Milo F. Hanke, CFP
Founding Partner, Senior Financial Planner
With four decades of experience, Milo Hanke firmly believes good financial planning changes lives. As a Certified Financial Planner, he has helped hundreds of individuals build and protect their wealth.
​
“With greater financial security,” Milo observes, “clients come more into their own. They are freer to pursue their own vision of happiness - what they desire for self, family, and community. And they tend to have more fun.”
​
Milo is the Principal of Hanke & Co. Wealth Management, LLC, a fee-only Registered Investment Advisor that provides investment and financial planning advice to approximately 80 families. The firm operates in a fiduciary capacity, the highest standard of client-centered care as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
​
Welcoming about eight new clients per year, Hanke & Co. includes a Senior Financial Planner, also a Certified Financial Planner, and a client services specialist. Located in San Francisco’s Financial District, the firm regularly collaborates with allied professions such as law, accounting, banking, and eldercare.
​
Milo is a seasoned professional in the midst of a career renaissance marked by increased specialization in charitable giving, socially conscious investing, and life coaching. He receives ongoing education through the Financial Planning Association, Northern California Planned Giving Council, and other professional exchanges. Milo continues to develop the next generation of financial planners, practice managers, and clients.
​
“At our firm, we derive the greatest satisfaction in helping middle class families ‘move on up.’ We do that as technical advisors and thought partners,” he said. “Our process enables clients to better comprehend, celebrate, and grow their successes. Many, for example, discover a potential of lifetime generosity that they had not thought possible.”
​
“Both of my parents worked and owned a little real estate,” Milo recounted. “I wonder how much better our family would have done if a financial planner were present - what if a pro had helped Mom and Dad break through their ‘ceiling of complexity?’ Frankly, that ‘what if’ is a major motivation for starting this firm - helping others to clearly see and cultivate their rightful opportunities."
​
Over the years, Milo’s business success has allowed him to “give back” to the community in many ways and, on a few occasions, successfully fight City Hall. Through his civic leadership, hundreds of billboards, including giant digitals, were removed or prevented from going up in San Francisco as well as Oakland. While president of San Francisco Beautiful and a national board member of Scenic America, he also led a citywide coalition that challenged AT&T’s installation of 900 refrigerator-size utility boxes on public sidewalks.
​
He is a 2009 graduate of Leadership San Francisco, a program of formal civic training sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. He has served on the City Club of San Francisco Board of Governors. He is a member of the National Eagle Scout Association and for decades has remained active in various human rights organizations, including the Amnesty International.
​
An English major from the Midwest, Milo entered the financial planning profession after first passing through the worlds of journalism and public relations, including editorial positions with East Coast newspapers and Harvard University as well as freelance reporting for Business Week.
​
After serving three years as an award-winning PR executive for a Boston insurance company, he had soured on corporate life with its antigay discrimination so pervasive during that pre-Pete Buttigieg era. At age 27, Milo moved to San Francisco, sight unseen.
​
Vowing to be self-employed, he ultimately chose the financial planning profession believing it would build - for himself and future clients - a path towards greater security yet more importantly, living abundantly and in accord with one’s values.
​
His pastimes include piano, woodworking, country-western dancing, writing, travel, history, and vintage cars. Something of a “professional alumnus,” he’s in regular contact with grade school classmates and frequently visits his alma mater, DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana to provide career guidance to undergraduates.
​
The Cincinnati native is particularly proud of his ongoing involvement with Walnut Hills High School, a public college preparatory, whose inspiring motto is “sursum ad summum” and where Milo was grateful to receive D’s in Latin.
