Wealthstone Welcomes Zane (Zakie) Gardezy, CFP®, and Zahed Rahimi, CRPC™, as Founding Partners

Wealthstone Private Wealth Management is pleased to announce that Zane (Zakie) Gardezy, CFP®, and Zahed Rahimi, CRPC™, have joined the firm as Founding Partners and Wealth Advisors.

Both advisors were personally selected by Zak Gardezy, CFP®, the firm's founder, and will work closely with him as Wealthstone builds its presence across Arizona, California, and beyond. Their addition brings experience and planning capability to the team, and it expands the firm's capacity to welcome new client relationships thoughtfully.

Zane (Zakie) Gardezy, CFP®Founding Partner & Wealth Advisor Zahed Rahimi, CRPC™Founding Partner & Wealth Advisor

Built on Experience, Driven by a Different Vision

Zak Gardezy founded Wealthstone in 2024 with a clear aim: an independent firm with the investment depth, planning expertise, and resources of a major institution, and the personal attention and accountability of a boutique practice.

The foundation is older than the firm. It rests on more than a decade across banking, risk management, and private wealth management. Zak began his career in private banking and later served on a multibillion-dollar wealth management team recognized by Forbes as a Best-in-State Wealth Management Team. That experience shaped his view of what affluent families need from an advisor, particularly as their finances grow more complex.

Rather than a traditional investment management practice built around portfolio performance, Zak built a firm where investment management, tax strategy, retirement planning, estate considerations, and major financial decisions are evaluated together, and each recommendation serves a broader purpose.

Since its founding, Wealthstone has grown through its specialized approach and through introductions from clients and professional networks. Today the firm serves affluent individuals, executives, families, and business owners, particularly those whose circumstances call for more than conventional investment advice.

A Specialized Approach to Concentrated Wealth

In 2025, Zak published Secrets From a Wealth Advisor: 4-Stage Methodology For Diversifying Concentrated Stock Tax Efficiently, the first installment in a book series.

The book addresses a difficult planning problem for highly compensated professionals, particularly in technology: how to diversify a large appreciated stock position without unnecessarily triggering significant capital gains tax.

For executives, early employees, and long-term shareholders, a concentrated position can represent years or decades of wealth accumulation. Many carry substantial unrealized gains. The choice then looks binary: stay exposed to a single company, or sell and accept a potentially large tax bill.

The methodology evaluates investment, tax, and legal planning frameworks to identify strategies that may allow clients to diversify their holdings while reducing, deferring, or in certain circumstances eliminating specific capital gains tax liabilities. It also considers broader income tax efficiency, investment risk, liquidity, and estate and legacy objectives.

This specialization has become central to Wealthstone's identity among executives and professionals in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and other markets where wealth is built through equity compensation. It also underpins the firm's planning for business owners approaching liquidity events and affluent families approaching retirement.

Meet Zane (Zakie) Gardezy, CFP®

Founding Partner & Wealth Advisor

Zane brings more than a decade of financial services experience across banking, mortgage lending, and wealth management. His roles have included positions at Chase, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley. He earned his degree in Financial Planning from Arizona State University and holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification.

Zane's approach is comprehensive planning. He looks beyond the portfolio to the decisions, responsibilities, and ambitions that shape a family's financial future, and he aims to understand the complete picture before making a recommendation, whether the question is retirement readiness, portfolio strategy, or a major family decision.

Zane is also expected to help lead the development of Wealthstone Mortgage, a planned expansion of the platform focused on residential lending and mortgage financing, subject to applicable licensing and regulatory requirements. The aim is to give clients access to competitive lending solutions and experienced mortgage guidance within their broader wealth management relationship.

Meet Zahed Rahimi, CRPC™

Founding Partner & Wealth Advisor

Zahed brings a background in financial services, wealth management, and firsthand business experience in the San Francisco Bay Area. He previously served as a Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch and has helped operate his family's business in California, which gives him a practical understanding of the decisions business owners face. He earned his bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management from California State University, East Bay.

Zahed holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC™) designation, awarded by the College for Financial Planning. The credential focuses on the challenges individuals face before and during retirement, including retirement income planning, investment management, tax considerations, and estate planning.

For many professionals and business owners, retirement is not simply a matter of having enough assets. It is a question of how those assets support a lifestyle, how withdrawals affect taxes, how risks change over time, and how wealth ultimately benefits future generations. Zahed's planning addresses these considerations together, helping clients move from accumulating wealth to preserving, managing, and eventually distributing it.

