Born in Lebanon, Christiane S. Tomasi was brought to the United States by her parents at 8 years old, because they wanted the American dream for their children. Putting herself through school, she first earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting from California State University, Northridge in 1981. She went on to complete coursework at the Paris Institute of Comparative Law in France through the University of San Diego in 1990 and achieved a Master of Business in taxation from University of Southern California in 1991. She began her career in accounting and tax in 1994 from a home office. During this time, she took interest in the stock market and invested some of her own money in mutual funds. When one of her clients, a long-time friend, asked if Ms. Tomasi would do the same for her, it kickstarted what would quickly become a successful career in wealth management.
From 1998 to 2002, Ms. Tomasi worked with HD Vest, Inc. where she obtained her securities licenses. She then joined the Commonwealth Financial Network in 2002 and became a registered investment adviser representative with LPL Financial in 2010. Since then, she continued to further her expertise and now holds certification as a certified financial planner, a registered investment adviser, a uniform securities agent, a general securities principal and more. Leveraging her considerable expertise in integrated tax and financial planning, Ms. Tomasi established CS TOMASI Wealth Management in 2017 as a registered investment adviser firm, where she remains active to this day.
Ms. Tomasi is proud to have built up a successful wealth management firm through organic growth and loyal clientele, noting that many of her clients have been with her from the start and followed her as she changed brokers/dealers. Looking toward the future, she hopes to branch out and do more public speaking, particularly to encourage women to enter the field of wealth management. Currently, only about 15% of certified financial planners are women, and Ms. Tomasi hopes that by sharing her experiences, she can show how rewarding a career it can be. Furthermore, she notes that her goal was never to make money, but to help people and flourish in a career that she really loves.
Attributing much of her success to her determination, Ms. Tomasi also credits her clients for helping her to reach where she is today, as most of her customer base has come through word of mouth referrals. She considers the highlight of her career to be getting to build great relationships with her clients, which is a win-win situation for everyone involved. Truly loving what she does, she considers her career in finance to be the most rewarding career path she could have taken. For her excellence, she has been presented with the Five Star Wealth Management Award every year since 2013 and was the recipient of the Director’s Club Award from LPL Financial from 2018 to 2020. In 2017, Ms. Tomasi was both featured among the California Women Business Leaders by Forbes and invited to attend Barron’s Top Independent Women Advisors Summit.
Alongside her primary career responsibilities, Ms. Tomasi has been an active member of her community as well. Most notably, she previously sat on the board for an organization for abused children in Long Beach, California. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her family, which includes her significant other of 11 years, her siblings, and her nieces and nephew and their families.
