- Fee-onlyno commissions
- No account minimumfor investment management
- English & Spanishnatively
- Accepting new clientsIn person in Norwalk, by video, or at your Lancaster business
- Fiduciaryin writing, always
- DFPI-registeredCRD #311270
- In business sinceDecember 2020
- Free 15-minute callno obligation
Lancaster is 68 miles from our office and we are not going to pretend that is nothing. What brings people to us anyway is the subject matter: federal civilian employees in FERS with a Thrift Savings Plan, defense contractor employees with 401(k)s and cleared careers, and almost nobody locally writing plainly about how the TSP works or what to do with it on the way out.
Start with the honest part: we are 68.3 miles from Lancaster
We do not have an office in Lancaster, and we are not going to imply otherwise with a service-area pin. our principal office is at 12838 Rosecrans Ave in Norwalk, about 68.3 miles away. If a firm's Lancaster page does not tell you where its actual office is, that is worth noticing — the August 2026 teardown of this market found out-of-area firms running dozens of city pages each, including one with a Norwalk page containing nothing about Norwalk.
So the question is not proximity. It is whether what we do is worth the drive, a video call, or us coming to you — because we do all three, and evenings run by video. Two things travel perfectly well over distance and are unusually hard to find at any distance: a fee schedule published on the website, and a fiduciary standard you can hold us to in writing. Neither requires us to be down the street.
Is your financial advisor in Lancaster actually a fiduciary?
Most people assume yes. The answer depends on how the person is registered. An investment adviser representative owes a fiduciary duty — care and loyalty, across the whole relationship, and it cannot be waived. A registered representative of a broker-dealer is held to Regulation Best Interest, which attaches at the moment of a recommendation and, in the SEC's own words, imposes no duty to monitor an account absent an agreement.
Both can be good at the job. They are not the same promise. You can check any firm in ten minutes: Form ADV at adviserinfo.sec.gov, individuals on BrokerCheck, and the Form CRS. Ours is linked here, and the standard is spelled out on our fiduciary page. Aduna Capital is fee-only: paid by clients, by nobody else, with no commissions and no proprietary products. The full comparison is here →
Who we work with in Lancaster
The Antelope Valley economy runs on aerospace and defense and has done for generations. Edwards Air Force Base sits to the east, with the Air Force Test Center and NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center on it. Air Force Plant 42 is down in Palmdale. The primes and the suppliers that serve both fill in around them. Antelope Valley College and Antelope Valley Medical Center are the other large employers, along with the school districts and the city itself, and The BLVD downtown carries most of the independent business.
The financial consequence is a population whose retirement system almost nobody in Los Angeles writes about. A federal civilian employee is in FERS: a defined benefit annuity, Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan, with the agency contributing 1% automatically and matching up to another 4% — so the first 5% of pay contributed is the highest-return decision available to that household, and people still leave it on the table. The TSP itself is a short menu of index funds and Lifecycle funds at costs below almost any private plan, which means the standard advice to roll everything out at retirement is frequently wrong here. The decisions that genuinely matter are elsewhere: the G Fund against the C, S and I Funds, whether to use the Roth TSP, the survivor annuity election, and the FERS supplement for anyone leaving before 62.
The contractor side is different again. Employees of the primes and their suppliers are in private 401(k) plans, sometimes with restricted stock, usually with a match on a vesting schedule, and often in careers shaped by clearance rather than geography — long stretches at one employer, then a move that leaves an account behind. Add the commute economics that brought many households up here to begin with, a house bought for what it cost rather than where it was, and the plan has to be honest about time as well as money.
The local employer base
Edwards Air Force Base and NASA Armstrong
Federal civilian staff are in FERS: annuity, Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan with up to 5% of pay in agency contributions. TSP costs are low enough that rolling the balance out at retirement should be a decision, not a default.
Air Force Plant 42 and the defense primes
Contractor employees are in private 401(k) plans, sometimes with restricted stock units on a vesting schedule. RSUs are taxed as ordinary income on the value at vesting, which surprises somebody new every single year.
