Gnarledoak Financial

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Gnarledoak Financial We provide financial solutions for retirement so you can live with less worry and more confidence. Our secret goal? How can I best plan for college expenses?

At GnarledOak Financial, we believe in building something lasting—financial plans as strong and resilient as the gnarled oak tree that inspires our name. Backed by nearly two decades of experience, we provide personalized, holistic financial planning designed to prepare you for whatever life may bring—so you can live the life you’ve always imagined, with greater confidence and less worry. We’re here to guide you from being a successful saver to becoming a successful spender—helping you turn your hard-earned savings into a sustainable and fulfilling retirement income. More than just numbers, our focus is on living: on helping you realize a retirement that reflects your values, passions, and lifestyle goals. Our Philosophy
We don’t believe in chasing "more" for its own sake. Our planning is goal-oriented and tailored—bespoke strategies that reflect your unique circumstances and dreams. Whether you're preparing for retirement, planning your legacy, or just looking to simplify your financial life, we take the time to understand you first: your goals, your risk tolerance, and your personal values. We also understand that life is dynamic, and that support shouldn’t feel transactional. As one Rolex executive once said, “Scarcity is not a business model.” That ethos guides us—we are here for you when you need us, with the service-first mindset you deserve. Inspired by the concept of “unreasonable hospitality,” we’re committed to delivering an experience that is both thoughtful and exceptional—whether you become a client or simply come in for a conversation. To have someone tell us we’re awesome every day—and to earn it through outstanding service, clarity, and care. What We Offer
We believe in a team-based, relationship-driven approach that provides greater perspective and support. Our services include:

Personalized Financial Planning
Retirement income and distribution strategies
Investment planning and portfolio design
Estate planning and legacy strategies
Risk management and insurance analysis

Common Questions We Help Answer:
Can I retire early—and stay retired? Are my investments working hard enough for me? What’s included in a sound estate strategy? Do I have enough life insurance to protect my family? We’ve helped many individuals and families just like yours navigate similar concerns. Every plan we build is as unique as the people we serve, designed with purpose and guided by your vision for the future. The GnarledOak Experience
Above all, we want you to feel taken care of. Whether you’re meeting with us for the first time or have been a client for years, our goal is to create a relaxed, luxury experience that puts you at ease while delivering clarity and direction. Long-term, honest relationships form the foundation of our success—and we look forward to building one with you. Securities and investment advisory services offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc. member FINRA/SIPC. Osaic Wealth is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Osaic Wealth. Osaic Wealth does not offer tax or legal advice. For full disclosures, please visit www.gnarledoakfinancial.com. The third-party comments displayed are not verified, may not be accurate and are not necessarily representative of our client experience.

Fidelity's 2025 wealth transfer study found that roughly 67 percent of parents age 55 and older have never told their ad...
10/16/2026

Fidelity's 2025 wealth transfer study found that roughly 67 percent of parents age 55 and older have never told their adult children what they will inherit, or whether they will inherit anything at all.

About 33 percent would prefer the kids are kept in the dark about the amount.

Their reasons should feel familiar:
✔️ Worry that a specific number will dampen a child's drive
✔️ Discomfort talking about money at all

The same study found:

Most adult children say they are ready to handle whatever they inherit and would rather shape things while their parents are still around to explain the "why" behind decisions.

Families who have inheritance strategies share some similar habits:

💬 Kids know who the financial professionals are and how to reach them
💬 Everyone knows where the estate documents are
💬 They try to manage any surprises well ahead of time

So, do you tell your children or not?

There's no single right answer here.

Sharing exact numbers isn't necessary, but most families find that a broad discussion can help with priorities and expectations.

If you've got documents that need shredded and you let the pile build up - Join us this Saturday morning. We'll have a S...
10/14/2026

If you've got documents that need shredded and you let the pile build up -
Join us this Saturday morning. We'll have a Shred company on-site

A mother in California picked up the phone and heard her daughter's voice, panicked, saying she'd been kidnapped and nee...
10/14/2026

A mother in California picked up the phone and heard her daughter's voice, panicked, saying she'd been kidnapped and needed money immediately.

What she'd heard wasn't her daughter. It was an AI-generated clone of her voice.

In a 2025 study, scientists found that when people heard a cloned voice, they correctly identified the voice as AI-generated only about 60 percent of the time.

The FBI attributed more than $890 million in 2025 losses to AI-enabled fraud, and voice cloning is one of the main drivers behind that number.

It is not only older adults being targeted. Younger family members get these calls too, often framed as a sibling or friend in trouble. Older adults just tend to lose the most per incident.

Two ways to protect your family.

🔐 Agree on a private code word or question with the people a scammer is most likely to impersonate (kids, parents, spouse)

📞 If a call like this comes in and you have not set up a code word yet, hang up, then call the real person back

When in doubt, slow down and verify.

⚠️ Money is one of the most consistently cited sources of stress in America.For caregivers, that weight often increases!...
10/10/2026

⚠️ Money is one of the most consistently cited sources of stress in America.

For caregivers, that weight often increases! 😮

Having a clearer picture of where things stand can help ease some of the uncertainty that makes financial stress feel heaviest in the first place.

There's no clean solution to money stress.

Most of it is caused by the unknown. The uncertainty.

World Mental Health Day recognizes just how deeply finances can impact our well-being (and vice versa).

