- Fee-onlyno commissions
- No account minimumfor investment management
- English & Spanishnatively
- Accepting new clientsIn person in Norwalk, by video, or at your North Hollywood business
- Fiduciaryin writing, always
- DFPI-registeredCRD #311270
- In business sinceDecember 2020
- Free 15-minute callno obligation
We work with North Hollywood freelancers, small creative businesses and renters: the audio, edit and visual effects shops off Lankershim, the arts district's businesses, city and school employees, and the restaurant and retail staff who keep the district open at night. Most have no employer plan or a small one they have never opened. Starting an account that actually gets funded is the whole conversation.
Start with the honest part: we are 32.6 miles from North Hollywood
We do not have an office in North Hollywood, and we are not going to imply otherwise with a service-area pin. our principal office is at 12838 Rosecrans Ave in Norwalk, about 32.6 miles away. If a firm's North Hollywood 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 North Hollywood 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 North Hollywood
North Hollywood is two places wearing one name. West of Lankershim is the NoHo Arts District — the El Portal Theatre, small stages, dance studios, galleries, the Television Academy's campus, and the bars and restaurants that fill after a show. East and north of it the neighbourhood is older, denser and much more working-class, with a large Latino population, a significant Armenian community, and blocks of light industrial and service businesses that have nothing to do with the arts at all. At $72,904 the median household income here is the lowest we record anywhere in the Valley, and it sits four miles from Studio City's.
The transit hub is the reason the place is changing. The B Line terminus and the G Line's eastern end put North Hollywood within a train ride of Downtown and a bus ride of Chatsworth, which has drawn a young, mobile, heavily renting population into new mid-rise buildings around the station. That population is exactly the one traditional advisory firms decline: early career, no house, no inheritance, income between $50,000 and $90,000, and a 401(k) with three months of contributions in it. There is no minimum here, which is not a marketing line but the reason the firm was built the way it was. Why we do not have one.
The freelance problem is the other local specialty. A sound mixer, colourist, editor or motion designer in NoHo may be a union employee on one job and an independent contractor on the next, with no withholding, no employer plan and quarterly estimated taxes to manage alone. The right first moves are unglamorous and highly effective: a separate tax account funded from every invoice, a SEP or solo 401(k) once the income is steady enough to predict, and a Roth IRA in the years the bracket is low. Solo 401(k) versus SEP.
The local employer base
Post-production, audio and visual effects shops
Small businesses, contractor-heavy staffing, and work that is union-covered on some projects and not on others. If you are 1099 you have no employer plan at all, which means the retirement account is entirely a decision you make. Small creative businesses.
Arts organisations and non-profits
The theatres, schools and arts bodies in the district are mostly small non-profit employers running a modest 403(b) or 401(k), or nothing yet. Non-profit staff are frequently underpaid relative to their credentials and over-reliant on one plan. Non-profits.
City of Los Angeles facilities
The LAPD North Hollywood station and other city operations put LACERS and LAFPP members in the neighbourhood, both with access to the city's 457(b) deferred compensation plan. Sworn and civilian systems have different formulas entirely. LAFPP · LACERS.
Restaurants, bars and retail
Lankershim, Magnolia and Victory carry a large hourly workforce with tip income and irregular hours. Every employer with at least one employee now falls under the state mandate, so for many of these workers a payroll-deducted Roth IRA is the first retirement account they have ever had. Restaurants.
Public pensions and rollovers
Public systems reach a minority of North Hollywood: LACERS and LAFPP through the City of Los Angeles, CalSTRS and CalPERS through Los Angeles Unified. For everyone else the relevant vehicles are an IRA, a small employer plan or a self-employed plan, and the binding constraint is not investment selection but consistency. An account funded $200 a month for thirty years is a different outcome from the same account funded whenever it occurs to you. See the difference.
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 North Hollywood 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.
North Hollywood questions
I freelance in post. Some jobs are union and some aren't. Where does my retirement money go?
Into two places, and you have to keep track of both. Union work accrues in a multiemployer plan administered by a plan office, on hours you may need to verify yourself. Non-union work accrues nowhere unless you open something — a SEP, a solo 401(k) or an IRA — and fund it out of invoices. The common failure is assuming the union side is doing more than it is. How we structure it.
I rent near the station and buying looks impossible. Am I falling behind?
Not automatically. A house is one way to build net worth, not the only one, and a mortgage at the wrong moment can set a household back further than renting ever would. What matters is the savings rate and where it goes. If ownership is a goal, the down payment is a shorter-horizon pot that should not be invested like a retirement account. Matching money to time horizons.
I make about $60,000 and I've been told I don't have enough for an adviser.
You have been told that because most firms are paid a percentage of large balances and small ones do not cover their costs. Our answer is structural rather than sentimental: nothing to open, $50 a month thereafter, and the same fiduciary standard as any other client. How small accounts work here · The fee schedule.
Do you actually meet clients from North Hollywood, or is this page just for search?
We meet them. Our office is at 12838 Rosecrans Ave in Norwalk, about 32.6 miles from North Hollywood — 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 North Hollywood 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.