William Allan Wealth Management · CPA-Led Advice in Long Beach

A CPA Financial Advisor in Long Beach

Fee-only portfolio management and CPA-led tax planning from one fiduciary team, at 100 Oceangate in downtown Long Beach.

Our Long Beach office is at 100 Oceangate, Suite 1200. People tend to arrive here with the same shape of problem: equity that vests on someone else's schedule, a company that pays them in two different ways, a position held so long that selling it is a tax event before it is an investment decision, or a retirement date close enough to plan around. In California every one of those gets priced twice, once federally and once by the Franchise Tax Board, and the second number is the one that usually arrives as a surprise.

What This Means in California, Specifically

The State Layer Is Not a Rounding Error

California taxes long-term capital gains as ordinary income. There is no preferential state rate the way there is federally, so a sale that looks efficient on the federal side can land differently once the state return is added. Pricing a trade here means pricing both.

Nobody Is Shuttling PDFs

The usual arrangement is an advisor on one side, an accountant on the other, and the client carrying documents between them. Here the portfolio decisions and the returns are handled by one team, so the tax consequence is part of the decision rather than a discovery in April.

The Work Is Year-Round Because the Calendar Says So

California estimated payments are front-loaded rather than spread evenly across four quarters, and entity-level elections carry their own deadlines. Those are calendar decisions, which means they have to be made while the year is still open.

One Read of the Whole Situation

Portfolio, federal return, California return, entity documents, and estate paperwork all inform each other. Reviewed together, the interactions show up in time to act on them. Reviewed separately, they surface after the fact.

Fee-Only, and a Fiduciary

William Allan is paid by its clients, not by commissions or third-party payments for recommending products, and acts as a fiduciary. Registered with the SEC as an investment adviser since 2004; the firm's record is public under CRD 133147.

Four Situations We See Most Often Here

Equity Compensation and Concentrated Stock

Restricted stock that vests into a bracket nobody chose, options carrying an exercise decision, or a single holding that has quietly become most of the household's net worth. Unwinding it is a risk problem and a two-jurisdiction tax problem at once, and the sequencing is what separates the outcomes.

Owners of Pass-Through Businesses

S corporations, partnerships, and LLCs push income onto a personal return, where the federal cap on deducting state and local taxes changes the arithmetic. Entity-level state tax elections exist to address that, and whether one helps depends on the entity, the owners, and the year. It is a calculation to run, not a default to assume.

Married Couples Holding Low-Basis Assets

California is a community property state, which affects how jointly held assets are treated at the first death. For a couple sitting on decades of unrealized gain, how an asset is titled is not paperwork. It belongs in the same conversation as the portfolio and the estate documents.

A Retirement Transition in a High-Tax State

California does not tax Social Security benefits, but it does tax retirement account distributions as ordinary income. Withdrawal order, Roth conversion sizing, and required distributions all run through that fact, and the only version of the number worth planning against is the after-tax one.

How the Long Beach Office Is Set Up

Investment Management

Fee-only and fiduciary, through William Allan, an investment adviser registered with the SEC since 2004. Form ADV and Form CRS are public filings under CRD 133147.

Tax Planning and Preparation

Engaged and billed through Crawshaw CPAs, our affiliated CPA practice, under an agreement separate from investment management. The same team, a separate engagement.

Legal Documents

Wills, trusts, and powers of attorney are drafted by a California attorney, not by us. Our role is keeping account titling, beneficiary designations, trust funding, and portfolio liquidity aligned with what those documents actually say.

Where We Meet

100 Oceangate, Suite 1200, in downtown Long Beach. Clients come from Long Beach proper and the surrounding harbor communities, Signal Hill included, and there is no separate office for any of them.

Six Questions Worth Bringing to the First Meeting

• Has anyone looked at the portfolio and the California return in the same sitting?
• What does a planned sale actually cost once federal and state tax are both counted?
• If an S corporation or partnership is involved, has an entity-level state tax election been evaluated for this year?
• Are estimated payments sized to this year's income, or still running off last year's return?
• Which decisions have to happen before December 31, and which can wait until the return is prepared?
• Who is preparing the return, and do they see the year's trades before the year closes?