Zak Gardezy is the founder of Wealthstone Private Wealth Management and a CFP® professional with a distinctive combination of planning, tax and investment expertise, built for the financial complexity that comes with significant wealth. He advises clients across the Bay Area, including Palo Alto, San Jose and San Francisco, in Arizona and throughout the United States, with a focus on concentrated stock, equity compensation, ultra-high-net-worth retirement planning, and complex tax and estate planning strategies.
Founder & Managing Partner, Senior Wealth Advisor
Zak Gardezy works with people whose success has created financial complexity that conventional wealth management was not designed to solve. Equity compensation, a concentrated stock position, an approaching business sale or a large retirement balance each carry a tax and planning consequence that compounds over decades, and Zak builds the strategy around the complete picture of the family. The combination matters: Zak Gardezy brings financial planning, tax-aware strategy and institutional-style portfolio construction to the same table, a skill set designed for accomplished families whose decisions carry unusually high stakes.
With more than a decade of experience in financial services, Zak Gardezy 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.1 He founded Wealthstone to combine the capabilities and rigor of a leading institution with the discretion, responsiveness and personal accountability of a boutique firm.
Experience & Approach
Wealthstone is an independent, fee-only fiduciary practice, and its advisors are trained to work as one team across planning, tax and investments. Zak Gardezy begins with family dynamics, career, business interests, equity exposure, tax position, estate structure and liquidity needs, and designs every recommendation around the client rather than a model or a product.
Zak Gardezy specializes in advising technology professionals and concentrated stockholders, including executives and employees at Magnificent Seven and Fortune 100 companies, on equity compensation, tax-aware diversification and portfolio construction. That work is the foundation of the firm’s concentrated stock discipline and the subject of his book. He has also spoken publicly on equity compensation planning.
His investment philosophy combines a disciplined portfolio foundation with active risk oversight, sophisticated tax management and selective access to private market opportunities when appropriate. He follows the forces reshaping the economy, including artificial intelligence, intelligent robotics, energy infrastructure and autonomous systems. Client assets are held at Charles Schwab and supported by advanced planning, analytics and risk technology.
Education & Credentials
Zak is a CFP® professional and completed his financial planning education through the Boston Institute of Finance, with training across investment management, tax, retirement, insurance, estate planning and personal finance. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Arizona State University’s School of Politics and Global Studies, which shapes how he connects policy, geopolitics and markets to client outcomes.
Outside the office, Zak trains nearly every day, practices Muay Thai, plays golf, is pursuing flight training and is a serious home cook.
Exceptional wealth management is about giving accomplished people the structure, insight and confidence to make better decisions and protect what they have built.
A distinctive combination of planning, tax and investment expertise, applied to the decisions that matter most to tech executives, high-net-worth families and successful business owners in the Bay Area, Arizona and across the U.S.
RSUs, ISOs, NSOs, ESPP, IPO lockups and tender offers. Zak Gardezy builds staged, tax-aware diversification plans that address concentration risk and the tax cost of each step.
Learn more →Withdrawal sequencing, Roth conversions, Social Security, Medicare IRMAA and required minimum distributions, coordinated into one roadmap for families with significant wealth.
Learn more →Tax-aware investing, loss harvesting, asset location, charitable giving and multi-year tax strategy, coordinated with your CPA. Strategies depend on individual facts.
Learn more →Trusts, gifting, beneficiary alignment and legacy goals, coordinated with your estate planning attorney so the plan and the portfolio support each other.
Planning years ahead of a sale, IPO or tender offer so the structure, the tax and the investment plan work together.
Learn more →Diversified, tax-aware portfolios, thematic equity, fixed income and, when appropriate and eligible, private market and alternative investments.
Zak Gardezy specializes in advising the people who build and lead technology companies: engineers, product leaders, executives, founders and early employees.
In Palo Alto, San Jose, San Francisco and throughout Silicon Valley, a large share of net worth is often tied to a single employer’s stock. Equity compensation arrives on a schedule the employee does not control, taxes on vests and exercises can be larger than withholding, and liquidity events such as an IPO or tender offer can compress years of tax decisions into one. Zak Gardezy builds the plan before those decisions are forced.
As a Bay Area financial advisor, Zak Gardezy brings together tax planning and investment management so equity compensation, concentrated stock and the rest of the balance sheet are handled as one strategy, alongside the client’s CPA and attorney. That depth of knowledge is built for people whose compensation, equity and tax picture are unusually complex, and aims to help them make better-informed decisions and improve after-tax results.
