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Richard C. Sokorai is a partner at High Swartz LLP.

Shaffer is the senior vice president of the Enrollment Center for Unum US and Colonial Life and of Growth Markets for Colonial Life. He leads a center of excellence responsible for setting enrollment strategy for both companies, as well as strategy development and program and service support for Colonial Life’s large account and public sector markets.

Mr. Weber, MBA, CLU, AEP is President and primary consultant for The Ethical Edge, Inc., which provides training and consulting services that empower advisors and their clients to explore and view life insurance in the broader context of financial planning and asset management. For 25 years a successful life insurance agent, Mr. Weber was the co-developer of Dynamic Insurance Solutions and Historic Variability Module – computer-based tools that have begun to revolutionize the way advisors and their clients evaluate life insurance products.\n\nHis book, Revealing Life Insurance Secrets: How the Pros Pick, Design, and Evaluate their Own Policies, is published by Marketplace Books and is directed at advisors and financial service professionals. His most recent publication, co-written with Christopher Hause, FSA, MAAA, is Life Insurance as an Asset Class - A Value-added Component of an Asset Allocation, was honored with a 2008 Best Paper Award from the Academy of Financial Services.\n\nMr. Weber has been a life-long educator, including an 11 year stint as an Instructor of Insurance at the University of California at Berkeley's Program in Personal Financial Planning. From 1993 through 1998, Mr. Baker served as Adjunct Professor of Ethics at the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Risk and Insurance in California Lutheran University’s MBA program.\n\nMr. Weber was the Society of Financial Service Professional’s Kenneth Black, Jr. Leadership Award recipient for 2008 in recognition of his “... exemplary leadership qualities and significant contributions to the fulfillment of the Society’s core values of ethic, education, and relationships.” In 2009, he was elected to the NAEPC Estate Planning Hall of Fame and selected to receive the Distinguished Accredited Estate Planner award and designation for “… significant and outstanding lifetime achievements and contributions to the practice and profession of estate planning.”\n\nMr. Weber holds an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley with a specialty in Insurance and Finance and was designated a Chartered Life Underwriter in 1974. He is the 2010 Secretary-Elect for the 15,000 member Society of Financial Service Professionals.\n\nPhone: 510-868-8804

Richard has more than 20 years of experience delivering specialized personal tax and financial planning services to high net worth individuals, including closely held business owners, executives, and hedge fund managers. He provides tax consulting; income and estate tax planning; federal, state and local tax compliance services; and representation before federal and state tax authorities for such individuals. Richards works with clients on multi-generational tax planning, philanthropic planning, wealth preservation strategies, and risk management.\nPrior to joining WeiserMazars, Richard held senior executive positions at two prominent family office advisory firms and was National Leader of Trusts and Estates at a major accounting firm. He has over 17 years of Big 4 personal financial planning experience.\nRichard received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Delaware and his Master of Science in Taxation from Seton Hall University. He is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey, a Personal Financial Specialist and a licensed insurance advisor (Life, Accident, Health or Sickness and Variable).\nRichard is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants – Personal Financial Planning Section and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Richard Kang has served as our Chief Investment Officer and Director of Research since September 1, 2008. He has been active in both institutional and individual asset\/risk management for over thirteen years with extensive experience in alternative asset classes, especially hedge funds and managed futures, as well as strategies applying the use of passively managed instruments. Mr. Kang began his career in 1995 at Guardian Timing Services, a Toronto based hedge fund, spending over six years with such boutique investment firm whose services for institutional investors focused on: 1) tactical asset allocation strategies using index derivatives, 2) Long-short US equity programs, and 3) Structured products with underlying hedge fund strategies. Many of these strategies employed the use of the earliest ETFs.In 2001, Mr. Kang was hired to build and manage the investment management subsidiary for Affinity Financial Group, a private wealth management firm. In late 2002, Mr. Kang co-founded Meridian Global Investors (“Meridian”), an investment counseling firm managing globally diversified portfolios including both traditional and alternative asset classes primarily through the use of passive instruments. For private investors, mandates were global long-only asset allocation mandates with option overlays. For institutional investors (multi-strategy hedge funds and FOFs), mandates were primarily short-only "beta filtering" overlay programs to offset unwanted market risk\/exposures but also to advise on areas of new or alternative beta exposures to consider based on statistical analysis. In addition to running Meridian, in the summer of 2003, Mr. Kang was retained by a Toronto based start up fund-of-hedge-funds, Quadrexx Asset Management, for two years to oversee its operations in the role of Chief Investment Officer.Having departed from Meridian at the end of 2006, Mr. Kang then focused on work outside of Canada, consulting for various asset allocators as well as fund managers in the areas of hedge funds and ETFs. From the fall of 2007 to the fall of 2008, Mr. Kang helped start up and was the first CIO of ETFx Indexes LLC, a boutique index provider focused on alternative investments (alternative asset classes, alternative indexing methodologies, alternative themes and strategies).Mr. Kang is frequently engaged as a speaker on a broad array of topics ranging from instrument types (ETFs, hedge funds, derivatives), portfolio management (strategies involving asset allocation, use of alternative investments, Emerging Markets) as well as risk measurement\/management. He has been quoted in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Investors Business Daily, SmartMoney, CBS MarketWatch and BusinessWeek. In addition to business television appearances and writing articles for various industry publications and journ als, Mr. Kang has served as a chairman, moderator, panelist and advisory board member at numerous industry conferences in the United States, Canada, and Europe as well as more recently in the Mideast and Far East Asian regions.

Richard Bregman, formerly of Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan), has been an investment advisor since 1991.\n\nRichard's interest in helping people achieve their goals led him to pursue law after graduating from Cornell. He received his J.D. from George Washington Law School and litigated for several years.\n\nNot fully satisfied with trial law, Richard explored alternate ways to help people achieve their goals, particularly financial ones. He earned an MBA in finance from New York University, entered the investment management and advisory field, and became a chartered financial analyst (CFA). In 1997, Richard formed MJB Asset Management. \n\nThe 2000-2002 market turbulence was a watershed event for Richard, leading him to re-assess conventional wisdom and develop his “Respect the Realities” approach to investing and client relations. \n\n"Respect the Realities" means accepting uncertainty as a natural condition and preparing for it. The typical "wait-and-see" or "hope-and-pray" financial service industry approach is a passive response that lessens the motivation for advisors to find effective alternative strategies. It also cheapens the relationship between advisor and client. \n\nRichard understands that uncertainty can lead to fear and that fear demands compassion, a willingness to acknowledge and discuss client trepidation as a normal part of pursuing financial goals. "Respect the Realities" respects you, creating an opportunity for an authentic advisory relationship.\n\n