About Us

Board of Directors


Founder / Chairman

Peter C. Kote, JD

Mr. Kote is founder of Professional Fiduciary Services (PFS), a select group of individuals ready to serve in fiduciary capacities including trustee, executor, conservator, or agent for the Advance Health Care Directive, Durable or General Power of Attorney for Asset and Property Management. The vision of PFS is to offer ethical, qualified and personable independent fiduciaries who work together to provide quality service for their clients. Mr. Kote’s clients range in age of seven to ninety two years old.

Mr. Kote has been a professional fiduciary since 1996. Prior to this, he was a professional in the gift-planning arena and worked for a variety of non-profits. He has been involved in raising over $50 million for various charities. He started three planned giving programs for the American Heart Association, California State University, Long Beach; and the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

In addition, Mr. Kote’s previous non-profit employment was with Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Town out of Omaha, Nebraska; Casa Colina Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation; The National Financial Planning Foundation; The National Conference of Christians and Jews, and The Youth Development Project (center director and alternative school educator.)
Mr. Kote’s financial planning experience comes from his work with the International Association for Financial Planning (known today as the Financial Planning Association) where he became the director of the Registry of Financial Planning Practitioners, a program designed to identify qualified practitioners of financial planning in the United States. Those admitted to the program had their financial plans reviewed, needed a minimum of 5 clients whom they assisted through the financial planning process, had to complete a 15 page application and pass a 4 hour examination. Mr. Kote was promoted to Membership Director of 24,000 members and was Director for the Foundation on Financial Planning. Mr. Kote also served as a trust officer with First Atlanta Bank and Wachovia Bank in Atlanta, Georgia for two years.

Teaching Experience
Long Beach – Assisted high school drop-outs in earning their GED (high school equivalency diploma)
Garden Grove – Taught special education, 5th grade
Long Beach State University – Senior University
Hope University – Associate Professor, MBA program
Community Instruction – Conducted classes in consumer finance and estate planning called “It’s Your Money,” “It’s Your Estate” and “It’s Your Real Estate.”
Orange County Volunteer Center – Planned Giving classes

Secretary

Bob Gregg

Currently Bob serves as a Principal at The Bridge Consulting Partners, a small group of highly effective and successful professionals committed to helping organizations build capacity in leadership and fund-raising. Specific areas of emphasis include overall fund-raising capacity building, strategic visioning, Board development, fund-raising/program assessment, communication, major gifts, and more.

Bob served The Salvation Army for over 16 years as the Territorial Director of Major Gifts. During that time his responsibilities included developing:
1. The comprehensive and highly effective major gifts program
2. An inclusive development Assessment process
3. The strategic planning initiative used in several divisions, departments and external groups
4. A Leadership Transition initiative

Prior he served Father Flanagan’s Boys Home for over 11 years as the National Director of Major gifts and Planned Giving.

Bob Gregg has a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Chapman University. In that process he became certified as a workshop facilitator in the Interaction Styles process for IntegralType, a leading research program in Temperament and type.

Treasurer

James H. Parrott

Jim is currently president of MedResults Network: a $6 million privately held buying network for aesthetic physicians.

Jim Parrott is a healthcare professional with a successful history of sales and operations leadership. He has expertise in physician recruitment, start-ups, multi-site management, managed care, and business development as well as strong general management, strategic planning and interpersonal skills.

Jim founded JP Associates healthcare consulting company. Their clients included physicians, major medical centers and managed care entities. A few of his major clients included Cedars-Sinai Med Center, Olsten, (now Gentiva), Baylor University Med Center, American CareSource, (a start-up PPO/TPA), Discreet Medical Solutions, (a start-up e-based ostomy supplies company), Tower Infectious Diseases, (11-physician ID practice) and Herman Hospital.

Board Member

Mark Rylance

Mark has spent the last nine years as a senior financial advisor with the wealth management firm, RS Crum Inc. based out of Newport Beach.  He provides financial planning solutions to high net worth and high income individuals.  Prior to joining RS Crum, Mark spent six years as a financial consultant in the Private Client Group at Merrill Lynch.

Mark holds the designation of Certified Financial Planner®.  He is a graduate of the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.

Mark is a past President of the Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) in Orange County.  He is also a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA).  Mark regularly volunteers his time with a number of non-profits, including Junior Achievement, Working Wardrobes, and Advisors in Philanthropy, among others.

Board Member

Laura Tarbox

A UCLA graduate with 30+ years in financial planning, Laura received her CFP in 1984.  She is President of The Tarbox Group, Inc., a fee-only wealth advisory firm she founded in 1985.  The Tarbox Group is located in Newport Beach, CA and offers comprehensive wealth and investment management services to a select group of families with substantial assets.

Laura has served as a Director on the National Board of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners, and is a past President of the Orange County Society of the ICFP.  She has written curriculum and taught investment and insurance classes for the California CPA Education Foundation, and has been part of the adjunct faculty of the College for Financial Planning, USC and California Lutheran University.  Laura taught financial planning courses in the certificate program at UC Irvine for 20 years, where she was the Program Director and founder of the successful Financial Planning Internship program.  In 1997 Laura was chosen from over 800 UCI Extension instructors to receive the Distinguished Instructor Award.

From 1998-1999 Laura served on the Charles Schwab Institutional Advisory Board, and from 1998-2000, she served on the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards’ Board of Examiners.

