Free help from a financial adviser, in the Bay Area.
Bay Forward pairs people and families with a volunteer adviser, by phone. Your adviser is a fiduciary, which means they must put your interests first. We never sell your information.
For households earning under $100,000 a year ($150,000 for a couple), with under $250,000 saved. You don’t need a job.
What’s the catch? There isn’t one.
Nothing to buy, ever. Bay Forward is from Advisers Give Back, a nonprofit. Advisers can’t take you on as a paying client.
Advisers must put your interests first. They’re fiduciaries. We check their credentials and public record before you meet.
Offered through libraries and groups you know.
Did one of these send you? Pick its name to get started, so it gets credit for sending you.
- San Francisco Public Library: get started
- Oakland Public Library: get started
- Alameda County Library: get started
- SF’s Economic Justice Center: get started
- BrightBee: get started
No one sent you? You’re welcome too. Get started — it’s free
Three steps to a plan of your own.
Tell us what’s going on
Answer friendly questions online about your goals and your money.
Meet your adviser
Pick one of your adviser’s open times. Calls come through our line, so your adviser never sees your phone number.
Make a plan together
Meet as many times as you both find useful.
You won’t be the first to ask for help.
- 6,600+signed up, from all 50 states
- 9 in 10say they left their first meeting more confident
- 97%say their adviser was kind
How we count
These are national numbers from our impact dashboard as of September 21, 2026. It updates every week. We count everyone who has signed up since 2021, rounded down to the nearest hundred. The other two numbers come from 536 surveys people answered after a first meeting. “Kind” means they rated their adviser “kind and empathetic” as excellent or good.