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Comprehensive Fee-Only Financial Planning in Los Angeles, CA




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What Makes Us Different


Truth

Truth

Honesty leads to results.  We are not going to tell you what you want to hear just to win your business.

Simplicity

Simplicity

The most important part of your financial plan is execution.  We won’t unnecessarily complicate it.

Transparency

Transparency

It will always be clear how our advice, investments and strategy, aligns to achieve your financial goals.  Everything is based off your personal financial plan.



If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

Albert Einstein

You are only 3-steps away from financial peace-of-mind


Calendar

1.Schedule A Call

Call or email us to take the next step.

Discuss

2.Discuss Your Dreams

Let’s talk about your dreams, why they are important to you, and how we can help you achieve them.

Action

3. Take Action

Begin the discipline of moving towards a comfortable, confident future.

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.

Confucius

Defining your goals and creating a plan to achieve them.


Retirement

Retirement Goals

When it comes to planning for retirement, it’s hard to meet goals you haven’t set. We help busy and successful people simplify and organize their financial lives. We’ll help you set those goals and put you on a path to realize them. 

Education

Education Planning

Planning for your children’s education may be one of your most important goals as a parent. We’ll provide you with peace of mind by looking out for the futures of your loved ones.

Tax & Estate Planning

Tax and Estate Planning

Nobody likes paying taxes. We invest in a low-cost, tax-efficient manner, harvesting tax-losses when appropriate. In addition, we’ll coordinate with your CPA and Trust Attorney to ensure you take advantage of all relevant deductions and strategies.  If you do not have those existing relationships, we can bring in those professionals.

Asset Protection

Asset Protection

We don’t sell insurance - so when we make suggestions, you’ll know that it’s not influenced by commissions. We can analyze and evaluate your life, disability and long-term care insurance needs and help you determine if you have enough, too much or the right type.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Winston Churchill

Independence. Integrity. Intelligence.


Darrach Mc Carthy, MBA Photo

Darrach Mc Carthy, MBA

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Darrach McCarthy

When I was 14 years old I read Huckleberry Finn and was changed forever.  The idea of rafting down a huge, vast river, thousands of miles long, mesmerized me.  In Ireland, where I was born and raised, the country itself was only 300 miles long.  I knew there and then I wanted to emigrate to the United States.  

After completing my undergraduate degree in Dublin, I set off on my adventures.  I lived and travelled throughout Australia and Asia for three years.  In 1998, I started my MBA at University of Melbourne and finished it at USC in Los Angeles.  After graduation, I started work at Merrill Lynch in Beverly Hills where I met my current business partner Larry Fernandez.  After 10 years, we decided to start our own firm – another sense of adventure.  

My goal for my clients, and what I really love about my job, is that you can have a genuine, practical impact on the quality of people’s lives.  Financial independence is not just about money – it is about freedom.  The freedom that a person earns because of the choices they made earlier in their lives.  Every time a client saves, or makes a positive financial decision, they are gifting themselves a future moment of freedom.  That freedom can be in many forms – the ability to travel, work for joy not necessity, live where you choose or help a cause or person dear to them. In every case the dynamics are the same – by doing small positive actions in the present, we can open a world of great opportunities and rewards in the future. Glorious Independence as Shakespeare once wrote.

Helping our clients plant those initial seeds, working with them as they grow, and being there as they blossom over many years, is to me, the best return on investment of them all.

I live in Santa Monica with my wife and young son.  Though my playing days are long gone, I love the game of rugby as well practicing Aikido and riding my bike.  I also teach Money 101 at UCLA Extension. 

Larry Fernandez, CIMA® Photo

Larry Fernandez, CIMA®

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Larry Fernandez

One of the greatest services a financial adviser can provide to clients is helping to ensure that in times of market turbulence, reason, discipline, and objectivity triumph over emotions such as fear, greed, and regret.

With over 20 years of experience in the financial industry, I co-founded Victus Capital Wealth to provide the advice and guidance that clients deserve. My goal and greatest pleasure is having the privilege of helping clients avoid critical financial mistakes by bringing clarity to their financial lives and helping them see how the seemingly small financial decisions they make every day can affect their future in big ways.

I currently reside in West Los Angeles with my wife, Jae and my two boys, Ryan and Jake. When I’m not working, you can usually find me coaching soccer or basketball. I enjoy being outdoors and currently trying to figure out the game of golf.

I received my bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles. I also completed the IMCA® Investment Management Analyst Program at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (Certified Investment Management Analyst SM CIMA®). 

