Kimberly D. Bernatz

, CFP®, AEP®

Managing Director

Kimberly Dwan Bernatz is team executive and head of CIBC Private Wealth’s Newport Beach office. In this role, she leads the client service team and the firm’s growth initiatives in the Pacific Southwest. She has more than 20 years of investment, estate, retirement and financial planning experience.

Over the course of her career, Kimberly has worked with high net worth individuals, families and non-profit organizations to craft customized plans for clients in the areas of wealth and estate planning, personal trust and investment management. In predecessor firms, she has also been responsible for team management, setting and implementing sales and marketing strategies as well as for fiduciary and new business risk assessment.

Prior to joining CIBC Private Wealth, Kimberly was a senior vice president and director of wealth management advisory services for First American Trust, FSB and a vice president and business development officer at Northern Trust.

Kimberly received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Southern California and holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and Accredited Estate Planner (AEP®) certifications. She is also a member of the Orange County Estate Planning Council, the Financial Planning Association of Orange County and the Hoag Hospital Foundation Planned Giving Advisor Council.

Additionally, Kimberly serves as immediate-past chairman of the board of directors for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, is a past chairman of the Pacific Chorale board of directors and is a founding member of the Center for Investment and Wealth Management at the University of California, Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.

Kimberly has been quoted and published in The Wall Street Journal, The Orange County Register, MoneyRates.com and Nonprofit Business Advisor and was named to the Orange County Business Journal’s Distinguished Leaders – Wealth Management list in 2022. ​