Our Planning Team

Ralph Sklar

Financial and Estate Planning Adviser

Ralph's perspective has been forged by over thirty-five years of entrepreneurship. In 1982, while a candidate for a PhD in Economics at UC Berkeley, he founded his first business. It had over 90 employees when he sold it twelve years later.

Ralph speaks, teaches, and writes about strategies and techniques that can help entrepreneurial individuals to crystallize and attain their most important financial objectives. These strategies and techniques are all formulated by observing not only what has been successful with his clients, but what has been successful with other legacy clients as well.

In 2001 Ralph partnered with Alan Silver, nephew of the legendary Ben Silver, at The Silver Group. In 2007 Ralph renamed the company Silver Transitions, but the half-century of financial planning history, success and experience still remain within its halls today.

Ralph has been a President of the East Bay Estate Planning Council, a Trustee of the Oakland Rotary Endowment, a board member of the San Francisco Estate Planning Council, and is currently a board member of the Telegraph Area Business Improvement District, and the NYLARC Reinsurance Company.

Learn More About the Personal Side of Ralph

Thomas J. Kanaley, J.D

Financial and Estate Planning Adviser

Tom works with ultra affluent and high net worth families and business owners to help them achieve their estate, business and charitable planning objectives. He has spent more than 22 years serving clients in the areas of estate, business succession, and charitable legacy planning. He also has extensive experience in the use of life insurance for wealth preservation and integrated family wealth planning. A former practicing attorney, he served as a consultant with two major financial institutions, working throughout the country with high net worth clients and their professional advisors. Tom is a frequent speaker to professional associations and industry groups. He has addressed national audiences on the topics of life insurance planning and wealth preservation and is on the Planning Committee for the Kasner Estate Planning Symposium at Santa Clara University.

Tom is a graduate of Vassar College and earned his law degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a member of the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, the Society of Financial Services Professionals and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

Tom is a graduate of Leadership San Francisco and is active in community affairs. He is past president of St. Gabriel Church’s Parish Council, and has served on the Planned Giving Committee for the Edgewood Center for Children and Families in San Francisco. Tom lives in San Francisco with his wife and six children.

Brian Stewart

Life and Disability Insurance Coordinator

Brian Stewart helps oversee operations at Silver Transitions and has been a valued part of the Silver Transitions team since 2001. Brian specializes in Life, Health, and Disability Insurance. All of our clients benefit from his many years helping to evaluate insurance needs, and potential solutions.

Brian’s greatest strength may be in his ability to understand and clearly explain the differences between different type of policies, and identifying the features that are most important in each situation.

A lifelong resident of San Francisco, Brian has over twenty years of experience volunteering as community role model and mentor to youth.

David Scharff

Financial Services Professional

David’s passion is simple: to help business owners and their families live fuller lives by helping them make more effective financial decisions.

David has been a business advisor for over twenty years. Through hundreds of hours of conversations and working closely with business owners, he learned they are often so busy with daily operations that they sometimes don’t take the time to plan for their future. He helps his clients’ personal financial results match their successful business financial results.

David serves on the Board of Legal Assistance for Seniors of Alameda County. He also loves to play the drums for the Rough & Ready Blues Band which supports community fundraisers on a pro bono basis. David has been an active Oakland Rotary Club member for over 15 years.