Professional Advisors Council

Filip Babic advises individual clients and fiduciaries in the areas of estate planning, trust administration, wealth transfer taxation, and closely held business structuring. He assists clients with the design and implementation of revocable and irrevocable trusts, gift and estate tax strategies, and multi-generational wealth preservation. Filip earned his J.D. from UC Law San Francisco, his LL.M. in Taxation from NYU, and his B.A. in English from UC Berkeley. Fun Fact: Filip is a lifelong guitarist with a growing collection of vintage and modern electric guitars.

Bio coming soon.

Lauren Disston is a partner at the law firm of Conradi Disston, LLP, a boutique estate planning firm in Orinda, California.  Lauren received her B.A. from Stanford University, her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, and her LL.M. from Golden Gate University. Fun fact: Lauren was a prosecutor in Alameda County (Oakland) before transitioning to estate planning.

Marsha Laine Dungog is an international tax & estate planning partner at Withers based in San Francisco, California.  She has over 25 years of experience advising HNW individuals, family office, founders and funds with international tax risks to address, providing cross-border tax solutions that streamline everyday affairs and succession planning for globally mobile families, expanding multinational operations, and US expats worldwide. Admitted to practice law in various jurisdictions in the United States, Canada, and as a registered foreign lawyer in the UK and Australia,  Marsha leads the firm’s cross-border US-Canada global practice, and the US-Australia affiliation with Bentleys Pty (NSW), a tax advisory firm with offices in Australia and New Zealand. Her practice includes inbound and outbound tax planning for businesses, exit strategies and international tax reporting for C-suite executives, global employees and retirees relocating to the United States or abroad.

Marsha also provides legal representation for foreign trustees, executors and fiduciaries on international probate matters before Canadian and US courts, and acts as outside counsel for financial, tax and legal advisors with respect to beneficiaries and heirs receiving bequests and distributions from Canadian, Australian and US sources. A frequent author and speaker on international tax, trusts and estate planning issues, Marsha is recognized by Chambers and Partners as one of the top attorneys for private wealth law in Northern California (Band One) and by The Legal 500 for international tax, among other accolades. She graduated with distinction from Georgetown University Law Center’s LLM in Taxation program, and obtained her JD from Golden Gate School Of Law with honors. Fun fact: Marsha leads a Bodacious Botany group that meets one Saturday a month and has botanical adventures around the city!

Michael Firestone is the Managing Partner at Fire Capital Management, LLC (“FCM”). FCM is a boutique investment management company that provides HNW private wealth management, UHNW multi-family office advisory, and private foundation investment & impact OCIO services. Prior to founding FCM, he served as Portfolio Manager and Managing Director at Fiduciary Trust International, a HNW wealth management and trust company.  While managing client portfolios he also maintained various equity strategy and research roles across multiple industries and sectors. Michael holds a B.S. in Finance & Real Estate from Florida State University, a M.S. in Finance from Florida State University, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. He is also a CFA charterholder. Fun Fact: Michael is secretly training his baby girl to be a professional golfer, X Games pro snowboarder, and computer scientist.

Bio coming soon.

Melissa advises families and individuals by developing and implementing estate planning strategies to transfer assets in a thoughtful and tax-efficient manner. Her experience includes customizing revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, and other vehicles to promote her clients’ goals. She also advises fiduciaries regarding trust and estate administrations. She enjoys collaborating with other lawyers and advisors to design practical and integrated solutions to her clients’ legal needs. She is a certified Legal Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law.

Chris Hurtado is a Senior Vice President at Seven Post Investment Office LP and a member of the Board of Directors of Seven Post Trust Company.  Chris previously practiced law at firms in San Francisco and New York, where he focused his practice on tax, estate planning, and philanthropic matters.  Prior to law practice, Chris was a consultant at The Bridgespan Group, a social impact consulting firm.  Chris is licensed to practice law in California and New York.  He received a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management, and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. Fun Fact: In a prior life, Chris was an avid rock climber, with climbs throughout North America.  Today, his weekends are more “grounded,” involving trips to the local playground with his wife and son.

