Colene Stratford

Estates Trusts

Foundations

High Net Individuals

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A native from a small southeastern Idaho farming community, Colene learned early to “roll up her sleeves and complete the work.” After graduating from Brigham Young University, receiving
a Bachelor’s of Science degree in accounting, she relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. For the past 29 years, she worked at Howson and Simon LLP, a boutique financial and tax firm located in Walnut Creek, with colleagues sharing a similar “roll up your sleeves” mentality. Focusing on a few high-net worth individuals, she gained experience with individual, trust, charitable remainder trust, and private foundation tax compliance and planning. A long history of working together with the same clients has allowed her to develop close relationships with her clients and their family members so that she can completely understand their financial and personal goals.

Her early career includes seven years with Price Waterhouse’s Walnut Creek office providing tax compliance for closely held S Corporations and their executive owners / shareholders. She also worked in Arthur Andersen’s Oakland tax department for one year. Despite the short time period, Arthur Andersen’s in-house tax training provided a good knowledge base of Ronald Reagan’s Tax Reform Act of ’86 that overhauled the tax code.

Colene joined Calegari and Morris in January 2024 bringing with her 37 years of experience.

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