Mary Kusnic Photo

Mary Kusnic

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Mary Kusnic has over twenty years of experience as a wealth management professional, working with mid-market, emerging and growth-oriented companies, including private and public financing. She provided administrative and portfolio management services for Registered Investment Advisors, Business Managers, Non-profit Organizations, High Net Worth Individuals and Families, Family Offices and Corporate Clients.

As a consultant to Institutional and High Net Worth Clients and Families, her work includes retirement and estate planning, wealth and liquidity management, philanthropic and tax-advantaged strategies; and, asset management for tax exempt asset pools including Foundations, Corporate and Private entities, Public Pension and Taft Hartley organizations.

She works actively and in close collaboration with clients’ advisors including business, real estate, CPA,tax accountants, trust and estate attorneys. She utilizes asset liability analysis and LDI strategies in her work to assist in developing asset allocation, investment strategy, and risk identification and to improve overall budgeting and operating efficiency.

With a philanthropic focus, Mary has consulted with charitable organizations. In this capacity, she assisted organizations in the implementation and expansion of mission related trust and estateprogramming to expand the charity’s planned giving area. While working in this capacity she developedprograms ‘For Women, By Women’ which focused on investment, financial, estate and retirementplanning information and education. She is active speaking and instructing on investing, retirement and estate planning and all aspects of financial planning.

Mary is a founding member and past Chair of the Entertainment Industry Business Council (EIBC). The organization promoted and worked on behalf of the Entertainment Industry by enhancing knowledge, creating business relationships, and advocating for the industry and the economic benefit for our region.

Mary is also a member of the Century City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and serves on the Entertainment, Law and Business Council and the Government Affairs Council. She serves on the Westfield Construction Committee and representing Century City, she holds Seat 11 on the Westside Neighborhood Council. She was a founding member of the Century City Alliance of Homeowners Board. She actively participates with area groups and philanthropic organizations, including event andcommittee chairs. She also served on the Mayor’s Anti-Piracy Council.

Mary holds the 7, 22, 63 and 65 licenses and is a CFP candidate. Prior to joining Victus Capital Wealth,Mary was with Beverly Hills Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley’s Private Client Group in Beverly Hills, CA.

Bobby Jones Photo

Bobby Jones

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Bobby Jones

I started my career in wealth management in 1997 as an intern at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter while attending Villanova University.  I was instantly hooked on the profession.  Upon graduating from Villanova, I was offered a position at The Firm Inc., a leading talent management company based in Beverly Hills.  During my tenure at The Firm I developed  sponsorship opportunities for our clients.  It took three years in the entertainment business for me to realize it wasn’t my calling.  I then decided to return to work full time at Morgan Stanley, and worked there until 2011.  I decided to leave Morgan Stanley and join Beverly Hills Wealth Management.  I spent three years at BHWM, until I decided that Victus Capital Wealth would be a much better fit for me.

I reside in Hermosa Beach, and in my free time I enjoy playing beach volleyball, skiing and golfing.

Plan for your future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life.

Mark Twain

Important Questions You Should Ask


 

+ Are you a fiduciary? What does that mean for me?

 
  

+ What is your investment philosophy/approach?

  

“A penny saved is a penny earned” - Ben Franklin 

“The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest” - Albert Einstein.

“Far more money has been lost by investors trying to anticipate corrections, than lost in the corrections themselves” -  Peter Lynch

Timing the market is not only impossible, it costs you real money. The Dow has gone from 66 in 1900 to about 28,000 today – and yet, by trying to time the market, people managed to lose money investing over that period.

At Victus Capital Wealth we understand this.  There is no free lunch.  We would never insult you by saying that there is.  Beware of those who do.  We don’t play that fools game.

Your retirement will depend on two things:

  • How much you save.

  • How you react to bear markets.

Everything else is marginal.  Without the first you won’t have anything to invest. Flunk the second, and your returns will be abysmal.

Our job is helping you understand and cope with volatility.  The foundation for this will be our financial plan.  Investments are a tool to achieving your goals and not an end in themselves.  We don’t try and force the investment envelope but stay prudent and let the power of time and compounding do the work.

Simple and effective – stay the course, chose quality, be patient, act intelligently.
 

+ How are you different from other financial advisors?

  
 

+ What are your potential conflicts of interest?

 
 

+ What does comprehensive financial planning mean?

 
 

+ HOW MUCH CONTACT SHOULD WE EXPECT?

 
 

+ Why would I choose you as my advisor and not do it myself?

 
 

+ Bottom Line: Why should I work with you?

 

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.

Jane Goodall

Let's get started.


Whether it’s meeting us in-person or reaching us by phone or email, we’re ready to help you get started. Virtual meetings are available upon request.