Lani Kapur joined Aspiriant in 2007 as a portfolio administrator in investment operations and transitioned to the wealth management team in 2010. She has over 15 years of experience serving high net worth individuals and families. In addition to her client service responsibilities, Lani is co-chair of Aspiriant’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee. Lani earned her CFP® certification in 2015. She attended Santa Clara University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance. Fun Fact: Lani enjoys car camping with her family. Their favorite place to camp is Yosemite.

Bio coming soon.

Yuki Ku advises family business owners on transforming their businesses into resilient family enterprises. She founded The Legacy Studio to help families align around shared purpose and implement values-led governance. She also founded Roots & Wings Legal to support business owners through pivotal ownership transitions—whether passing the business to the next generation, selling to management or outside buyers, or preparing for a strategic exit. Her experience includes work at top law firms such as Covington & Burling LLP and K&L Gates LLP, advising Fortune 500 clients on M&A and venture capital transactions, and serving as head of legal for a Silicon Valley tech company recognized on Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies list. Growing up in an entrepreneurial family and shadowing her father in his business inspired her passion for helping other business owners build lasting legacies.

Micah Miller serves as a Managing Director, Wealth Strategist in Cresset’s San Francisco office. In this role, he educates individuals and families on the tax and estate planning complexities they face and designs and implements comprehensive wealth transfer strategies to help achieve their personal, financial, business, and charitable goals. Prior to joining Cresset in 2023, Micah served as Managing Director and Advanced Planner on the national team at First Republic Bank. Micah graduated with distinction to receive his LL.M degree in Taxation and with honors and received his Estate Planning Certificate from Georgetown University Law Center. He earned his JD degree from Santa Clara University School of Law and his Bachelor of Art degree in political science from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. Fun fact: Micah plays the drums.

Chris Nason focuses his practice on private client matters. He is the managing editor of International Estate Planning, a multi-volume guide to US estate and income taxation of foreign nationals published annually by LexisNexis/Matthew Bender Elite.

Chris teaches classes on Trusts and Estate Planning at Stanford Law School. While in law school, Chris served as an editor for the Yale Journal of International Law and was a fellow at the China Law Center and was also a co-president of the Law and Africa Society. Prior to law school, he attended Peking University as a CSC Scholar, where he studied Chinese language and law.

Laura Pantaleo joined Laird Norton Wetherby in 2017 and has relished working with individuals and often multiple generations, using a combination of sharp analysis and personal connection to help clients manage major life transitions and fulfill their financial goals. Her prior experience includes being a partner and financial analyst at Seneca Capital Management and a financial analyst at Jurika & Voyles.  Laura holds a BA from Bishop’s University in Quebec and an MBA from University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Fun Fact: Laura grew up in Canada and spent most of her time in the pool as a competitive swimmer.

Casey Peacock is a Vice President within the Goldman Sachs Family Office Wealth Strategy team in Private Wealth Management. Prior to joining the firm, she worked in the Deloitte Private Wealth group in Chicago. At Deloitte, her work focused on ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices and charitable and estate planning. Casey is a Certified Public Accountant and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fun fact: Casey grew up living in the same house and at the same location, but she technically lived in two different states. When Casey was a child, the county rezoned the county line, and her home address changed from Illinois to Wisconsin.

Kathryn is a Strategic Advisor at Brown Advisory in San Francisco. In her role, she partners with individuals and families to clarify and prioritize their goals, assess their current financial picture, and develop comprehensive plans tailored to support their long-term objectives. Kathryn also guides clients in shaping the legacy they wish to leave—both during their lifetime and beyond—by crafting strategies that align with their philanthropic values and wealth transfer intentions. Prior to joining Brown Advisory in 2023, Kathryn spent 14 years at First Republic Private Wealth Management, where she most recently served as an Advanced Planner. Fun Fact: Kathryn studied abroad in Singapore in college and now enjoys traveling with her husband and two daughters.

