Claire Thornton is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER TM professional based in Huntington Beach, California. Claire works for Inspired Financial, a planning firm focused on helping women navigate the major life transitions that come with widowhood or divorce. Claire’s work at Inspired Financial is primarily focused on tax and estate planning and she is currently pursuing a Masters in Advance Financial Planning with a concentration in Taxation through Golden Gate University. Through the Tax and Estate Knowledge circle, Claire enjoys the opportunity to connect with other professionals in discussing the ever-evolving space of tax and estate planning.

Scott Bishop has been working in the financial services industry since 1995. In 2014, Scott joined Avidian Wealth Solutions (Avidian was formerly STA Wealth Management), as the Director of Financial Planning. Prior to joining Avidian, Scott was a founding partner at Sound Financial Solutions, L.P. and worked with Research Financial Strategies. Throughout his career, Scott has focused on working with his clients to customize the financial planning process to identify specific estate, business succession, investment and retirement strategies for individual clients and their businesses. In providing these services, our STA team utilizes a very comprehensive and customized approach that helps to assure that our client's planning and investment opportunities are identified and correctly addressed now and into the future. 

Scott graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and received his Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas. Prior to his co-founding of Sound Financial Solutions, L.P., Scott worked as an auditor for Arthur Andersen & Co. L.L.P; as a senior accountant for Energy Development Corporation and PetroCorp Incorporated; as a registered principal for Government Securities Corporation and Coastal Securities L.L.P; and as a financial advisor for Sagemark Consulting (the successor firm to CIGNA Financial Advisors). 

Currently, Scott is a  CERTIFIED  FINANCIAL  PLANNERTM  practitioner  (CFP®)  and  a  Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Over the years, Scott has conducted Continuing Education courses  for Certified Public Accountants. In addition, Scott has both authored and has been interviewed for numerous articles in financial related publications and websites such as the Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, CNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Investor’s Business Daily, Barron’s, USA Today, Money Magazine, Investopedia.com, Investment News, Kiplinger, WealthManagement.com, The AICPA Tax Section, BankRate.com, the Houston Business Journal and the CPA Forum. For his writings and contributions, Scott was named in 2019 as a Top 100 Financial Advisor in America by Investopedia.  Related to his retirement planning experience, Scott is also a member of the member of Ed Slott’s Master Elite IRA Advisor GroupSM. 
 
Scott was recently made an Advisory Board Member for the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Wealth Management Center.  He has been active as a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and holds the Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) accreditation. Also, he has been on the Board of Directors of the Houston CPA Society and has been Chairman of the Personal Financial Planning Committee. He was also recognized for excellence by being named the Young CPA of the Year for 2002-2003 by the Houston CPA Society. This award was given based on an open nomination of the membership and submitted to the Houston CPA Society board (with consideration to community service, activity within the Houston CPA Society and being in good standing with the Texas Society of CPAs). Texas Monthly Magazine has also recognized Scott as a Five Star Wealth Manager from 2009 to 2012*.