2022 Speakers

Caleb is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certificant, Kolbe CertifiedTM Consultant, and original creator of the FPA Career Day program, which began with the Dallas/ Ft. Worth chapter and subsequently, has been implemented by other FPA chapters across the nation. Throughout Brown’s career, he has mentored, hired, managed, and coached many career changers and college students seeking internships and full time positions in financial planning as well as the firm owners who hire them.  Brown is a frequent speaker on career development topics pertaining to the hiring and successful integration of new planners into financial planning firms. He has been featured in several publications regarding his efforts to increase awareness of the profession and grow the talent supply for hiring firms.

Suzanne is the principal and owner of Daggert Financial, a growing Financial Services firm dedicated to providing business accounting and CFO services to small businesses in the SF Bay area and nationwide. Her firm’s focus is on tax compliance and CFO consulting for small businesses. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Washington and a Master of Science in Personal Financial Planning from Golden Gate University. She uses her 25 years of accounting experience working with large and small business accounting records and tax returns to discern, from financials, the status of businesses and guide them towards their chosen business goals from succession to higher profitability and growth. Her extensive experience in accounting and understanding of financial planning processes helps her find strategies to reach small business targets. Working with financial planning firms she has gained insight on how together with financial planners she can use her expertise to support small business owner’s success.

Dr. Matt J. Goren, CFP® directs the Global Financial Planning Institute’s (GFPI) curriculum and assessment. He is the Director of Knowledge for Practice at the CFP Board. Goren is an acclaimed teacher and speaker who focuses on the interplay of personal finance and psychology. Formerly a professor and CFP program director at The American College of Financial Services, he has created and taught courses on topics ranging from insurance and investments to cultural psychology and statistics. He has appeared on NPR and in USA Today and Kitces.com. He is a regular columnist at Kiplinger.com and his radio show Nothing Funny About Money won the AFCPE’s Best Consumer Financial Information Award.  In addition to his PhD from UC Berkeley, he has degrees from The University of Georgia and University of Florida.  Matt lives in Chicago and is a regular world traveler, hiker, and news junky.

Christian Newton helps financial advisors leverage Dimensional’s capital markets research and its application to portfolio and practice management. Previously, Christian spent 10 years in Dimensional’s Marketing group, serving variously as Art Director, Head of Interactive, and Vice President of Marketing, with a focus on creating materials for financial advisors. Christian experienced the first wave of internet growth working at consulting conglomerate USWeb/CKS. He holds a BA in history from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His online writing has been profiled in the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly

Chris Pettit, CFA, is a senior investment analyst in Vanguard Portfolio Review Department. He joined Vanguard in 2013 and began working in the Portfolio Review Department in 2014. Mr. Pettit earned a B.B.A.at the University of San Diego and an M.B.A. at Arizona State University. He is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia.

Phil has over 40+ years in Benefit plan design for large and small companies. Since 2011 he has established more than 1,200 plans for 1-10 person businesses at Dedicated Defined Benefit Services (DDB). Dedicated Defined Benefit Service company in 2008 pioneered Third Party Administration that was simple, cost effective, and easy to implement for small businesses with fewer than ten employees. In addition to his extensive experience helping create financial planning solutions for small business owners, Philip earned his Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) designation from Katz School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. He brings a wealth of investment neutral experience and an upbeat personality to train planners/advisors/CPAs on how to identify and implement the best benefit plan for different types of small businesses.

Jennifer is a partner with Temmerman, Cilley & Kohlmann in San Jose where she handles estate planning and administration, beneficiary representations, conservatorships, and guardianships. She also represents trustees, personal representatives, and beneficiaries in all aspects of trust administration and probate including preparation of trust accountings and estate tax returns. Jennifer earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of San Diego and a law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law. She is a frequent presenter for professional organizations, as well as a guest lecturer at Santa Clara School of Law. She has served on Silicon Valley Bar Association’s Board of Trustees from 2019-2021; as executive committee chair in 2019; and education co-chair in 2017 and 2018. Super Lawyers rated her as Rising Star in 2019, 2020, and 2021; and by Lawline.com as among the Top Women Faculty of 2019. She has co-authored numerous publications relating to estate planning.

Karen D. Sparks, C.D.F.A.® J.D. is the principal and owner of Divorce Financial Strategists™. In her capacity as a certified divorce financial analyst®, Ms. Sparks is trained to provide expert financial services that are specifically targeted to the area of divorce and separation. As part of her client engagements, Ms. Sparks has been a retained expert and trial expert witness for clients on the subject of marital standard of living, analysis and computation of separate and community property interests in real estate and valuation of business entities in order to determine income for support. She is also the co-author of the Stress-Free Divorce, volume one published in April 2017. Ms. Sparks provides divorce financial analysis to services to individuals and couples, and also provides consulting services to attorneys, mediators, alternative dispute resolution professionals, CFP® certificants and other wealth management professionals and other family law service providers.

Brian founded Trouette Insurance Agency in 1998 with a mission of providing a disciplined, analytical approach to insurance for high-net-worth individuals and families. Educating financial advisors, CPA’s, Trust and Estate attorneys about the unique challenges of insuring HNW clients has been the cornerstone of Brian’s business development strategy. Brian’s specialty is providing detailed analyses to fully understand clients’ coverage needs, expose gaps in their current coverage and provide guidance to clients to choose appropriate insurance. Careful analysis of the client’s risk profile and the specific language of policies can make the difference between being covered for a loss and a financial disaster. Brian grew up working for his family’s custom home construction business, doing journeyman work as a carpenter and plumber. Brian also worked in his father’s insurance agency as a licensed agent. Brian’s construction and insurance experience combine to create the unique perspective that he uses in property and casualty risk management.