Financial Planner for the Westside of Los Angeles
Serving Westside LA · Santa Monica · Brentwood · Pacific Palisades · Mar Vista · Culver City · Venice
I'm Renee Cohen, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ based in Los Angeles, working with women and couples on the Westside and virtually across the country.
CFP®-Led
Women & Couples Focus
With over 11 years of experience working with women and couples in Los Angeles, I understand the financial terrain of the Westside: the cost of living, the real estate decisions, the equity compensation structures, and the tax environment that shapes every major financial choice. I bring your retirement planning, tax strategy, investments, and estate considerations into one structure — built around your actual situation, not a generic version of it.
Financial Planning for Women and Couples Navigating Real Complexity
Comprehensive guidance for women and couples on the Westside in their late 30s, 40s, and early 50s — managing equity compensation, significant real estate, and financial lives that have grown more sophisticated than their current plan accounts for.
A Planning Relationship That Evolves With You
A 12-month (and beyond) comprehensive planning relationship for Westside professionals who want a dedicated thinking partner — for everything from investments and retirement to equity compensation, taxes, and the significant decisions that come up along the way.
Focused Planning for a Specific Decision
A typically 3-month engagement for navigating a defined financial crossroads — a business exit, an equity event, a home purchase on the Westside, or a career transition — with a clear framework behind every decision.
Financial Planning Built Around the Westside's Financial Reality
The Westside of Los Angeles — from Santa Monica and Brentwood to Pacific Palisades, Mar Vista, Culver City, and Venice — is home to a disproportionate concentration of high earners navigating genuinely complex financial lives. Tech executives managing RSU vesting schedules. Entertainment professionals with variable income and residuals. Business owners weighing when and how to exit. Dual-income couples whose combined financial picture has never quite been pulled together into one plan.
What these clients share isn't an asset level — it's a mindset. They've been thoughtful and intentional about money. What they're ready for is a plan where all of it connects.
How I Help Connect Each Financial Piece
Retirement income clarity
Learn MoreKnow when work becomes optional on the Westside's timeline — accounting for real estate equity, equity compensation, and what it actually costs to live well here long-term.
Purpose-driven portfolio design
Learn MoreInvest in a way that reflects your goals and timelines — not concentrated positions in employer stock or reactions to market headlines.
Spending confidence
Learn MoreGet clear on what you can confidently spend in one of the country's highest cost-of-living markets — without second-guessing the long-term impact of every decision.
Strategic debt payoff decisions
Learn MoreNavigate significant Westside mortgage balances, refinancing decisions, and how debt payoff fits alongside investing and retirement funding.
Year-round tax coordination
Learn MoreManage the tax complexity that comes with California rates, equity vesting events, and multiple income streams — built into your decisions throughout the year.
Protection planning
Learn MorePut the right coverage in place for a financial life where income, assets, and obligations are all significant — and the cost of a gap is high.
Long-term asset transfer
Learn MoreClarity on how your assets, values, and wishes will be carried out for the people and causes you care about — coordinated with your estate plan.
Equity and exit coordination
Learn MoreNavigate RSU vesting, stock option timing, and business transitions with a clear plan for both the tax consequences and what comes next.
Financial Planning Questions I Hear Most on the Westside
Real estate and home equity.
Westside property values are significant — and for many clients, real estate represents a meaningful share of net worth. Whether the question is whether to buy, how to think about home equity in the context of the broader financial plan, or how a potential sale affects retirement and tax strategy, real estate decisions deserve to be evaluated as part of the full picture.
Equity compensation at tech and media companies.
RSUs, stock options, and ESPP participation are common across the Westside's tech and entertainment sectors. The tax and concentration risk implications of these events are significant — and the planning window around them is often shorter than clients expect. Getting ahead of equity decisions, rather than reacting to them, is one of the highest-value opportunities in this planning environment.
Variable and non-traditional income.
Entertainment professionals, independent consultants, business owners, and commission-based earners all face cash flow patterns that a conventional financial plan doesn't handle well. A spending and savings strategy built around variable income requires a different structure — one that builds in flexibility without losing discipline.
Dual-income household complexity.
High-earning couples on the Westside often have two sophisticated financial lives that have never been fully integrated — separate retirement accounts, different equity compensation structures, and financial goals that have been managed individually rather than together. Bringing both sides of the picture into one coordinated plan is often where the most meaningful progress happens.
Working With a Financial Planner on the Westside
I'm based in Los Angeles and work with clients across the Westside — in Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Mar Vista, Culver City, Venice, and surrounding neighborhoods — as well as virtually with clients across California and nationwide. Meetings happen in person or by video, depending on what works best for you.
If you've been looking for a financial planner on the Westside who understands both the financial complexity and the life behind it, the next step is a conversation.