Anabel Diaz

Success Stories



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Anabel_DiazAnabel Diaz, CFP®

Natural Bridges Financial Advisors

Santa Cruz, CA

Anabel Diaz grew up in Watsonville, California, a lush agricultural area about fifteen minutes from the better-known beach town of Santa Cruz. Money was a constant worry for the family as she was growing up and she dreamed of a better life. “I guess I just wanted to figure something out where I could make life better,” she said.

It turns out Anabel had a head for numbers. “I took an interest in economics. I just thought it was really interesting because there was math involved,” she said. “I took some econ courses in high school and I really liked it and decided to just move forward with economics in college.”

While working on her undergraduate degree at UC Santa Cruz, Anabel accepted an internship with Chris Wentzien at Natural Bridges Financial Advisors. Chris is an ACP member and his firm proudly offers independent, fee only, fiduciary planning. “I got my internship here with Chris because I just wanted hands-on experience and I learned about financial planning,” she said.

“I was going to school and then also working part-time. It was really great. I was able to go to class and then come back and sit in meetings and learn from Chris,” she said. “I just loved it so much and wanted to pursue financial planning.” Anabel switched gears a little and enrolled at Golden Gate University in San Francisco where she earned her master’s degree in financial planning.

ACP members pride themselves on sharing their knowledge and helping one another as much as they help their clients. That collaborative environment opened the world of financial planning to Anabel. “I've been with Chris about five years. Those five years have been great,” she said. “I've learned so much from him. Right from the beginning, not knowing much about financial planning, to now passing my CFP and knowing so much. He definitely is a great mentor.”

The ACP community has been as welcoming and helpful to Anabel as her mentor Chris. When she attended her first conference she says she was surprised by how down to earth the community was. She was expecting suits and ties and buttoned-up professionals. “But when I went to my first ACP conference, everyone was just pretty casual and they just really wanted to get to know me,” she recalled. “And I thought that was really great. And that was the type of a community I wanted to be around. It was really special to me.”

Anabel also appreciates the opportunity to learn from her colleagues about tax planning and tax preparation. “Other financial planners don't really do that. I thought that was really neat,” she said. ACP’s growing contingent of younger advisors also appealed to Anabel. She volunteered for the G2 committee and enjoys meeting with other young advisors. “It has been great overall just getting to know other young advisors that are working with other ACP members. Learning from them has been really great as well, especially with the tax planning and tax preparation and getting to know others that do that as well.”

As she settles in and grows her client base, Anabel is discovering her niche. “The types of clients that I really enjoy working with are younger tech clients,” she said. “They work over the hill at Apple and Google and other tech companies. They're pretty flexible and they want to talk about other aspects, not financial planning, which makes it really fun.”

Working as a fee only planner in a firm such as Natural Bridges Financial Advisors  affords planners like Anabel the opportunity to create their ideal practice – one that offers a good life/work balance – that may be missing in larger, mega-practices. Even so, Anabel acknowledges it can be discouraging in the beginning. She is quick to encourage new advisors not to give up and to keep learning. “The journey is not going to be easy,” she said. She was hard on herself in the beginning thinking she wasn’t making the progress she thought she should. “I was thinking maybe I should be moving faster, but I learned that everyone learns in different ways and gets up to speed in different ways. I would just say, don't give up. Just keep going. There's going to be many struggles, but stick through it because this career is just totally worth it.”

The support Anabel has received from her mentor Chris, the ACP community in general, and the G2 committee in particular have been immensely helpful. She says she remains a member of ACP not only to improve her own skills but to improve the firm she is working with. “I also like the blend of the younger advisors,” she said. “It is nice that you’re not alone. You are also working with or talking to other advisors that are around your age as well.” 

Anabel looks forward to growing her own pool of clients and developing a strong bond with them. She is impressed with Chris’s communication skills, in addition to his wealth of knowledge, and sees how engaged clients are in the process. “It just feels like you are talking to a regular friend. It's not really a business meeting. A lot of clients like that. They have that trust with us and they just love meeting with us. And after that meeting, they just feel so good. I just want to have that same connection.”

When Anabel isn’t busy honing her craft you can find her horseback riding through the redwoods, volunteering to feed the homeless, or working with the local chapter of the SPCA. She makes her home in Santa Cruz with her two cats and a dog.