PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
Sara Hatanaka, CFP®, CDFA™, CRPC®, ADPA SM began advising clients in 1987 after the Dow Jones Industrial Average went from 2,247 to 1,739. She has held the CFP® designation since 2001: CFP® is a certification awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. Sara holds the designations of Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, CDFA™, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, CRPC®, and Accredited Domestic Partner Advisor, ADPA SM . Sara has also been designated as a Portfolio Manager, PM, under the PIA Program at Merrill Lynch.
Sara guides clients with over $2 million by having a deep understanding of what is most important to each client. Her 29 years has helped her clients minimize taxes, protect and preserve family wealth as well as develop coordinated investment strategy. Sara specializes in creating lifetime income that preserves buying power.
Her goal in advising clients is to make sure a personal financial and investment management strategy accomplishes what the client needs. With her many certifications, Sara is qualified to help her clients with wealth preservation, retirement planning, tax minimization, banking and lending as well as estate planning services and wealth transfer.
Sara stays current with new laws, wealth management tools and Merrill Lynch's broad resources to remain as a top financial advisor. She has a dedicated administrative and professional team to help her with anything that has to do with money. Her greatest joy and highest priority is for clients to enjoy what sound financial management affords. Sara knows and considers the children and charities of her long term clients and is an integral part of her clients' financial lives.
Sara has been with Merrill Lynch since 1985 in the Pasadena office and graduated from the University of Oregon. Her daughter Naomi is at UC Berkeley and is in Kappa Alpha Theta. Her son Luke will attend Gonzaga. She lives in Arcadia, California where she studies taiko drumming and belly dancing along with behavioral finance