Our Team

Susan L. Kendall, CPA, CFP®

Managing Director & Principal

[email protected]

As a certified public accountant (CPA/PFS) and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^™ professional, Susan provides a range of financial services for her clients. These services include assessing current financial situations, helping determine your financial goals, and working with you to develop and monitor a plan to attain those goals. 

Susan founded Kendall Tax & Financial Services in 1992 after working in the industry for more than 15 years. Susan was one of the first CPAs in California to add financial services to her practice in 1996. From 1996 to 2003, Susan was affiliated with HD Vest Advisory Services, Inc., as an independent registered agent. 

In 2003, Susan transferred her investment business to Commonwealth Financial Network^®. Susan is always striving for excellence and to offer her clients the best alternatives and most prudent options for their individual situations. Her affiliation with Commonwealth—which prides itself and delivers on providing indispensable service, powerful, integrated technology, and practice management expertise—enables Susan to offer outstanding guidance to her clients and remain on the cutting edge of excellence in an ever-changing industry. This enables Susan to spend more time working with her clients to help them create their lives by design, not default.

Education & Credentials
Susan graduated from San Jose State University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting. She has earned the following professional designations: Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^™ certification. She also holds the FINRA Series 65 securities registration, as well as life and health insurance, and long-term care licenses in California. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Financial Planning Association (FPA), and a 1993 graduate of Leadership Monterey Peninsula. 

Susan values education as a way to promote professional excellence. She is an active member of the Financial Planning Association and served on the 2005 FPA Retreat Task Force Committee. In order to stay on the cutting edge, she attends several professional conferences a year in addition to maintaining the continuing education requirements for her various credentials, registrations, and licenses. 

Susan L. Kendall is proud to have been recognized as a Business Experience advisor for 2023—a distinction based on annual production that places her among the top 55 percent of advisors affiliated with Commonwealth Financial Network.

Each year, Commonwealth, the broker/dealer–RIA that helps us process investment transactions on your behalf, recognizes Business Experience advisors by inviting them to an exclusive gathering of their peers, leading industry experts, and Commonwealth home office staff. Business Experience advisors benefit from an intensive learning and networking experience designed to help them hone their expertise, share best practices, and provide ever-higher levels of service, education, and leadership to their clients.

Personal life
When she's not helping her clients pursue their dreams and aspirations, Susan enjoys spending time with her husband, Mark, and her two adult sons, James and Matthew, and their families. Susan is very active in the lives of her two grandsons, Luke and Zack (James’ sons). Susan and Mark will celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary this summer. She is also passionate about traveling, walking, and hiking with her family. She is an avid reader and amateur photographer (see her photos throughout this website). Her major hobby for the past 50-plus years has been tracing her family's genealogy and connecting with her roots in Hungary, England, and France.