John Gorlow

John Michael Gorlow is the founder and principal of Cardiff Park Advisors, an independent fee-only investment advisory firm founded in 2003 and registered with the SEC since 2006. Cardiff Park describes itself as a fiduciary, evidence-based portfolio-management firm using globally diversified, tax-aware portfolios built with index-tracking funds, ETFs, and strategies informed by academic research.

Before founding Cardiff Park, Gorlow worked in private-client and advisory roles across major financial-services firms. Cardiff Park’s own biography says he has more than 35 years of financial-services experience, including managing investment advisory engagements for Ernst & Young in San Francisco and spending 15 years in private-client divisions at Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Oppenheimer.

In a 2017 Cardiff Park post, Gorlow wrote that he launched Cardiff Park in California in March 2003 after becoming disillusioned with parts of Wall Street culture. He framed the firm as an advisory business built around “respect, transparency” and a low fixed-fee, passive-investing model rather than commissions, market timing, or high-fee products.

His LinkedIn profile lists Cardiff Park Advisors as his current firm and Fordham Graduate Business as his education, with dates shown as 1997 to 2000. SEC/IAPD records identify him as John Michael Gorlow / John M. Gorlow, CRD #1175863, with 22 years of investment-adviser experience and no disclosures shown in the IAPD summary reviewed.

• Public sources reviewed do not verify the stub claim that Gorlow is an angel or seed-stage startup investor. The verified profile is that he is an SEC-registered investment adviser focused on wealth management and public-market portfolios.
• Cardiff Park’s stated investment approach is long-term, evidence-based, globally diversified, and tax-aware, using index-tracking funds, ETFs, and selected strategies informed by academic research.
• The firm says it avoids forecasting and market timing, emphasizing “simplicity, clarity, and disciplined execution” instead.
• Cardiff Park’s fixed-fee model is central to the firm’s thesis: it states that it does not charge a percentage of AUM and does not accept commissions, performance fees, or 12b-1 fees.
• Typical new-client fees are disclosed as $8,000 to $14,000 annually, billed quarterly in arrears, with higher fees possible for complex or multi-generational relationships.
• Gorlow’s recent market commentary repeatedly emphasizes staying aligned with a long-term plan, diversification, real-world cash-flow needs, and avoiding emotional changes to asset allocation during geopolitical or market stress.