Antelope Valley Medical Center and Antelope Valley College
The hospital is the valley's largest medical employer; the college is a CalSTRS and CalPERS employer with 403(b) and 457(b) plans alongside. Two of the valley's biggest workforces, and several different retirement systems between them.
Lancaster's school districts and the city
Lancaster School District, Westside Union and Antelope Valley Union High School District put certificated staff in CalSTRS and classified staff in CalPERS; City of Lancaster employees are CalPERS. In a valley of federal and contractor plans, these are the households with an actual pension.
Public pensions and rollovers
Lancaster is the one place on this site where the most important retirement system is federal. FERS pays roughly 1% of high-three average pay for each year of service, or 1.1% for those retiring at 62 or later with at least 20 years, and it is only one of three legs — Social Security and the Thrift Savings Plan carry the rest. The elections that cannot easily be undone are the survivor annuity, which permanently reduces the annuity in exchange for continuing it to a spouse, and what happens to the TSP at separation. CalPERS and CalSTRS matter here too, through the districts and the city. Rollover options · public pensions explained.
If you are leaving a job, the rollover decision is where the most money is quietly lost — the 20% mandatory withholding under IRC § 3405(c) catches people who take the cheque themselves. The four options, step by step · Seven costly mistakes · Run the numbers. For public employees: CalPERS, CalSTRS, LACERA and OCERS explained.
A first conversation about Lancaster money, at no cost
Fifteen minutes on the phone. If your question has a short answer you will get it on the call, and if we are not the right firm for you we will say that too.
Our fees, published
No competing advisor page in this area publishes its fees. Here are ours.
| What | Fee |
|---|---|
| Investment management | 1.5% to 2.0% of assets per year; Advisers may set a rate below the standard schedule, as low as 0%, at their discretion — and whatever rate applies to you is disclosed in writing before you engage. Our Form ADV Part 2A, Item 5, states the fee as up to 2.00% of assets per year, subject to negotiation; the firm may waive all or part of it. Generally billed quarterly in arrears |
| Account minimum | No minimum account balance |
| Commissions and product fees | None — we are fee-only |
| Solicitor compensation | May be received or paid under disclosed arrangements |
| Initial conversation | Free, 15 minutes, no obligation |
Complete fee details in our Form ADV Part 2A, Item 5.
Lancaster questions
Should I move my TSP out when I retire?
Often no, which is not what you will hear from most people who raise the question. TSP fund costs are among the lowest available anywhere, and the G Fund has no private equivalent at all. The reasons to move part of it are specific: more investment choice, simpler estate handling across several beneficiaries, or consolidating so a withdrawal strategy can actually be run. Those are real reasons and they should be weighed against the cost rather than assumed. Anyone who tells you to roll all of it without mentioning the G Fund is not advising you.
Sixty-eight miles is a long way. How would this actually work in practice?
Mostly by video, honestly. The first call is fifteen minutes on the phone, planning meetings work well on screen with the documents shared, and so does the annual review. When meeting in person matters, people combine it with a trip down the 14, or we drive up — we do drive it. What we will not do is rent a mailbox in Lancaster and call it an office.
I hold a clearance and I am careful about disclosure. Does that complicate anything?
Not on our side. We need what any adviser needs — statements, income, goals — and nothing about your work. Worth noting that financial responsibility is part of holding a clearance, so the ordinary planning work of clearing high-interest debt and keeping credit clean carries a second reason here. We are fee-only, take no commissions and have no product to place, which keeps the relationship simple to describe.
Do you actually meet clients from Lancaster, or is this page just for search?
We meet them. Our office is at 12838 Rosecrans Ave in Norwalk, about 68.3 miles from Lancaster — clients come to us, we come to them, or we meet by video, and evening appointments can be arranged. What we will not do is claim an office in Lancaster that does not exist. Call (657) 571-2607. We are registered as an investment adviser in California.
What is the account minimum?
There isn't one to open. We ask for $50 a month of continuing deposits, because a plan you do not fund is not a plan. Our fee is 1.5% to 2.0% of assets under management per year, billed quarterly, and it is published — which is more than most firms in this market will tell you before a meeting.
¿Atienden en español?
Sí. Atendemos en español, y buena parte de nuestro material existe en español, escrito originalmente, no traducido por máquina.