Transactions from the Trenches

Date: Thursday, April 1, 2021
Time: 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Location: ZOOM ***Friends and guests of the council: email admin@eptclb.org to pay a reduced $30 guest fee for meeting access***
Speaker: Ron Miller, Evan Sandler, Jim Sullivan, Paul Velasco

Transactions from the Trenches: Learn from the South Bay & the Long Beach Estate Planning & Trust Council Members as they Share ‘Best and Worst of’ Stories. Moderated by- Lauren Osborne, President EPTCLB

Join us as Attorney Paul Velasco, Fiduciaries Ron Miller and James Sullivan, and CPA Evan Sandler discuss unique estate planning scenarios they have encountered and how they have overcome challenging estate planning obstacles. The speakers will outline how they used various financial, tax, and portfolio planning strategies to resolve client conundrums.  

***Friends and guests of the council: email admin@eptclb.org to pay a reduced $30 guest fee for meeting access

Ron Miller is the CEO & Managing Principal of Select Fiduciary Group LLC. He has substantial experience serving in a fiduciary capacity as Trustee, Probate Administrator, Durable Power of Attorney Agent, Conservator and Receiver for clients with $1 million to $500 million in assets, and has administered over 500 client accounts and managed over $40 billion of assets in every asset class. He provides his fiduciary clients with case administration, daily money management, personal financial planning and investment management, real estate property management, business management and financial literacy training. He serves as a neutral fiduciary in conflict cases; a consultant and expert witness for fiduciary matters and corporate finance, capital markets finance and investment finance matters; and he provides strategic planning and transaction execution management services for clients with real estate and business interests. He also has expertise with cases involving environmental contamination and with distressed and bankrupt assets. 

Paul D. Velasco is the principal of Velasco Law Group, APC, in Long Beach, California. Paul has been practicing for more than 20 years and focuses his practice exclusively on estate planning, probate and trust administration, as well as probate and trust litigation. He is certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization as a Certified Specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law, a distinction held by less than one percent of all attorneys in California.

He has lectured extensively for wealth management advisors, corporate trustees and other professionals on trust and estate planning matters. Paul and his firm have represented Farmers & Merchants Trust Company of Long Beach, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Union Bank, and other professional trustees as legal counsel on various trust, probate and litigation matters. Paul is also fluent in Spanish, one of a few bilingual estate planning attorneys in the entire State of California. He is a member of the Trusts and Estates Section of the State Bar of California and the Estate Planning and Trust Council of Long Beach. Paul is also very active in the community.

He is a Volunteer Attorney for the City of Santa Fe Springs Legal Services programs, which offers free legal services to low income residents, and he sits on the Board of Directors of CAPC, Inc., a non-profit organization in Whittier, California, whose mission is to empower adults with disabilities to realize their full potential and live independently. 

Jim Sullivan created ConservaTrust in 2009 to fulfill his vision of a boutique firm dedicated to providing a wide range of services by a team of expert professional fiduciaries and support staff. After helping his own father-in-law in his twilight years with estate planning, healthcare decisions and assistance to the surviving spouse, Jim felt compelled to use what he had learned for the benefit of others. He teamed with his mentor in 2010 to complement the elder statesman’s 55+ years of experience in trust administration and investment management.

Jim has since gone on to become licensed to serve as Trustee, Executor or Administrator of Probate Estates, Conservatorship of Person and/or Estate and certified Guardian. His reputation for excellence has led to him being asked to serve on many complex cases. He also specializes in cases involving sophisticated real estate property issues and operation of businesses. Jim is fully insured and bondable and  his assets under management for clients exceeds $100,000,000.

Jim prides himself in getting things done quickly and efficiently and embraces the “team” approach to make sure clients always have access to one of ConservaTrust’s dedicated and compassionate professional fiduciaries whenever the need may arise.

Evan Sandler is a Tax Manager at Onisko & Scholz with a specialty in estate and trust tax.
Evan graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a major in Political Science in 1992.

After graduating, he worked as an Auditor for the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust while attending night school at UCLA Extension in order to complete their Certificate in Accounting.

Upon completion, he entered the field of Public Accounting gaining valuable experience in the fields of auditing, accounting and tax. In 2015, Evan graduated from Golden Gate University with a Masters in Tax degree in order to build on his specialty areas of Estate and Trust work, as well as high-net worth clients.

As a lifelong sailor, Evan enjoys spending time on the water, boating; and in the backyard gardening. He is also the Treasurer of the Buena Park Rotary Club and active in the community

Thank you to this month's speaker sponsor

The Long Beach Community Foundation

Thank you to our annual sponsors

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