One Philosophy, One Standard of Service

Adding advisors matters. Holding the firm's standard matters as much.

Zane and Zahed are completing an intensive, multi-week training program that Zak designed and leads personally. It covers the firm's planning process, portfolio construction and investment strategy, concentrated stock planning, tax-aware investment management, business exit planning, retirement income analysis, client communication standards, and ongoing relationship management.

The program is built to ensure that both advisors understand not only Wealthstone's technical methods, but also the philosophy, judgment, and service expectations that define the firm. It places particular weight on the specialized investment and tax strategies that distinguish the firm's work on complex situations.

Both advisors work under Zak's leadership and oversight and collaborate with him on client plans and investment strategy. Zak remains directly involved in the firm's most complex engagements, including concentrated stock diversification, business owner liquidity events, and complex retirement and tax planning. He also continues to advise existing clients personally, while welcoming new relationships selectively.

For clients, the expansion means additional expertise, greater accessibility, and long-term continuity, without losing the personal attention that has defined the firm since its founding.

Growth Without Diluting the Experience

Our ambition is to grow the firm, not to dilute the experience of being a Wealthstone client.

Wealthstone was never built as a high-volume practice that measures relationships by the number of accounts an advisor can manage. The most effective relationships come from a detailed understanding of a client's financial life: family, career, business interests, goals, and long-term ambitions. That takes time, thoughtful analysis, regular communication, and genuine interest in what matters to the people we serve.

Needs also change. A technology executive managing an equity compensation package today may be planning retirement tomorrow. A business owner weighing a sale may later need guidance on investing the proceeds, reducing estate tax exposure, or transferring wealth to the next generation. We aim to build relationships that evolve through those changes, often across generations of the same family.

The expanded team lets us serve additional families while remaining selective about new relationships. Every client should continue to expect carefully constructed financial plans, disciplined investment oversight, access to sophisticated planning strategies when appropriate, and advisors who know the details of their situation.

Client experience also shows in how promptly questions are answered, how clearly recommendations are explained, how proactively opportunities are identified, and how supported clients feel when important decisions arrive. Those standards will guide Wealthstone as it grows.

Looking Ahead

This chapter extends beyond two new advisors. With offices in Scottsdale, Arizona, and San Ramon, California, Wealthstone is building a foundation to serve affluent individuals and families across significant wealth markets. In-person meetings are by appointment only.

Over time, the firm is interested in expanding into additional markets, including Palm Beach, New York City, and other regions with concentrations of entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and high-net-worth families. We also intend to deepen the services and resources available to clients.

Our focus remains on three areas of specialization:

Concentrated Stock and Equity Compensation Planning: Helping executives, corporate leaders, and long-term shareholders manage concentrated investment risk while evaluating tax-efficient diversification strategies.

High-Net-Worth Retirement Planning: Helping affluent individuals and families approach retirement with coordinated investment, income, tax, risk management, and estate planning strategies designed to preserve financial independence.

Business Owner Exit Planning: Working with entrepreneurs before, during, and after major liquidity events to evaluate transaction considerations, minimize avoidable tax exposure, and develop thoughtful strategies for managing and preserving the wealth their businesses create.

Beyond these specialties, we are working toward a more integrated private wealth experience, with coordinated guidance across investments, financial plans, tax, estate strategy, and financing. Many of the most important opportunities in wealth management sit where these disciplines intersect, and we are building the expertise, professional relationships, and infrastructure to address them well.

Thank You to Our Clients

Wealthstone's growth since 2024 would not have been possible without the trust our clients have placed in us. Many of our most meaningful relationships began with a personal introduction, a referral from an existing client, or a connection within the communities and professional networks we are part of. We do not take that trust lightly.

Over the coming months, Zane and Zahed will begin working with Wealthstone clients, and we look forward to introducing them personally. We also welcome introductions to family members, friends, business associates, and colleagues who may benefit from our expanded team and specialized approach.

Wealthstone may look different today than when it opened in 2024, and it will keep evolving. The principles behind its founding will not change: sophisticated advice, meaningful relationships, tax-conscious planning, and the level of personal service that the decisions our clients entrust to us deserve.

We are proud of what Wealthstone has built in a short time, and more excited still about what comes next.

Zak Gardezy, CFP®
Founder & Managing Partner
Wealthstone Private Wealth Management

Zak Gardezy, CFP®

Zak Gardezy is the Founder & Managing Partner of Wealthstone Private Wealth Management, an independent, fiduciary registered investment adviser with offices in San Ramon, California and Scottsdale, Arizona. In-person meetings are by appointment only.