Ralph Sklar

Financial and Estate Planning Adviser

Ralph's perspective has been forged by over twenty-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.

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

Contact:
Phone: (415) 839-9640 ext. 111
Fax: (415) 839-8625
E-mail: rsklar@silvertransition.com

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.

Contact:
Phone: (415) 393-6127
Fax: (415) 393-6124
E-mail: Tkanaley@silvertransition.com

Brian Stewart

Life and Disability Insurance Coordinator

Brian Stewart manages the office team at Silver Transitions and has worked with the Silver Transitions team as a valued employee since 2001 specializing 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.

Contact:
Phone: (415) 839-9640 ext. 112
Fax: (415) 839-8625
E-mail: bstewart@silvertransition.com

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 an effective business service provider 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 often don’t take the time to plan for their future. He helps his clients’ personal financial results match their successful business financial results.

David enjoys volunteering in the Oakland Schools. He also drums in the Rough & Ready Blues Band where he supports community fundraisers by performing at no charge.
 

Contact:
Phone: (510) 282-1690
Fax: (415) 393-6124
E-mail: dscharff@silvertransition.com