David Whalen, CFP®

In 1992 David and his future wife, Alesia Alonso, moved to the bay area so that Alesia could attend UC Berkeley. At the time David was working as a branch manager for a regional bank. Seeing Alesia set off on her academic path motivated him to decide what he wanted to really do as a career.  In 1993, David joined what was then Shearson Lehman Brothers in the downtown Berkeley office and began to build a business helping individuals, couples, and families build, monitor, and ultimately pass on wealth. David  uses the tools of  education, planning and a thorough knowledge of the financial markets.  Though David has never changed firms, the name of the company has changed through consolidation and corporate ownership changes which is how he ultimately landed at the firm Morgan Stanley.  David has also seen his investment advice and tools evolve from a traditional commission based platform to one where he uses a variety of investment products, separately managed portfolios, and the Morgan Stanley Portfolio Management program. David is a Portfolio Management Executive Director and he holds the coveted CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation. David lives in Albany with his wife and two teenage boys. During his free time, David coached a number of the community sport teams that his children participated in and has been a Den Leader and Assistant Scout Master with the Boy Scouts of America program with the Berkeley Troop where his two boys were active members. In his younger days, David was also an enthusiastic (if slow) participant in many of the local triathlons and marathons including the Escape from Alcatraz and Big Sur Marathon.  These days he finds that a good long bicycle ride in Tilden park or an afternoon in his kayak out on San Francisco bay is more his tempo.