STEP OC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Business Development Officer
Anna Fedosova-Caldera, CTFA, MBA, TEP is a Vice President and a Senior Trust Officer at US Bank, Private Wealth Management. Anna provides services to the Private Wealth management clients, with an emphasis on sophisticated wealth and tax planning, fiduciary services and trust administration for families, businesses, business owners, charities and endowments. As a member of a comprehensive wealth management team in Orange County, California, Anna focuses on building lasting client relationships, partnerships and thoughtful collaboration. In particular, Anna identifies needs for advanced planning and coordinates the execution with external and internal partners.
Prior to joining US Bank, Anna was a Vice President and a Senior Trust Officer at Wells Fargo Bank, Wealth Management division, managing an impressive portfolio of clients and handling complex trust administration with emphasis on legal and tax research as well as sophisticated and advanced estate planning. Anna has 15 years of experience in trust administration and fiduciary services after starting her career at Frist Bank, Wealth Management group as a Trust Officer and Relationship Manager.
Anna graduated from Moscow University (MGU) with a B.A. in Science, Moscow University of Economics, and Statistics and Information (MESI) with a Master's Degree in Finance (MSF), and University of California Irvine, the Paul Merage School of Business with an M.B.A.
Anna is a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (CTFA) and is a Registered Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP). She is a member of the Orange County Estate Planning Council and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). Anna serves on a board of STEP OC as International Ambassador. Complementing her professional and international background, Anna speaks fluent Russian and German.
Craig S. Redler has held positions with Amicorp in its offices in Auckland New Zealand and Miami Florida, and Southpac Trust International, Inc. with offices in the Cook Islands and Tauranga New Zealand. His responsibilities included serving as Trustee for off-shore trusts settled by high net-worth clients along with structuring bank accounts throughout various countries in Europe and Asia.
Redler was most recently with the Jeffrey M., Verdon Law Group in Newport Beach California. Prior to that, he was an original shareholder of the Law Offices of Redler & Seigel, P.C., an estate planning, tax planning and trust administration law firm serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. Prior to forming this firm, he was a litigator with Goffstein, Raskas, Pomerantz, Kraus & Sherman, L.L.C. in St. Louis.
Redler has also served as a Legislative Assistant to the Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives, and was Systems Engineer for EDS/GM in Detroit Michigan, in addition to being a talk-radio host.
He earned his B.S./B.A degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia and his J.D. degree from the Washington University School of Law.
Redler is admitted to practice in California, Missouri and Illinois. He also is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri; U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois; and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. He has earned the prestigious designation of Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) from the Society of Trust and Estate Planners (STEP) where he serves on the Board of Directors for the Orange County California chapter.
Cindy Brittain is a partner in BakerHostetler's Trusts and Estates practice, focusing on domestic and international estate and tax planning. Cindy has deep experience in international cross-border planning, advising large global families and their wealth transfer strategies. Her experience bridges private client and cross-border corporate integration. Prior to joining BakerHostetler, Cindy was the director of Inbound Wealth Advisory and a senior fiduciary officer at an international financial institution, where she assisted clients with their cross-border strategies. She worked with the company's Delaware office to establish foreign trusts with interposed foreign corporations. Cindy also advised on pre-immigration planning, using eligible check-the-box corporations, defective section 351 transactions and non-qualified preferred stock for cost-basis step-up.
Job Titles:
- Member at Large / Northern Trust
- Member of the Orange County Estate Planning Council
Dawn Austin is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Orange County region's fiduciary practice, including oversight of all trust relationships, management and mitigation of fiduciary risk, review of all new trust business, and oversight of all court related matters including administrative petitions and fiduciary litigation. Dawn also works with select Wealth Management clients and their advisors to develop integrated tax and estate plans and wealth management strategies.
Before joining Northern Trust, Dawn was a practicing attorney with a Trust and Estates firm in Philadelphia. Her practice focused on tax and estate planning for high net worth individuals and families. She then spent several years as a Senior Trust Officer in Orange County where she provided trust administration, estate planning and financial education services to wealthy individuals and families.
Dawn received her Bachelor's Degree from Princeton University and her Law Degree and LL.M. in Taxation at Villanova University School of Law.
Dawn is a member of the Orange County Estate Planning Council, the Orange County Bar Association, STEP, and the American Bar Association Trusts and Estates Section.
In the community, Dawn is on the Board of Directors of Girls, Inc. of Orange County and the Basset Hound Rescue of Southern California, and is a member of the Junior League of Orange County.
Fei's experience includes providing tax compliance and domestic and international tax consulting services to closely held businesses such as partnerships, limited liability companies, C Corporations, and S Corporations. She has successfully represented many clients before the Internal Revenue Service and the California Franchise Tax Board to resolve tax notices and audit examinations.
Fei specializes in serving high net-worth multi-generational families and closely held business owners in areas related to estate and gift tax, post-mortem tax planning, fiduciary income tax, generation-skipping transfer tax, and business succession planning.
Fei provides tax compliance and consulting services for international investors on income and estate tax planning, strategic planning for investment in the U.S. real estate market, and pre- immigration tax planning.
