Stephanie Tsang, CPA, CFP®, ChFC®, CEPA, CDFA®
Partner
Financial planning for you and your business
Stephanie’s boutique financial services help business and practice owners and emerging professionals achieve the life they desire.
Stephanie Tsang is a partner and has been a financial advisor with North Star since 2006, with most of her clients located in the greater Phoenix area, San Diego, Las Vegas and San Francisco. In 2018, Stephanie and her partners set the foundation for North Star Resource Group – Scottsdale as a boutique, client-centric, integrity-driven, comprehensive wealth management practice to cater to the needs of high income and high net worth clients.
As a leader in North Star’s Southwest Division, Stephanie mentors young advisors in the San Diego and Scottsdale offices and supports their growing practices. She also works with a varied client base—medical and dental professionals, business owners and 1099 employers, in addition to other emerging professionals. Her practice focuses on comprehensive business and personal financial strategies while incorporating a creative and holistic approach.
Upon graduating from the University of Arizona with a degree in accounting and finance, Stephanie immediately pursued a career in accounting, earning her CPA designation and specializing in personal and corporate taxes. Shortly after, she made the switch to financial advising to work in a more relationship-oriented field where she could help better peoples’ individual situations and allow them to spend more time on things they value. Another driving factor in changing careers was her own family’s financial situation—after growing up watching her family struggle with planning for their future, she wanted to guide others to avoid the stress that comes with a lack of identifying and pursuing financial goals.
Within the Southwest Division, Stephanie often works jointly with McKenna Stephens and Ali Rizvi. Stephanie is a field director with Securian Financial Services and facilitated the opening of North Star’s San Diego branch in the spring of 2012, which she currently manages. She and her team frequently host both lunch and dinner seminars within CA, AZ, and NV and have held events at:
- University of California – San Diego
- University of California – San Francisco
- Stanford University
- University of Nevada
- AT Stills Dental
- Midwestern Dental
- Valley Hospital
- Columbia University
Stephanie is FINRA Series 7 and 66 registered. Notably, she has also earned her Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation. Stephanie is also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, in which advisors are obliged to uphold the principles of integrity, objectivity, competence, fairness, confidentiality, professionalism and diligence as outlined in CFP Board’s Code of Ethics. Additionally, in 2019 she received her Chartered Financial Consultant designation (ChFC®). In 2021, Stephanie pursued her Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) designation.
She is a member of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), NAIFA and GAMA (General Agents’ and Managers’ Association). Along with fellow advisor Todd Bramson, Stephanie co-wrote Financial Planning for Women, providing case studies on actual situations she has encountered with her clients.
Stephanie has been recognized for her success and leadership through several awards. In 2019, she received the Don Schoeller Frontline Leader Award for outstanding leadership in growing the profession’s future, and in 2016 and 2017, she received the GAMA Frontline Leader award recognizing leaders who have direct responsibility for a portion of a firm. Most recently, Stephanie was named 2019 Five Star Wealth Manager based on her production and providing quality services to her clients.
In May 2017, Stephanie had the remarkable opportunity to speak to over 70 professionals from the AFA(S) or Association of Financial Advisors Singapore. The presentation, which took place in Singapore, was titled “Advice Based Planning—The Future for Financial Advisor Representatives” and covered why the financial services profession is moving towards advice-based planning and the importance of it, among other topics. Mohd Amin, CEO of MAA Financial Planners, commented:
“Stephanie Tsang did wonderfully well. Initial feedback received about her performance, as expected, [included that she] was an ‘excellent speaker’ who shared freely her thoughts on the industry and because of her passion, she touched many of the hearts of the attendees present.”
Personal
Stephanie was born and raised in Tucson, AZ. In January 2019, she became an acting board member of GiGi’s Playhouse – Down Syndrome Achievement Centers and has helped raise over $500,000 for their cause. She has been involved with the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Leadership Circle Committee for four years, the Make a Wish Foundation for one year and the Junior League of San Diego for three years. Stephanie’s interests include spending time with her family, music, tennis, traveling and yoga.
Stephanie and McKenna are investment advisor representatives of Cetera Advisor Networks, LLC. Securities offered through Cetera Advisor Networks LLC (doing insurance business in CA as CFGAN Insurance Agency LLC, CA Insurance Lic # 0644976), member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through Cetera Investment Advisers LLC, a registered investment adviser. Cetera is under separate ownership from any other named entity. CA Insurance License #0F44403.
Working with this advisor is not a guarantee of future financial results. Investors should conduct their own evaluation.
Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) is an independent membership organization of life insurance and financial service professionals. Membership levels are based on commissions, premiums, or fees generated within a year from investment and insurance products. Members must apply annually and pay a fee. Members must be members in good standing of a Professional Association which has met the following criteria: in existence at least 2 years, have 100 or more members, must be a nonprofit organization, must have a code of ethics and an effective means of dealing with breaches of its code. Members must also adhere to the MDRT Code of Ethics.
Finseca is a membership organization for which individuals must submit applications and payment. The organization is geared toward those in a recruiting, training, or supervision role in the financial services industry. Awards are based primarily on -commissions, premiums, or fees generated from investment and insurance products and other criteria relative to leadership, achievement, and recruiting selected by the applicant. Individuals must be current with membership dues and submit an application fee for consideration.
The Five Star Wealth Manager award, administered by Crescendo Business Services, LLC (dba Five Star Professional), is based on 10 objective criteria: 1. Credentialed as an investment advisory representative (IAR) or a registered investment advisor; 2. Actively employed as a credentialed professional in the financial services industry for a minimum of five years; 3. Favorable regulatory and customer dispute history review*; 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal firm standards; 5. Accepting new clients; 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutionalized discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Educational and professional designations. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or awarded. Once awarded, wealth managers may opt to purchase additional profile ad space or related award promotional products. The award methodology does not evaluate the quality of services provided. The award is not indicative of the award winner’s future performance. 2,043 Phoenix area wealth managers were considered for the award; 117 (6 percent of candidates) were named 2019 Five Star Wealth Managers.. To qualify as having a favorable regulatory and customer dispute history for this award, the person cannot have (1) been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine, (2) had more than a total of three customer disputes filed against them (settled or pending) with any regulatory authority or Five Star Professional’s consumer dispute process, (3) individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer dispute filed with a regulatory authority, (4) filed for bankruptcy, or (5) been convicted of a felony.