ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL OF SAN DIEGO

The Estate Planning Council of San Diego is an interdisciplinary organization for professionals involved in estate planning.

Since its inception in 1955, the Council's primary objective has been to provide a better understanding of the services performed by attorneys, Certified Public Accountants, financial planners, life insurance agents, appraisers, trust officers, private professional fiduciaries, planned giving professionals, realtors, caregiving agencies and others substantially involved in estate planning and to promote cooperation among them.

Our meetings provide a medium for discussion of various, up-to-date estate planning topics of common interest. In addition to the excellent educational information and technical content, our meetings afford our members the opportunity to network, meet old friends and make new ones within the San Diego professional estate planning community.

The Council welcomes prospective new members and guests to attend our meetings which are held once a month. 

President's Welcome Message 2023-2024

Greetings and welcome to the 2023-2024 Estate Planning Council of San Diego season. As we begin our year, a HUGE thank you goes to our out-going President Tom Gotfredson for leading the Council as it navigated through the year of great change and growth. He encouraged our membership to stay committed and focused on our goal of providing an in-person experience to better understand the services performed by Estate Planning Attorneys, Accounts, Financial Advisors, Trust Officers, Planned Giving Professionals, Realtors, Caregivers and others involved in the estate planning field. 

This year we have 7 evening dinner speaker events planned to cover all aspects of estate planning to be held at the Legacy Convention Center in Mission Valley. Events will be on the third Tuesday of the months of October and November (2nd Tuesday) 2023, and January, February, April (4th Tuesday), May and June 2024. MCLE’s and CPE’s will be available again this year. 

Additionally, there will be a “kick-off” mixer event September 19th , 2023 at the Stone Brewery in Liberty Station from 5pm to 6:30pm, a Holiday social event on December 5th, at the San Diego Yacht Club, and on March 19th, 2024 off-site social event at a location TBD. See a full listing of our 2023-2024 event schedule by visiting https://www.epcsd.org/. 

I am fortunate to have a dedicated five-person Board and wish to personally thank each fellow Board member for their service to the EPCSD:

Board Members

1. Jay Robinson-Duff III, CFA | President 
2. Rick Brooks, CFP, CFA | Vice President and Speaker Chair
3. Ronald Greenwald, MBA, SRES | Membership Chair 
4. Darlene Mera, Vice President Banker | Treasurer 
5. Tom Gotfredson, Attorney | Past President 

Thanks also to the double duty the Board plays in they committee chairs for the EPCSD: 

EPCSD Committee Chairs
1. Speaker Committee Chair: Rick Brooks
1. Membership Committee Chair: Ronald Greenwald
1. Sponsorship Committee Chair: Tom Gotfredson
2. Finance Committee Chair Darlene Mera

The Board has adopted a long-range vision of the Estate Planning Council of San Diego having 250 active, dues paying members by 2025. We plan to meet this goal by focusing on high quality and entertaining presentations from leading estate planning experts in a variety of estate planning fields. We plan to expand the use of panel presentations to increase the breadth and scope of each presentation. 

We are looking for members who want to contribute to our growth. The above committees are looking for members to join for one year. To learn more please contact the chairperson of the committee you are interested in joining. This is an important endeavor for our organization. This year’s calendar is being finalized and will be distributed before October 1st . Rick and his committee have done an excellent job in creating the 23-24 program. The other important Committee is Membership run by Ron. This group has a lot of work ahead, but with “many hands make lite work”. The opportunity here is on multiple sub-committees, such as, New Member outreach, Guest outreach, Meeting greeter, and many more.

We are assisted in our efforts by our absolutely amazing administrator Lorin Silva who is returning for her Third year with the Council.

We are excited to announce that every annual sponsorship opportunity for the coming season has
been sold out.

We still have single event sponsorship opportunities ($500 per event). Please contact Tom Gotfredson or Lorin Silva if you are interested. The event sponsorship provides an invaluable introduction to our membership with prominent billing in notices before and at the event and a 5-minute opportunity to personally introduce themselves at the beginning of the gathering.

Welcome aboard to new members and welcome back for returning members. The Board wishes all of you a successful year ahead. We hope you enjoy your membership in the Estate Planning Council of San Diego and that it proves to be rewarding for you and your business. I am open to hear what you would like from the council.

Warm regards,

Jay