Our Current Board
Jeff was a board member of the National Committee on Planned Giving and the Northern California Planned Giving Council (including board chair). His other volunteer activities have included: a member of the National Committee on Planned Giving’s Investment Committee; a member of the Community Foundation for the Napa Valley's finance committee, co-chair of the professional advisory council at the Peninsula Community Foundation, and a member of the professional advisory councils of the East Bay Community Foundation, Asian Pacific Fund and Community Foundation Silicon Valley. Jeff graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
He started his career as a tax and estate-planning attorney with the law firm of Shannon, Porter, Johnson &; Pfluger in San Angelo, Texas. He has served as a financial planning and insurance professor at University of Georgia, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Georgia State University and Texas Tech University. Tombs also served for a time as an Associate Vice President of First Colony Life Insurance Company. He has developed a specialty in financial planning for the recipients of tort settlements and is a founding partner in Amicus Financial Advisors, LLP and Tombs Maxwell, LLP. Tombs’ education includes JD and MBA degrees from Texas Tech University. He also holds the CFP,
ARM, RSP, CLU and ChFC designations. He has served as President of the Society of Settlement Planners, Registry of Settlement Planners Board, and the South Plains Trial Lawyers Association.
Tombs’ education includes JD and MBA degrees from Texas Tech University. He also holds the CFP, ARM, CLU and ChFC designations. He is a member of the Society of Settlement Planners, the American Bar Association, the Financial Planning Association and the State Bar of Texas.
Past Board Members
After his retirement from Georgia Tech, Gearing served four years as director of stewardship development with The Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. Since 1991, he has served as a stewardship consultant with the Episcopal Church Center, and as a field representative of the Episcopal Church Foundation. In 1999 he was appointed as Director of Diocesan Programs for the Episcopal Church Foundation, and in that capacity he assists dioceses across the country in developing their planned giving programs. He is a co-author of the Foundation's manual, Funding Future Ministry: A comprehensive guide for church leaders to encourage planned gifts in support of Christian ministries, and has recently completed a companion manual, A Diocesan Gift Planning Program: Guidelines for Success. Outside the Episcopal Church, Gearing has served in leadership and development roles in several non-profit organizations, such as Nicholas House, Jerusalem House, Memorial Society of Georgia, and the Alzheimer’s Association (where he currently serves as Chairman of the Endowment Fund).
Before entering the structured settlement profession, Newton assisted affluent families and senior executives of leading public and private corporations with critical estate, insurance and cash flow planning. He has been quoted in national publications and has co-authored a study on annuities that was published nationally.