The Book
A four-stage methodology for diversifying concentrated stock tax efficiently, written for investors with too much wealth in one company.
Zak also hosts Money Minutes, a weekly market update on the Wealthstone YouTube channel →
Exchange funds, Opportunity Zones, loss harvesting and the sequencing decisions that determine how much of a concentrated position you keep.
October 4, 2026 →The 4% rule, asset location and the first of five strategies to improve a high-net-worth retirement outcome.
October 17, 2026 →Inflation, interest rates and the forces of artificial intelligence reshaping the economy, with implications for portfolios.
October 14, 2026 →Zak Gardezy advises tech executives, high-net-worth families and successful business owners throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, in Arizona and across the United States. He meets by Zoom, and in person by appointment at Wealthstone’s office at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, with a second office in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Zak Gardezy, CFP®, is the founder of Wealthstone Private Wealth Management, an independent, fee-only fiduciary firm with offices in San Ramon, California and Scottsdale, Arizona. He is the author of Secrets From a Wealth Advisor and advises technology professionals, executives, business owners and affluent families on concentrated stock, equity compensation, retirement, tax and estate planning.
Zak Gardezy combines financial planning, tax-aware strategy and institutional-style portfolio construction in one practice, rather than treating them as separate services. Wealthstone’s boutique advisor-to-client ratio, its coordination with each client’s CPA and attorney, and its selective access to private markets allow the work to be deep and personal. The aim is to help accomplished individuals and families make better-informed decisions and improve after-tax outcomes; results are not guaranteed and depend on individual facts.
Yes. Zak Gardezy serves clients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Palo Alto, San Jose, San Francisco, the Peninsula, the South Bay and the East Bay, as well as clients across the United States. He meets by Zoom, and in person by appointment at the Wealthstone office at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.
Zak Gardezy builds a plan around the vest or exercise schedule, the tax on each event, the gap between withholding and the tax actually owed, and a staged approach to diversifying the shares you keep. For pre-IPO and post-IPO employees that includes lockup timing, trading windows, 10b5-1 plans and tender offers, coordinated with your CPA and attorney.
A concentrated stock position is a holding, often employer stock, that makes up an outsized share of net worth. The risk is that one company can change the outcome for a family. An advisor can help sequence sales across tax years, evaluate tax-aware diversification strategies and manage the risk while the plan is carried out. Strategies depend on individual facts and may not reduce taxes in any given year.
For families with significant wealth, retirement planning goes beyond a withdrawal rate. It covers the order of withdrawals across taxable, tax-deferred and Roth accounts, Roth conversion timing, required minimum distributions, Medicare IRMAA surcharges, Social Security, charitable giving and how assets pass to the next generation. Zak Gardezy builds these pieces into one coordinated roadmap.
Wealthstone coordinates the investment, tax and estate pieces with each client’s CPA and estate planning attorney so decisions are made in the right order. Zak Gardezy’s planning is educational and does not replace tax or legal advice, and any strategy should be reviewed with your own tax and legal professionals before you act.
Wealthstone is a registered investment adviser and an independent, fee-only fiduciary practice, paid directly by clients and not through product commissions. Conflicts of interest are disclosed in the firm’s Form ADV Part 2A, available on request.
A private conversation, by Zoom or in person by appointment, to understand your situation, your goals and the decision in front of you. It is a clearer read on your options, not a sales presentation, and there is no obligation.
A private consultation with Zak Gardezy or a Wealthstone advisor, built for accomplished individuals and families who want a specialist’s depth on the decision in front of them. No pitch, no products, and a clearer read on the decision in front of you.
Disclosures. Wealthstone Private Wealth Management is a registered investment adviser. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. This page is for informational purposes only and is not investment, tax or legal advice or an offer of services.
1. Forbes recognition. The Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams recognition (2023 and 2024) refers to a team Zak served on at a prior firm. It does not relate to Wealthstone, is not an endorsement of Wealthstone or Zak, and is not indicative of future performance or results. The ranking is published by Forbes and developed by SHOOK Research from interviews and quantitative data.
CFP®. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP® are certification marks owned by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. Zak’s book is an educational publication, and strategies described in it or on this site may not suit every investor, involve risk and depend on individual facts and current tax law. Consult your tax professional.
