Kunath Karren Rinne & Atkin

Kunath Karren Rinne & Atkin

Kunath Karren Rinne & Atkin was established in 1983 by Mike Kunath and Ned Karren, joined later by Bruce Rinne and Jeffrey Atkin as named partners. The firm structured itself as a registered investment adviser from the start, binding it to a fiduciary standard rather than the suitability standard common among broker-dealers of its founding era. LeAna Alvarado-Smith, who started at the firm in 1996, now directs operations and compliance from the Seattle headquarters at 1201 Third Avenue. The firm runs a heavily customized multi-asset-class approach centered on individual equities, fixed income, and listed real estate. Its internally managed Growth portfolio, led by Anatoliy Cherevach, targets 30–40 positions in companies riding secular shifts—cloud computing, 5G infrastructure, genetic medicine, social media platforms, and SaaS. The Growth sleeve holds names across the Communications and Technology sectors, including mega-cap FAANG constituents alongside smaller disruptors in online dating, payments, semiconductors, and e-commerce. Consumer exposure spans athleisure apparel and premium outdoor brands, while Healthcare positions cluster around medical devices, liquid biopsy, and rare-disease therapeutics. The firm has stated it currently avoids conventional hydrocarbons, focusing any future Energy allocation on renewables. LeAna Alvarado-Smith was elevated to Partner and Director of Operations & Compliance, formalizing her three-decade tenure as the operational backbone of the firm. Kara Gerhart joined in 2010 and now serves as Partner and Director of Client Relations. The firm serves individuals, high-net-worth families, and institutional clients including trusts and corporations, with asset allocation tailored to individual risk-tolerance assessments—some clients hold the Growth portfolio exclusively, while others use it as one component within a broader mix of equity, real estate, and fixed-income exposures. The firm's structural differentiator lies in its internal separation of asset-class tools. Rather than blending all holdings into a single balanced strategy, KKRA constructs distinct portfolios—a concentrated Growth equity sleeve, a listed real estate allocation, and fixed-income positions—then weights them per client mandate. This architecture forces clarity on where risk is taken and why, a governance choice that mirrors the type of explicit risk-budgeting more common at institutional allocators than at an RIA founded by four partners in downtown Seattle.