David Gilchrist

David serves a select group of high-net worth families, executives, entrepreneurs, attorneys, engineers and physicians with all their wealth planning needs, using custom tailored strategies to help achieve clients’ financial goals.A hands-on and ears-open financial professional, David devotes his energy and skillset to helping clients identify and prioritize their professional and personal objectives. Specifically, he asks about their workdays (and nights), what they do in their free time and what they wish they had more time to do. In addition to clients’ goals, David looks for holes in their financial pictures – areas that may have been neglected in a previous advisory relationship. Whenever possible, he works with both spouses and encourages meetings with entire families to appreciate underlying dynamics and satisfy all stakeholders.“The clients I serve are driven and financially astute,” David says. “Many are my age or a bit older. In many cases, we share mutual interests and life experiences. Whether I’m helping clients plan for the future, or working on portfolio design, my job is putting clients’ money to work with an effective strategy they can understand and follow.”Prior to joining Merrill, David worked in accounting* for an estate-planning law firm in Orange County and as a tax auditor for The City of Los Angeles Office of Finance. On a regular basis, he summons his knowledge of tax regulations to create tax-minimizations strategies for clients.David holds an Accounting degree from UCLA, a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Loyola Marymount University and is a CIMA^® designee awarded by the Investments & Wealth Institute^™ (The Institute) and taught in conjunction with Yale University.  Fascinated with economics, David is a student of market history, psychology and behavior. He is also an avid traveler, self-professed “foodie” and health/fitness enthusiast.*David does not provide tax advice in his role at Merrill.