- Fee-onlyno commissions
- No account minimumfor investment management
- English & Spanishnatively
- Accepting new clientsIn person in Norwalk, by video, or at your San Clemente business
- Fiduciaryin writing, always
- DFPI-registeredCRD #311270
- In business sinceDecember 2020
- Free 15-minute callno obligation
San Clemente is the furthest Orange County city we cover and the one with the most distinctive audience: military households. Between active-duty families, reservists and people who retired from the Marine Corps in their early forties with a pension and a second career ahead of them, this town has a large population whose retirement runs on the Blended Retirement System and the Thrift Savings Plan. Almost nobody writes plainly for them.
Start with the honest part: we are 53.0 miles from San Clemente
We do not have an office in San Clemente, and we are not going to imply otherwise with a service-area pin. our principal office is at 12838 Rosecrans Ave in Norwalk, about 53.0 miles away. If a firm's San Clemente 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 San Clemente 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 San Clemente
San Clemente was founded as a designed town. Ole Hanson bought the land in 1925 and required white walls and red tile, and the old core between Avenida Del Mar and the pier still looks like the drawing. What has grown around it is two different places: the coastal town of small businesses, restaurants, trades and the beach trail, and the newer inland master plan at Talega on the far side of the 5. The economic oddity is the light-industrial strip off Calle de los Molinos and Avenida Pico, which holds a real concentration of surf and outdoor-products businesses — shapers, apparel and hard-goods brands, distribution, and the small manufacturers that supply them. Almost all of them are owner-run, and a lot of them have no retirement plan of any kind. Solo 401(k) · Business retirement plans.
Then there is the base. Camp Pendleton's northern boundary is a short drive down the 5, and San Clemente has been a place Marine families live for as long as the base has existed. A military retirement is not like any other and the rules changed under most people's feet. Anyone who entered service from 1 January 2018 is in the Blended Retirement System: the defined-benefit multiplier was cut from 2.5% to 2.0% per year of service, and in exchange the government contributes to your Thrift Savings Plan — an automatic 1% of basic pay plus matching up to another 4% — from early in a career, with a continuation-pay bonus at a mid-career service point. Under the old High-3 system, leaving at nineteen years and eleven months meant leaving with nothing. Under BRS the TSP balance is yours from the start, so "should I stay to twenty?" became an actual calculation instead of a cliff.
The decisions that follow are the expensive ones. Whether to take the lump-sum option at retirement, which is offered at a discount and the discount is the whole story. The Survivor Benefit Plan election, which is priced like insurance, is made once, and should be compared against what it would cost to replace that income any other way. Whether to contribute to Roth or traditional TSP during a year when your taxable income is unusually low. And the part that surprises people who move here from Texas or Florida: California taxes military retirement pay, with no state exclusion for it, so a pension that started at 42 lands on top of a civilian salary in a state that will tax both. That is a planning problem with several honest answers, and we will walk through them and then send the filing questions to a CPA.
The local employer base
Camp Pendleton households
Active duty, reserve and retired. The Blended Retirement System, the uniformed-services Thrift Savings Plan, continuation pay, the lump-sum option and the Survivor Benefit Plan election — planned together, alongside a spouse's civilian 401(k) and whatever the second career pays. We are fee-only and sell no insurance, which matters in this market.
The Calle de los Molinos surf and outdoor cluster
Board builders, apparel and hard-goods brands, distributors and small manufacturers in the light-industrial blocks. Owner-operated, seasonal, frequently with no plan at all. A SEP or a solo 401(k) costs very little to run and can absorb a good year. Apparel · Retail.
Downtown and beachfront hospitality
Restaurants, hotels, rentals and trades along Del Mar, El Camino Real and the pier. Tipped and seasonal income, high turnover, and a workforce that leaves small 401(k) balances behind at every job change. Restaurants · Hotels.
Capistrano Unified School District
The district runs the city's schools, including two large high schools. Certificated staff are CalSTRS, classified staff CalPERS. Households pairing a district salary with military pay hold two entirely different retirement systems and need a single plan across them.
Public pensions and rollovers
The systems that matter most in San Clemente are federal. The uniformed-services Thrift Savings Plan is the same low-cost plan federal civilians use, and a military pension is a cost-of-living-adjusted annuity that starts far earlier in life than any California public pension does — which makes the sequencing question genuinely different: you may have thirty-five years of retirement income to plan around rather than twenty-five. The state systems sit alongside it: CalSTRS and CalPERS through the school district, CalPERS at the city, OCERS at the county. When to take Social Security · Breakeven calculator · OCERS.
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 San Clemente 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.
San Clemente questions
I am twelve years in and trying to decide whether to go to twenty. How do I think about it?
As a calculation rather than an identity. Under the Blended Retirement System you already own the government's TSP contributions, so separating early no longer means walking away with nothing — which is exactly what the change was designed to do. What you would be giving up is an inflation-adjusted annuity for life starting in your early forties, and that is worth a great deal more than most people estimate when they price it against what it would cost to buy equivalent income. Set the value of the annuity against the civilian offer, the second career it opens or forecloses, the continuation-pay decision, and what the household actually wants. We will build the numbers; the rest of it is yours.
Is the Survivor Benefit Plan worth taking?
Sometimes clearly yes, sometimes clearly no, and it depends on facts about your household rather than on a rule of thumb. It is a permanent reduction to the retired pay in exchange for continuing income to a survivor, and unlike a private policy it is inflation-adjusted and cannot be declined by an insurer for health reasons. Compare it against the cost of replacing the same inflation-adjusted income privately, against the survivor's other resources, and against how long premiums would run. Be careful with anyone who tells you to decline it and buy a policy from them instead — that recommendation pays them, and it may still be right, but you should be able to see the arithmetic that makes it right.
I retired from the Marine Corps at 42 and I have a civilian job now. What is the tax picture?
Harder than you were told, because California taxes military retirement pay in full and gives it no special exclusion, so your pension stacks on top of your salary at your marginal rate. The planning levers are the ordinary ones used aggressively: fill the civilian 401(k) or 403(b) and any Roth space that makes sense, decide deliberately between Roth and traditional contributions now that you can see your bracket, and understand that the low-income years many people use for conversions may simply not exist for you. Confirm the filing details with a CPA — we plan around them, we do not prepare them.
Do you actually meet clients from San Clemente, or is this page just for search?
We meet them. Our office is at 12838 Rosecrans Ave in Norwalk, about 53.0 miles from San Clemente — 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 San Clemente 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.