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Los Angeles Five Star award winner
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PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

COMMUNITY & RECOGNITION

  • 2022 Southern Oregon University Foundation Board of Trustees, Investment Committee Member
  • Five Star Wealth Manager Award winner 2025, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2013.

  • June 2017 Forbes printed magazine California Women’s Business Leaders edition. 

  • October 2017 expert guest discussing Gender Lens investment trend on Bloomberg Radio. 

  • Advocate for women in leadership positions through 2020 Women On Boards #5050WOB, #SB826 

  • 2011 Ebell of Los Angeles, Chairwoman of the Rest Cottage Association

SPECIALTIES

We Care. You’ve earned a lifestyle worth sharing. To honor your intent, we provide direction on income and domicile planning, wealth transfer strategies, gifting options, estate preparation, inheritance tax management, and investing.  We offer diversity-themed strategies.  Our clients are business owners, executives, and leaders LGBT ally.  We are certified by WBENC, the gold standard for women-owned businesses.

HOW I WORK FOR YOU

In 2014, I created Simple Impact Financial, a wealth management firm that empowers you to plan and invest in your future while supporting your values.

As fiduciary asset managers, we invest the time to learn about your long-term goals and curate a customized plan based on your needs. Our objective is to help unlock your financial potential and manage your wealth.

This award was issued on 12/01/2024 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 02/13/2024 through 08/30/2024. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 4745 Los Angeles-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 163 (3 % of candidates) were named 2025 Five Star Wealth Managers. The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, Research Period. 2024: 4,527, 158, 3%, 12/1/23, 2/13/23 - 8/31/23; 2023: 3,629, 155, 4%, 12/1/22, 3/28/22 - 9/23/22; 2022: 3781, 150, 4%, 12/1/21, 3/29/21 - 10/1/21; 2021: 3,574, 168, 5%, 12/1/20, 3/30/20 - 10/9/20; 2020: 3527, 158, 4%, 12/1/19, 3/1/19 - 10/25/19; 2019: 3528, 154, 4%, 12/1/18, 3/26/18 - 10/16/18; 2018: 2708, 154, 6%, 12/1/17, 3/23/17 - 10/13/17; 2017: 2351, 287, 12%, 11/1/16, 2/25/16 - 10/24/16; 2016: 2374, 298, 13%, 11/1/15, 5/22/15 - 10/16/15; 2015: 3105, 327, 11%, 12/1/14, 5/22/14 - 10/16/14; 2014: 6088, 340, 6%, 12/1/13, 5/22/13 - 10/16/13; 2013: 3488, 372, 11%, 12/1/12, 5/22/12 - 10/16/12; 2012: 1019, 176, 17%, 11/1/11, 5/22/11 - 10/16/11.
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The Financial Advisor associated with this profile may only discuss or transact business with residents of states in which she is properly registered. No offers may be made or accepted from any resident of any other state. Please check FINRA’s Broker Check for a list of current registrations. Review our Terms of Use: www.commonwealth.com/termsofuse.html.  Shannon M. Sutherland (CA Insurance Lic. #0D28620) is a Registered Representative and an Investment Adviser Representative with/and offers securities and advisory services through Commonwealth Financial Network®, Member FINRA.org/SIPC.org, a Registered Investment Adviser. Fixed insurance products are separate from and not offered through Commonwealth Financial Network.

 

*Winners appearing on this page do not pay a fee to be considered or to win the Five Star Award. Professionals with a digital profile have paid a promotional fee.
Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria - required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser (RIA) or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a RIA or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP's consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP's consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client's experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria - considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager's future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients' assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com.