Formerly host of the weekly radio talk show “Money with Laura Tarbox” on K-ORG 1190 AM, Laura is frequently featured in the local and national media as an expert on financial planning and investments, and has been retained as an expert witness in insurance and investment cases.

Laura is a California Licensed Professional Fiduciary and a private trustee on several trusts.

Board Member

Mark Hebner

Mark T. Hebner is the founder and president of Index Fund Advisors, Inc., (IFA), author of the highly regarded book Index Funds: The 12-Step Recovery Program for Active Investors, focused on investor education. Mark’s current book and previous editions received praise from financial industry experts and academic luminaries, including John Bogle, David Booth, Burton Malkiel, and Nobel Laureates Harry Markowitz and Paul Samuelson. The book has been nominated as one of the three all-time greatest investment books, along with the writings of John Bogle and Warren Buffett.

This book details the possible perils associated with stock picking, mutual fund manager picking, market timing, and other wealth depleting behaviors. Hebner’s 12-Step Program teaches the differences between active and passive investing,explains the emotional triggers that impact investment decisions, and offers an enlightening education on evidence-based investing that may forever change the way an investor perceives the stock market.

Hebner is a respected speaker, frequent news contributor and authority on investing. His life’s mission is to “change the way the world invests by replacing speculation with education.” Hebner is especially knowledgeable about index funds, portfolio construction and the research indexes designed by Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama and Kenneth French. These indexes provide the building blocks for the prudent evidence-based investment strategies that Hebner implements for his IFA clients.

Mark is a Wealth Advisor (Series 65) and has an MBA from the University of California, Irvine and a Bachelor’s in Nuclear Pharmacy from the University of New Mexico. He was a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization for over 20 years and is currently a member of the World Presidents’ Organization and the Chief Executives Organization.

Prior to founding Index Fund Advisors in 1999, Mark was President, CEO and co-Founder of Syncor International (previously a public company – SCOR) from 1975 to 1985. In Jan. 2003, Cardinal Health acquired Syncor for approximately $850 million. As a division of Cardinal Health, it is the world’s leading provider of nuclear pharmacy services.

Philanthropic Advisor

Donald William Vivrette

I was born and raised in Southern California. I graduated from USC in 1971 in Accounting and Statistics and went overseas to work in Iran for a couple of years. Back to USC for a Masters in International Business in 1975. Got married and went to work for KPMG, a large accounting and consulting firm and while there I got my CPA.

Living overseas and many years of consulting made me appreciate different ways to make things happen. Being open minded has served me well in looking at how best to solve issues. When one focuses on the needs of the individual, then better solutions appear.

I left KPMG and started my own consulting firm in 1985. Over the next 30+ years I kept our first client I had through all the years. Having learned to listen to people and help them solve their problems served me well.

Last year our two daughters took over full ownership and control of our company and I retired. So what do I want to do with the rest of my life?

In 2017 my wife and I decided to sell an office building we had owned for many years. The good news is the building had gone up significantly in value over those 20+ years. However, this can cause a Capital Gains issue. Being a CPA, a data nerd and having a well-developed curiosity, I went looking for alternatives.

I attended many of the sessions from the Financial and Estate Literacy seminars. Having known Pete Kote for many years through some non-profit boards, we met and he suggested looking at a Charitable Remainder Trust to defer, not remove the tax issue.

Over a couple of months, attending seminars and licensing the software that run charitable options for you, we elected to create a Charitable Reminder Unitrust and funded it with the building. The building was sold, the funds invested and now paying us an income. The trust has operated for several years and we remain convinced it was the right thing for us to do.

Before doing the trust we did not realize that you can give something away and still get money for life. That sounds a bit odd, but if structured effectively it all works. We get an income for the rest of our lives, the government gets their taxes over that time and when we have both died, the remainder of the money goes to the charities we designate.

The most important thing to us was to talk about what we wanted to do. What was best for our family. And give something to charity when we die. The trust accomplishes all that for us.

So after all this research and talking to a lot of people, I will be teaching the Charitable Giving sessions at this fall’s It’s Your Estate seminars around the county. A few years ago I would not have guessed that in my retirement I would be teaching seminars on charitable giving, but coming from a family that always believe in giving, I guess I should not have been surprised.

Board Member

Carl A. Wayne, J.D.

Carl specializes in charitable estate planning utilizing contributions of appreciated non-cash assets, such as real estate, stocks, mutual funds, life insurance, etc., to fund bequests, donor-advised funds, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder and lead trusts.

Based in Los Angeles, California, and responsible for covering ten western states, Carl’s focus is creating awareness of the important mission of American Heart Association by nurturing relationships with wealth advisors and estate planning attorneys as a knowledgeable resource of charitable giving, income and tax planning strategies for clients who are philanthropically inclined and want to fund solutions.

Prior to joining American Heart Association, Carl worked in higher education fundraising at UCLA, California State University, Long Beach, United Negro College Fund and also practiced law. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from UCLA and a Juris Doctorate from University of West Los Angeles School of Law. He is an active member of State Bar of California, and several estate planning councils. He is also an active member of Financial Planning Association (FPA) and was recently elected to serve on FPA National Board of Directors for a three-year term (2020-2022).

In his free time, he enjoys walking, biking, reading, movies, cooking, and perusing vintage bookstores while traveling his assigned territory