The first meeting costs nothing, and you don't have to hire us after it.
A plain cream wall with one empty brass hook and nothing hanging from it, a narrow oak shelf below holding only a sprig of green in a glass jar.

What we will not claim

No testimonials, no stars, no awards and no memberships

Why a practice that does not exist shows no praise, no prizes and no list it belongs to, and what it shows instead.

AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.

What you will see advertised

“Five-star rated, award-winning, and trusted by hundreds of Queens families.”

Quoted in order to be refused: this practice never says it, and the rest of this page says why.

A testimonial is a statement by a current client, and ratings and awards come with dated disclosures; the SEC has fined advisers for testimonials from nobody and memberships of nothing. This practice is invented and has no clients, so it shows no testimonial, star, award, ranking or membership.

What the rules say

Each read against its source in October 2026.

  • A testimonial is a statement by a current client, and testimonials, endorsements and third-party ratings may appear in an adviser's advertisement only with prescribed disclosures, including the date of a rating and who gave it (17 CFR 275.206(4)-1(b)).
  • Nine advisers settled charges that included claiming conflict-free advisory services they could not substantiate, membership of an organization that did not exist, unsubstantiated awards and testimonials not from clients (SEC 2024-121).
  • False advertising in the conduct of any business is unlawful in New York (GBL § 350).

The sources, to read in full:

What we say instead

There are no testimonials, star ratings, awards, rankings or memberships on this site. The practice is invented and has no clients, so any of them would be invented too.

  • We do not publish testimonials, star ratings, awards, rankings or memberships.

Why planners' websites say it, and why it doesn't hold

Choosing a planner means telling a stranger more about a household than most friends know, and other people's praise feels like the nearest thing to having met them. A row of stars, a prize from a magazine and a count of families look like years of other people's experience, pressed into a glance.

The first rule above counts only a current client's words as a client's praise, and lets praise and scores from anybody into an adviser's advertisement only with disclosures, dated, saying who gave them. The second describes advisers fined for praise that came from nobody and for belonging to an organization that did not exist. This practice is invented and has no clients, so every quote would have to be written by somebody pretending, and every prize would come from a list it was never on. Even a real prize says nothing about whether anybody's plan was any good.

What a planning practice can honestly say, and do

What a site can honestly show instead is what its people do, in plain words, so that a reader can judge the work rather than the praise:

A small fern in a terracotta pot on an oak side table against a cream wall.AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.

Marites Dimaculangan-Ross

Planner · Also meets in Tagalog

Writes plans for people who work for the city and for families saving for a child's education.

Marites lists the questions for a pension system in the order the system's own forms ask them.

Marites keeps a plan to the few decisions that matter this year.

The picture is a still of a desk, not a portrait. The person is fictional.

A plain white cup and saucer on an oak side table against a cream wall.AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.

Owen Kearney-Abara

Associate planner

Gathers the documents a plan needs and prepares its first draft for a planner.

Owen asks only for the documents a plan will use, and gives each one back.

Owen checks every figure in a draft against the document it came from.

The picture is a still of a desk, not a portrait. The person is fictional.

A shallow wooden tray holding one closed gray folder on a pale oak table.AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.

Beatriz Solano-Whitcombe

Office manager

Answers enquiries, arranges meetings and keeps every agreement and bill in order.

Beatriz replies to every enquiry on the day it arrives if the office is open.

Beatriz sends every bill with the agreement it comes from.

The picture is a still of a desk, not a portrait. The person is fictional.

And it can say why each of them is described this way, in its own words:

Five people work here: a founder who is also a planner, two more planners, an associate planner who prepares drafts, and an office manager. They are fictional. A real practice's planners are registered investment adviser representatives whose records you can look up at adviserinfo.sec.gov; nobody here is described by a registration, an exam, a certification, a school or a number of years, because none of them is real.

What to ask any planner

Put them to any planner before you sign anything. A plain answer tells you something, and so does a vague one.

  • Is the person quoted on your page a current client, and were they paid or thanked for it?
  • Who gave the prize on your page, and what did it cost you to be considered or to show it?
  • What did the list behind it actually measure?
  • Which organization do you say you belong to, and can I check that with it?
  • Which of my questions will you answer in writing before I hire you?

Ask for a first meeting

A first meeting costs nothing, gives no advice and asks nothing of you afterwards: about forty-five minutes, at the office or by video. The office replies in office hours.