Beacon Financial Planners

Beacon Financial Planners

Beacon Financial Planners was established as a local advisory practice serving Staten Island and the broader New York metropolitan area. President John Graziano and Vice President Christopher Graziano lead the firm, which is structured as a family-operated RIA with a multi-generational client base. The firm's identity is built on financial planning rather than brokerage sales, a posture that distinguishes it from larger commission-based competitors in the region. The firm advises on retirement strategies, income planning, and portfolio construction, with an emphasis on risk-appropriate asset allocation. Its client base skews toward individuals nearing or in retirement, alongside a smaller contingent of business owners. Beacon avoids proprietary products in favor of third-party mutual funds, ETFs, and insurance-adjacent planning vehicles. The geographic focus remains tightly concentrated in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and New Jersey's Monmouth and Ocean counties — a deliberate, relationship-driven footprint rather than a national growth play. As a small RIA, Beacon files Form ADV with the SEC, disclosing its regulatory standing and fee-only or fee-based structure. The leadership is anchored by the Graziano family, with Christopher Graziano explicitly listed as a vice president in recent filings, signaling succession planning from John Graziano's founding tenure. The firm has no venture capital, private equity, or institutional consulting arms; it is a pure retail advisory practice, deriving revenue from assets under management and one-time financial plan fees. Beacon's structural differentiator is its independence as a family-run RIA in a market dominated by wirehouses and aggregator platforms. It does not answer to a publicly traded parent or private equity backer, and its continuity rests on internal family succession — a model that preserves client relationships over decades but limits the firm's growth to organic referrals within a defined geography.