Fei earned both a B.S. in Commerce with Concentration in Accounting and a M.S. in Taxation from the University of Virginia. She is a member of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants and a member of the Orange County Estate Planning Council. Fei is fluent in both written and spoken Chinese.
Greg E. Custer, CTFA, TEP is an Executive Vice President and Manager, Orange County, Administration in Whittier Trust's Costa Mesa office. Greg provides client administrative services to a wide range of client profiles with a focus on the very high net worth individual. He advises clients on matters ranging from estate plans, gifting, and real estate, to various concierge services. Greg received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Puget Sound. He is a graduate of Cannon Financial Institute's Trust School and holds the Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (CTFA™) designation. Greg is on the board of YMCA of Orange County, Orange Sherriff's Advisor Council is also a Director for The Tournament of Roses and has served as a chair on several committees most recently overseeing the television stations for the parade.
Kelly Cruz is an estate planning attorney based in Orange County, California with more than fourteen years of experience working with high net worth families and individuals. Kelly is a Partner and Director of Strategic Planning for Aspiriant, a national independent RIA with more than $12 billion of assets under management. Kelly also represents clients throughout California, including Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as a Partner of her law firm, Primiani, Stevens, Cruz & Punim. Kelly has extensive experience serving affluent families and corporate executives with assets ranging from $5 million to $1 billion. Her work includes traditional trusts and wills, sophisticated wealth transfer techniques, real property transfers, business succession planning, philanthropy planning, valuation issues pertaining to wealth transfer planning, and federal gift tax returns. In her role at Aspiriant, Kelly works closely with client service teams to help clients make sound financial decisions by providing context and offering estate planning solutions that integrate estate planning, investments, taxes, cash flow, and family goals.
Kelly earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine (go Anteaters!), graduating cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She then went on to earn her J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law. She is a member of the California Bar Association, the State Bar of California, and STEP-Orange County.
Michael Yi holds an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Management. His extensive experience, both as a consultant and as a practitioner, includes prior roles as a CPA in public accounting with a Big Four and other national CPA firms before becoming the CFO of an IBM marketing company. Thereafter, Michael served as an officer of a premier investment management firm with over $52 billion in assets under management, a manager/principal of a specialist business valuation firm, a managing director of an investment banking firm, and a managing director with a national business valuation firm headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.
Michael taught several MCLE and CPE courses for attorneys and CPAs, along with a business course at a local university. In addition, Michael is a regular speaker at national Conferences and seminars for CEOs and business owners on valuations and financial advisory services.
He serves on a number of Boards and professional organizations.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Certified Financial Planner
- Member of Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners
- Membership Development Officer
Paul Hynes is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professional and financial advisor with more than 35 years of experience. Paul is the founder, President and CEO of HearthStone|Private Wealth Management, a fee-only investment management and financial planning firm with offices in Irvine, Temecula, and San Diego.
A native Bostonian and graduate of the University of Virginia, Paul spent the first 22 years of his career with a large Wall Street investment firm. He's led HearthStone since 2006.
Paul is a member of Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP), National Association of Personal Financial Planners (NAPFA), Financial Planning Association (FPA), Professional Fiduciary Association of Ca. (PFAC), as well as several Bar Associations and Estate Planning Councils.
Paul is the founder of two other organizations: Senior Safe & Sound - a non-profit entity dedicated to educating and protecting seniors from financial abuse and exploitation; and Women on the Mark - an educational program that introduces women to firearms and firearms safety.
Renee Gabbard provides her clients-including privately held businesses, high net worth clients, and charitable organizations-a wide range of legal services including all aspects of income, capital gains, gift and estate tax planning, charitable planning, advanced wealth and business succession planning, capital gains tax deferral techniques, acquisition, sale and liquidity planning, private corporate structuring, asset freeze techniques, family office planning, insurance planning, trust tax planning, and trust administration. Her experience includes business succession and wealth planning for high net worth families and families with concentrated stock, real estate, sports teams and/or privately held businesses. Renee provides these services by combining two disciplines, the Federal Gift and Estate Tax with the formation and taxation of privately held pass through entities such as limited partnerships, LLCs, and S Corporations.
Since 2017, Yana Weaver has over twenty years of experience in private and public accounting experience and extensive experience in many areas of taxation. She is serving clients in manufacturing, healthcare and real estate industries providing them with entity planning support, transaction structuring, buy/sell agreements, practice entry and exit strategies, cross-border transactions and other important financial matters. Yana's area of expertise is U.S. international taxation and compliance. She provides international taxation consulting to the firm's foreign-owned corporate clients as well as US-resident clients doing business abroad. ana's background includes, among other services, extensive experience in revenue recognition for tax purposes, Section 382 issues (Net Operating Losses), preparation and review of provisions for current and deferred income taxes under ASC 740 (formerly FAS 109 and FIN 48), analysis of overhead allocations for the purpose of uniform inventory capitalization rules (Section 263A), and related party transactions. Yana has an M.B.A. degree in Finance, University of California, Irvine M.S. degree in Taxation, Golden Gate University B.S. degree in Business Administration with a Finance & Banking emphasis, Russian Economic Academy.