If financial stress has been sitting in the background of your life this year, a conversation with a professional can go a long way, be it a mental health professional or a financial professional. Pursuing comfort, understanding, and compassion is a team sport.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an opportunity to prioritize health.Early detection through regular screenings is one o...
10/09/2026

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an opportunity to prioritize health.

Early detection through regular screenings is one of the most effective tools we have in the fight against breast cancer.

Here are a few small things we can do this October:

✅ Schedule your annual screening if you haven't yet

✅ Educate yourself and others on risk factors and preventative lifestyle habits

✅ Support research and organizations dedicated to advancing breast cancer prevention and care

Taking charge of your health today makes all the difference for tomorrow. 🎗️

There's a reason so many women business owners half-joke that their real title is "everything."More women than ever are ...
10/07/2026

There's a reason so many women business owners half-joke that their real title is "everything."

More women than ever are starting and running businesses, and they're doing it at a faster clip than the market overall.

Census data show women now own more than 14 million businesses nationwide, a number that's grown 26 percent since 2012, compared with 19 percent growth for businesses as a whole.

A lot of that growth is happening online, where women-owned businesses tend to be more digitally integrated than those owned by men.

It also means millions of women are managing key decisions from scratch:

💼 How income gets paid (salary, distributions, or owner draws) and what that means at budget time

💼 Which retirement vehicle fits, and how much room there is to contribute

💼 How healthcare, disability, and other insurance get sourced without an employer default

💼 How the business gets valued, and what a sale or transition would actually look like

💼 How personal finances stay untangled from the business's finances

Wearing a tall stack of hats doesn't make entrepreneurship harder than it's worth. Plenty of women running these businesses would say the trade-offs are part of the deal. But it does mean the hats keep stacking up, one on top of the other.

This month is a good time to tip our own hats to the women doing it all at once.

Cyber criminals pay extra attention to accounts tied to money.A 2026 FBI study found that over 12,400 of those victims l...
10/05/2026

Cyber criminals pay extra attention to accounts tied to money.

A 2026 FBI study found that over 12,400 of those victims lost more than $100,000 each, and the average reported loss across elder fraud victims that year was $38,500. Here are a few habits to fine-tune your digital security this month:

🔐 Turn on multi-factor authentication everywhere it's offered. Yes, it’s annoying, but according to a 2026 CISA report, using it makes an account roughly 99 percent less likely to be broken into. It only takes a minute to set up.

🔐 Give every account its own password. Reusing one password means one leaked login unlocks everything else. A password manager handles this without requiring you to remember dozens of them.

🔐 When you go to the dentist, put a reminder on your calendar to also change your passwords. Changing passwords often makes your accounts just that much harder to reach.

🔐 Pause before clicking. Phishing remains the most commonly reported cybercrime in the country, more than any other category the FBI tracks.

🔐 Check statements regularly, and turn on account alerts. Catching something small and wrong early is a lot easier to unwind than catching something large and wrong months later.

🔐 Consider freezing your credit if you're not actively applying for new credit or loans. This takes 15 minutes, one time.

None of this requires becoming a security expert. Pick the one or two that you've been putting off, and do it this week.

What’s one financial decision you’ve made that helped you feel more prepared for your future?For many of the people we w...
10/02/2026

What’s one financial decision you’ve made that helped you feel more prepared for your future?

For many of the people we work with, it’s not a single investment or product; it’s taking the time to create an overall strategy.

🗓️ October is Financial Planning Month—which is all about how the pieces of your financial picture fit together to help pursue your financial goals.

It's about putting together a comprehensive approach that manages your investments and retirement, provides for your loved ones—all while staying flexible enough to adjust as things change.

💡 If you’ve been meaning to update your strategy or to create one for the first time, it’s never too late to start.

Don't miss this — watch this helpful video now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsJTZwHXgio

Some financial decisions get a second chance. A handful don't.▪️ When you actually retire. In EBRI's 2026 Retirement Con...
10/01/2026

Some financial decisions get a second chance. A handful don't.

▪️ When you actually retire. In EBRI's 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, 46 percent of retirees left the workforce earlier than they expected.

▪️ Stepping into a parent's finances. A 2026 Care.com report found sandwich-generation caregiving duties typically begin around age 34.

▪️ Receiving an inheritance. Ohio State research found nearly one in five people who inherited $100,000 or more had spent or lost the entire amount within two years.

▪️ Selling a business. For a typical owner, roughly 80 percent of their net worth is tied up in the business itself, per the Exit Planning Institute.

▪️ Writing (or updating) a will. Only 24 percent of Americans currently have a will, down from 33 percent in 2022, according to Caring.com.

None of these moments announce themselves on schedule. The families who handle them well are usually the ones who started talking years before circumstances forced their hand.

Will your future income keep pace with the life you are preparing for?In October, the Social Security Cost-of-Living Adj...
09/30/2026

Will your future income keep pace with the life you are preparing for?

In October, the Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2027 will be announced.

The annual adjustment is designed to help benefits keep up with inflation, but the same principle can be applied more broadly.

Your retirement income may need to be adjusted as your life, expenses, and priorities change.

Healthcare, insurance, travel, home maintenance, and support for family members can all affect the income you may need to generate.

Ask yourself:

▪️ Has your expected retirement spending changed?
▪️ Are certain future expenses rising faster than you thought?
▪️ Does your income strategy account for inflation?
▪️ Are you strategizing for the lifestyle that you budgeted for years ago?

A thoughtful retirement income strategy should evolve as your life and expenses change.

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1101 Standiford Avenue Ste C2
Modesto, CA
95350

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 1pm

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