500 Newport Center Drive, Suite 500
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Phone: (949) 721-2330
Fax: (949) 721-0734
February 2009 
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We Have Lives Too!
By the Tarbox Group Team
Laura Tarbox spends her "free" time keeping busy with work outside of work, community involvement, family, and fitness pursuits. She continues to do occasional expert witness work on cases involving sales abuses in variable annuities and also serves as a trustee on several trusts.
Most of Laura’s non-work time these days is spent as Chair of the Laguna Beach Community Foundation, which works to encourage philanthropy through the many charities in the Laguna Beach area. Thus has Laura discovered that being a Board Chair is a lot different than being a Board Member!
Her daughter, Jane, will soon be a sophomore at Laguna Beach High School and is busy with basketball and Facebook. Laura also continues to work on her yoga practice, and after seven years, still cannot do a perfect chaturanga dandasana.
Mike Nozzarella recently became a Trustee of SchoolPower, a fundraising organization that supports Laguna Beach schools. Though participating in the various fundraising campaigns was a little more time consuming than advertised (surprise, surprise!), Mike has enjoyed his involvement so far. His 10-year-old son Dominic is the center of much of his time away from the office. In addition to managing the typical fifth grade schedule, Mike enjoys listening in on Dominic’s guitar and voice lessons. Dominic moved to electric guitar last year and has mastered an eclectic selection of songs - House of the Rising Sun, All Star and Tequila. Dominic is also currently working toward his green belt (two away from black) in Kempo-style Karate.
Mike was awarded the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst designation (CDFA) last year and is currently working towards an advanced investment-focused designation, the CIMA (Certified Investment Management Analyst). Mike's other distractions are running stadium steps at Laguna Beach High, weekly “power yoga” classes, good food (have you tried True Food near Fashion Island ?), reading and traveling with his son.
Mark Wilson was recently elected to the Board of the Orange County Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Mark and Maria have been active supporters of the organization since their son, Andrew, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes seven years ago. Mark sits on the Walk Committee and helps organize the logistics and fundraising efforts of the Chapter’s annual Walk for the Cure. In addition, Mark continues to enjoy teaching Retirement Planning to future CFPs through Northwestern University. Between his volunteer work and his kids’ activities, Mark fits in a couple of games of soccer each week.
Mark’s wife Maria is looking forward to her summer off from her 3rd grade students. When asked about her summer plans, she immediately says “reading for pleasure!” Andrew (age 12) is wrapping up his first year of middle school. He enjoyed having multiple subjects and multiple teachers, though his favorite class is Band where he made the district’s Honor Band, playing trombone. Rachel (age 9) had a great year in 3rd grade. Her class highlights were acting as the mayor of her class and showing off her dance skills in the school’s annual talent show. Rachel’s recesses are split equally between the girls playing on the “Big Toy” and the boys shooting basketball.
Shannon O'Connell is a busy mom balancing career and kids. She spends much of her time away from work with her son, Charlie (age 8), and daughter, Delaney (age 5). Charlie is active in swimming, keyboard, and tennis (he's proud to have won five tennis trophies, so far). Delaney loves, loves, loves to dance and play tennis (although she is still aspiring to win her first trophy).
Raised in Alaska, Shannon and her family enjoy the great outdoors. They like to hike and camp. They have been to Alaska with the kids almost every year since they were born. Charlie caught his first silver salmon with his Grandfather in the rivers of Alaska when he was just six years old. This past summer, the family drove to Montana to attend Shannon's grandmother's 100th birthday party. They camped in five National Parks along the way ... Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone. When not outdoors, Shannon loves reading, cooking and watching classic movies.
Estelle Robinson is celebrating 22 years with The Tarbox Group. As Director of Operations, Estelle has done a great job managing the team responsible for new accounts, portfolio tracking/reporting, account asset/cash transfers and tax reporting.
Away from the office, Estelle and her family enjoy frequent trips to Parker, Arizona. The family loves boating and riding dirt bikes in the desert area around Parker and Lake Havasu. One of Estelle's passions outside the office is training and competing with her dogs. Agility is a sport consisting of a dog and handler team where the handler directs the dog in negotiating complicated courses set with obstacles. It is a race of speed and accuracy against other teams. Razr is a six year-old Papillon that has earned the Master Agility Champion title several times over. He and Estelle travelled to compete in Virginia this year at the National Championship. This was their third time competing at Nationals.
Ziggy is a three year-old Chinese Crested and is currently ranked the #1 agility Crested in the nation. Ziggy and Estelle are invited to Florida in December to compete against the nations best of each breed in the Eukanuba Invitational.