Two months after Pete graduated from UCLA with a degree in Economics, his father passed away from a sudden heart attack. Pete’s father was a successful physician and the complexity of settling his estate and structuring his mother’s financial life added greatly to the emotional difficulty. This tragic event was to be the beginning of Pete’s involvement and interest in financial planning. Overcoming the challenges of this difficult time of crisis with his mother and other family members showed Pete the value of a trusted advisor and gave him a “client-side” perspective that he carries with him to this day.

Now, Pete is a skilled Certified Financial Planner Practitioner (CFP®) who greatly enjoys helping individuals and families understand, organize and optimize their financial assets. His focus is in the design and implementation of investment portfolios. He is particularly passionate about building portfolios that are well diversified and tax-efficient while keeping investment costs low.

Pete’s early work experience included 8 years with a real estate investment /development company and another 5 years in the mortgage lending division of Cal Fed Bank in Los Angeles. Pete completed his Certified Financial Planner coursework in 1997 and passed the rigorous 2-day exam in early 1998. After working for a Broker-Dealer firm for a few years, Pete moved to the Fee-Only (non-commission) advisory business model and from 2000 until 2004, Pete managed the Santa Barbara office of Petra Financial Advisors, a firm headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO. In 2001, Pete was part of the original team which formed Walpole-Petra Financial Advisors (Walpole-Petra). Pete served as the firm’s lead advisor. In 2004, Pete founded Kozak Financial Advisory, based in Camarillo. The same year, Pete acquired half ownership in Walpole-Petra, which was later renamed Walpole Financial Advisors. Pete remained the firm’s lead advisor until he left the firm in 2009. Pete is very involved in the financial planning profession, currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ventura County Financial Planning Association. He also served as a 5 year member of the Saint John’s Hospital Estate Planning Symposium Committee.

Pete resides in Camarillo with Jackie, his wife of 18 years and their three daughters and two Rough-Coated Collies. Pete spends many fall and spring evenings coaching youth soccer and track.