Tom joined the firm as Partner in January 2020 upon the sale and merger of his CPA practice, Phair Forbes, LLP.

Experience

Tom has been practicing in California for 30+ years, based primarily in Orange County except for five years in Northern California. Tom practiced for nearly 17 years with Deloitte and more recently 3 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers where he served as a National Director of Specialty Tax Consulting; all prior to venturing into smaller CPA firms and establishing his own practice with former partner Steve Phair.

Tom became certified as a CPA during 1989 after joining Touche Ross in 1985 following his graduation from UCSB. Tom earned a BA in Economics with an Accounting emphasis from USCB and received his Master of Science in Taxation from Golden Gate University.

Tom’s expertise and focus is primarily in tax planning, consulting and compliance, including managing simple to complex tax savings or value-added projects. He enjoys helping clients locally, statewide and beyond achieve significant tax or financial savings; his clients include individuals and businesses including their owners or leaders in a variety of industries including real estate, financial services, entertainment, aerospace and defense. With years of tax, accounting, consulting, compliance and planning experience, Tom has a solid history of delivering high quality value-added services, as well as teaming, leadership and mentoring of others.

Professional & Community Involvement

Board member of a local home-owners community.
Prior parish Finance Council member and current parish member.
AICPA member.
CalCPA member.

Personal

Born and raised to 17 in Green Bay, WI, Tom came to Southern CA in 1978. “I’ve always enjoyed working with people and numbers. My father was an MD (a Urologist, “the humble specialty” or “human plumber” as Dad often said) and I view my CPA role as similar in that I work to help improve the financial health of clients; I’m a financial physician.” Outside the office when he is not working, Tom enjoys time with family, his wife and two daughters. I’m a runner, and traveler who truly enjoys being on the go. Variety is one of the many great spices in life!”