About

Michael Woods is a managing director and private wealth advisor based in Palo Alto. Mr. Woods is responsible for serving enterprising families, private family offices and foundations as the lead advisor coordinating individualized teams of wealth and investment specialists and private bankers as well as commercial and investment bank resources. His practice is focused on advanced design and implementation of comprehensive wealth and tax plans consisting of wealth transfer, business succession, and charitable strategies.

Prior to joining Wells Fargo Bank in 2017, Mr. Woods was a founding executive officer of the BrightPlan, a fintech startup, where he served as both the chief operating officer and chief investment officer responsible for business execution, corporate development, and overall investment activities. Mr. Woods has 25 years of financial services experience serving affluent and institutional clients including distinguished roles as the founder and chief investment officer of Cypress Point Capital, an investment management firm, director of investments of SDL Capital, a private investment office of an ultra-affluent family and general partner to several hedge funds. In each of these roles, Mr. Woods was primarily focused on implementing risk management as well as tax and risk mitigation strategies for his clients. Mr. Woods began his professional career as an investment banker. Over the course of 5 years, he was involved with several billion dollars in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions predominantly for clients in the technology space.

Mr. Woods is actively involved with a variety of local and international charity organizations and is passionate about philanthropy. Mr. Woods lives in Mountain View, CA with his family.