Mark Johnsen

Mark T. Johnsen is the founder, CEO, and "Chief Wealth Architect" of Wealth Architects, LLC, an independent, fee-only Registered Investment Advisor based in Mountain View, California. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Business Administration from UCLA and has roughly 30 years of experience as a wealth advisor. He began his career at a brokerage firm after college, working with hundreds of clients, and left the commission-driven brokerage world around the 2008 financial crisis to build an independent, fiduciary advisory practice.

He co-founded Wealth Architects in 2005 (with colleague Lois Cole), organizing the firm around its proprietary "Design for a Wealthier Life Process®." The firm is structured as a fiduciary RIA that earns no product commissions — only client compensation — a model Johnsen chose deliberately: "I wanted to provide people with objective advice, not based on selling financial products, but based on really listening." Today the firm has roughly 22 employees and serves individuals, families, and nonprofits, many of them self-made entrepreneurs, executives, engineers, and other professionals who helped build Silicon Valley.

Beyond the firm, Johnsen has been listed as a Partner at the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2), a Bay Area venture-philanthropy community founded by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen that pools member resources to fund social enterprises and nonprofits. He has also been associated with community roles such as the Challenge Team Mountain View and the advisory board of the Palo Alto Community Fund. His public profile is primarily that of a wealth advisor to founders and executives with concentrated wealth in private and public companies, rather than that of a full-time startup angel investor.

• Frames his work as managing "not only... financial wealth, but the arc and trajectory of [clients'] lives" — a holistic, life-planning-first philosophy rather than a pure returns thesis.
• Operates as a fiduciary, fee-only advisor: no commissions, no product sales — advice built on "really listening" to clients.
• Client base skews toward Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and executives with concentrated equity in privately-held and public companies; much of his advisory value is helping them diversify, sell, or simplify concentrated holdings during liquidity events and life transitions.
• Venture activity appears channeled through SV2's collaborative, social-impact model (funding innovative nonprofits and social enterprises) rather than a formal seed-stage angel fund. No published personal check size, sector, or company-stage criteria for direct startup investing could be verified.