Experience for the Decisions That Come with Significant Wealth

J. Greg Paffendorf Sr. is a Managing Director – Investments and Senior Financial Advisor with Wells Fargo Advisors in San Diego, California.

Greg’s path to wealth management has never been conventional. Before beginning his investment career, he worked as a corporate instructor—an early experience that helped shape his ability to make complex subjects easier to understand. Combined with his background in economics and science, that experience helped develop the analytical, educational approach he brings to wealth management planning today.

Since beginning his investment career in 1989, Greg has worked with executives, professionals, business owners, and high-net-worth families navigating complex financial decisions. His experience spans investment management, retirement and cash flow planning, estate and wealth transfer planning, equity compensation, pre-IPO planning, corporate restructuring, and business exit planning.

Before joining Wells Fargo Advisors, Greg was a Senior Financial Advisor with UBS and held both leadership and advisory positions with Merrill Lynch. During his career at Merrill, he helped develop training programs and, as a Merrill Lynch executive, worked directly with McKinsey & Company on the development of the firm’s Private Wealth Management business plan for Southern California. He later relocated with his family to Southern California, where he continued to serve in leadership and advisory roles.

Over the course of his career, Greg has developed a particular focus on helping clients understand how complex financial decisions fit together. For executives and professionals, that can mean looking beyond the eventual investment of stock proceeds to consider stock options, RSUs, concentrated company stock, trading restrictions, tax considerations, and the role equity compensation plays within a broader wealth management plan. For business owners and entrepreneurs, it may mean preparing for an exit, liquidity event, or other transition and understanding how that event could affect their personal wealth.

Greg is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^® professional, a Certified Private Wealth Advisor^® professional. He also completed the Certified Equity Professional course offered through Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.

Those areas of study reflect an important part of Greg’s approach: understanding the technical details behind sophisticated financial decisions while making the choices and tradeoffs easier for clients to understand. He believes complex wealth planning does not need to be communicated in complicated language—and that better understanding can lead to more informed decisions.

Greg graduated from Idaho State University. Outside the office, he enjoys spending time with his family, golfing, sailing, traveling, and real estate investing.

CA Insurance License Number: 0E14355. Resident State: CA. 

Business Text: 858.283.4509
Cell: 858.877.1997