Michael Kato

Michael Kato is a Managing Director and Advanced Planner with First Republic Investment Management.   Mr. Kato joined First Republic in 2021 and has been in the tax and financial planning industry since 1997. Mr. Kato works with families to design and execute customized financial, estate/wealth transfer and philanthropic plans to meet the unique needs of each individual client. His areas of focus include pre-liquidity planning (IPO or M&A), trust, estate and multi-generational planning, philanthropic planning, concentrated stock analysis and general partner private/venture equity planning. Prior to joining First Republic, Mr. Kato was a Regional Wealth Planning Manager and Sr. Wealth Planning Strategist at Wells Fargo Wealth & Investment Management from 2010 to 2021 where he worked with numerous entrepreneurs and seed investors. Before that, Mr. Kato worked as a Tax Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers from 2004 to 2010.  

He holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation.

Mr. Kato received his Masters in Financial Planning from Golden Gate University and his Bachelors in Japanese with a specialization in Business Administration from UCLA.