Why I built GFO
I built GFO to be the firm I always wished I'd had. After twenty-six years on Wall Street and more than a decade running my own advisory practice, I knew exactly what was missing: a firm that coordinates every part of a founder's financial life under one roof, instead of leaving it scattered across five advisors who never talk to each other. This is the story of why GFO exists, and who builds it with me.
Jimmy Gonzalez, Founder - GFO
How GFO came to be
For most of my career, I did what I was supposed to do. Twenty-six years in the financial services industry, more than twenty of them managing portfolios for families, and by every external measure I had arrived. What I couldn't shake was a problem I watched repeat itself: the institutions I worked inside were built to sell products, not to coordinate a family's whole financial life.
So in 2015, I left to build the firm I thought was missing. For more than a decade I ran an independent practice here in Coral Gables, growing it from a single desk to a five-advisor team and learning, client by client, what it actually takes to serve a family well. I also learned where even a good independent firm runs out of room.
By 2025 I knew what that firm had to become. I had spent years running businesses of my own alongside the investment firm, carrying the same risks and making the same hard calls as the entrepreneurs I advised. GFO is the firm I always wished I'd had: one team coordinating every part of a founder's financial life, built to help eliminate Unmanaged Complexity Tax that quietly erodes what they have spent a lifetime building.
The people behind GFO
The team you'll actually work with, and who stay close long after the plan is built.
JC Jimenez, Senior Managing Director
JC leads the protective side of the firm, GFO's Structural Defense. While most of wealth management plays offense, his focus is defense: making sure what a family has built can withstand what goes wrong, a death, a disability, a lawsuit, an estate plan that no longer fits. He is also the firm's first conversation. For most families, the relationship with GFO begins with JC, and he stays close long after. More than twenty years of earning trust, including stints at Northwestern Mutual & Anthem Advisors, taught him that the real work starts with listening.
Jimmy Gonzalez, Founder
Jimmy built his career on Wall Street, holding roles at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab. He became a licensed portfolio manager in 2005 and spent the next decade managing money for families. In 2015 he left to found his own independent advisory firm in Coral Gables, which he led for ten years before stepping away in 2025 to build GFO. He is also Co-Founder and CFO of FIG, Florida Independent Grocers. Jimmy runs operating businesses alongside his clients, which is exactly why GFO exists.
Aligned without compromise
As advisors of an SEC-registered investment adviser, we serve as a fiduciary: we are required to act in your best interest. Our advice comes first, and it is not driven by a product shelf or a sales quota.
Some of the most powerful estate and protection strategies do require a product to carry them out, a properly structured life insurance policy inside an irrevocable trust, for example. When a plan genuinely calls for one, we bring in the right specialist to implement it, and we are transparent about how it works and how anyone involved is compensated. The strategy drives the product, never the other way around.
Begin the conversation
Schedule a private fifteen-minute briefing to review our private wealth architecture and discuss how we coordinate complex exit transitions.