we paid for and more.
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April 2023 by Sarah Lightfoot
I am single and divorced of modest means. Having Julie and her team’s counsel helps me rest easy knowing that I have a sound strategy informed by seasoned experience practitioners. I have savings and income goals that keep me focused and I do not get overwhelmed. Not only do I have a plan with an annual check up, Julie is responsive as I execute my plan. She makes adjustments in real time as the market changes as I make transactions. I rest easy and worry less about being single growing older.
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September 2022 by Virginia L.
Julie gives great advice and is very patient. My issue is with her is the billing. My advice would be to be super clear with Julie about how much you want to spend on her advice. We were partially at fault for not checking and rechecking how much we were going to be billed. She sent a pre-meeting form to be filled out. When we filled it out, she asked if we wanted her to look at it. I said yes. When I did that, I was, in effect authorizing her to charge us for looking at the form that she asked us to fill out. What we really should have done is ask her to ONLY look at our finances during the 1 hour meeting we had, NOT ask for a follow up to our meeting and state clearly that we could only afford to pay for 1 hour. Her fee of $900 is way morre than what we will make on the interest on the money we are investing. Lesson learned. For you, make sure the billing is SUPER clear and repeat your budget before any meeting or email. Other than that, she is super nice and very skilled.
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May 2021 by Ben G.
Just an update to my review of this company. I have been working with Julie for more than seven years now, and have continued to be very happy with the service she provides. Her billing policies and business model are very fair and ethical and she has always been very quick to respond to my email questions. I have also had great experiences during our consultation meetings. As would be expected in the profession, Julie is a quick thinker who keeps appraised of market conditions. But just as important, she will listen to you regarding your own philosophy and approach, and will incorporate this into all of her guidance. As such, I find that she makes helpful advice and suggestions that integrate well with your management strategy, without trying to push you in any particular direction. Her payment options include hourly rates, which is key if you don't want to have to pay an "assets under management" fee structure. Based on my experience, Julie is an outstanding financial advisor for anyone who wants to be involved in managing their own finances, and wants advice and counsel along the way.
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January 2021 by Vicki H.
I was deeply distressed and disappointed by the advise I received from Julie during the financial crisis. Based on my experience working with her, she is skillful and 'quick-on-her-feet,' yet over confident and too quick in making recommendations without a thorough and thoughtful discussion. And perhaps not sufficiently experienced in retirement planning to advise clients without thinking through the scenarios, options and caveats. I offered this feedback to here in the spirit of being helpful to her and her other clients. She never replied.
