Ryan A. Hughes is the Founder and Portfolio Manager at Bull Oak Financial Advisors, a fee-only fiduciary financial advisor in San Diego, helping high-net-worth individuals and families navigate the transition into retirement through integrated financial planning, investment management, and tax planning.
Ryan built Bull Oak to be the firm he’d want to hire himself: an independent, pragmatic firm grounded in data. Bull Oak works primarily with near-retirees and retirees and specializes in retirement planning.
He started his career at Merrill Lynch in 2008, joining the firm after graduating from the University of Southern California as the Great Financial Crisis unfolded. The experience showed him how risk comes in all shapes and sizes, and how incentives influence the advice investors get. This led him to the fee-only fiduciary model, where the advisor is paid by the client and not by product sales.
Ryan earned his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he received the J. Fred Weston Award for academic excellence in finance. He launched Bull Oak immediately after graduation.
Ryan is a proud U.S. Navy veteran. He completed two deployments to the Persian Gulf as a member of his ship’s Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure team.
He lives in the beautiful city of San Diego with his wife and two children.