Leigh Shimamoto is an advisor at Mercer Advisors, helping clients find a meaningful connection between their wealth and life goals.  She has over 20 years of experience in financial services, working with affluent individuals and their families.  She has extensive expertise working with corporate executives of companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs and professionals. Leigh graduated with a B.A. from University of California, San Diego and J.D. from Santa Clara University, School of Law. She also attended Oxford University and received an International Law Certificate in Comparative Law. Leigh currently leads the Financial Services Alliance, which focuses on the continuing education of wealth advisory professionals. Fun Fact: Leigh started riding century bike rides when she was in middle school, but now you can find her riding her e-bike 1 mile to pick her son up from school.

Philip Sousa is a Partner at Jorgenson, Siegel, McClure & Flegel LLP and is certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization as a specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law.  Philip’s practice covers all areas of estate planning and estate and trust administration, including, estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax planning; family succession planning; living trust formation and administration; irrevocable trust planning; charitable planning; life insurance planning; intra-family transactions; wills; powers of attorney; beneficiary designations; and court proceedings for issues relating to trusts and estates. Fun fact: Philip roasts his own coffee beans.

Alison Sundberg Telleen focuses on trusts and estate planning, with a particular emphasis on domestic tax law. Her background includes estate and gift taxation and non-tax aspects of estate planning, structuring wealth transfers to charitable and non-charitable recipients, and planning for incapacity. She also handles matters involving the formation of family limited partnerships, limited liability companies and tax-exempt organizations. Fun fact: Alison swam competitively through college and is now loving teaching her two little girls to swim.

Antonio Tellez is a partner at Fontanello, Duffield, & Otake, LLP, an accounting firm specializing in nonprofit clients. Antonio has more than a decade of experience working on a wide range of tax and accounting issues, including Form 990 and Form 990-PF reporting, unrelated business income tax, tax exemption, and private foundation excise taxes. Antonio received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from San Francisco State University and his master’s degree in taxation from Golden Gate University. Antonio is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Flavia is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Evercore Wealth Management, managing assets for high-net-worth families, foundations and endowments. She works with financial innovators and executives, providing financial guidance and comprehensive, customized wealth management strategies.

Prior to joining Evercore in 2025, Flavia worked as a private wealth advisor at Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. She earlier worked as a portfolio manager at Northern Trust and, before that, at Highmark Capital Management.

Flavia earned a B.A. in Political Economy of Industrial Societies from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Private Wealth Advisor designations. Fun fact: Flavia was born in Brazil and emigrated to the US with her family at the age of 10.

Edith Tse is a Director and Wealth & Fiduciary Advisor at Evercore Wealth Management and Evercore Trust Company, N.A. She has more than 20 years of experience providing comprehensive wealth planning services to individuals, families, foundations, and endowments. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds the Certified Financial Planner™ designation.

Alissa has more than 25 years of experience, with a specialization in family office accounting. Specific experience includes:

• Complex financial planning and business governance for ultra-high-net-worth individuals and multigenerational families

• Internal controls review, design, implementation, and best practices recommendations for family offices, private family foundations and public companies

• Estate, gift and charitable giving advisory/planning

• Consultation for complex accounting and financial transactions for not-for-profit entities, private equity, retail, high-tech, start-ups, professional services, and wholesale distributors

• Consultation on complex U.S. GAAP accounting issues

• Financial statement forecasting and analysis, and SEC reporting Education

Fund Fact: Alissa is aspiring to learn acoustic guitar.

Bio coming soon.

Kirsten Wolff represents individual clients in the areas of estate planning, estate and trust administration, estate and gift taxation, charitable gift planning, and probate.  Kirsten also assists clients with their philanthropic planning, including by establishing and obtaining tax exemption for new foundations and other non-profit organizations, and providing advice regarding ongoing tax and administration issues. Kirsten served as a law clerk to the Honorable James V. Selna in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Fun fact: Kirsten lived in Germany for a year as a foreign exchange student in high school.