Summit Corporate

Sarah Rich is the Chief Administrative Officer at Summit Financial LLC. Sarah is responsible for the oversight of Human Resources and acts as a key advisor to Senior Leadership and other valued stakeholders. She guides management and employee actions by communicating and enforcing organizational values while working closely with business heads and advisors to hire and develop talent and consults in areas of training, employee relations and career coaching. Sarah has over 15 years of experience in Human Resources with most of her career spent in financial services. She specializes in employee relations and talent recruitment.

Prior to Summit, Sarah worked as a consultant for Société Générale, a business partner for Mylan Pharmaceuticals, and a business partner and generalist for Soros Fund Management LLC. At Mylan, she concentrated her expertise in employee relations, onboarding, talent recruitment, and benefits consultation. While at Soros, Sarah concentrated her expertise in recruiting, benefits platform development, and employee relations. She also acted as the Administrative Manager for all Executive Assistants and the Reception department including recruiting/terminations, daily oversight, and employee relations. Sarah has a B.S in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University. She lives in Cedar Knolls with her husband and three daughters.

Tara Pizzutillo is the Director of Investment Operations at Summit Financial LLC. She is responsible for leading the strategic development and operational oversight of the Investment Operations teams and functions. Tara provides guidance and structure to ensure consistent and superior execution while maintaining an environment of continuous optimization of team performance, systems, and processes.

Tara is seasoned in a variety of Investment Operations roles with over 25 years in Finance and Banking. She has been awarded with recognition for excellence from Summit’s predecessor, Summit Equities. Tara has a B.S. in Business Administration with a focus in Management from Centenary College. She holds her FINRA Series 7, 24, 55, and 63 licenses. Tara has two sons and lives in Long Valley, NJ.

Steve Pfundstein is the Chief Technology Officer at Summit Financial LLC. He joined Summit’s predecessor firm in 2010 and is responsible for oversight of the technology department. With over 15 years of experience in managing teams of IT professionals in the implementation and management of enterprise networks, large scale migrations, and system implementations, Steve and his team have built a robust technology platform consisting of some of the industry’s best systems with a focus on a simple yet powerful user experience. Steve earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Science with a minor in Marketing from Franciscan University. He lives in Randolph with his wife and five children.

Barbara Hawkesworth joined Summit Financial LLC as the Chief Legal Officer in April 2019. Most recently, Barbara had been consulting with her private practice. Prior to that, she was Managing Counsel at BNY Mellon/Pershing, Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase, and EVP-Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Rochdale Investment Management. While at Rochdale, she was responsible for overseeing all legal and compliance matters related to the firm’s SEC registered investment companies, investment advisors, and affiliated registered FINRA broker dealers. She also worked with the CEO and the senior leadership team on new business strategies and initiatives. Barbara attended New York Law School where she earned her J.D.

David is the Director of Insurance and has been with Summit Financial, LLC for 14 Years. He earned a B.S. from Boston University. David specializes in the design and implementation of insurance strategies to enhance the overall protection within a client’s financial plan by working closely with the Summit team of Attorney’s, CPA’s and Financial Planners. He has extensive knowledge of Life, Disability and Long-Term Care insurance in today’s world and how it can be leveraged to cover many of the unforeseen changes that may occur in the future.

Outside of work, David likes to stay active by running, playing tennis, and riding his vintage motorcycle.

James Rabasca is a Senior Tax Specialist in the Integrated Planning Group of Summit Financial LLC. Jim provides guidance on estate, tax, retirement, charitable, and business planning. Prior to joining Summit, he was a Vice President/Account Manager at Ayco, a Goldman Sachs Company, where he provided comprehensive financial and tax counseling to corporate executives and high net worth individuals. Before Ayco, Jim worked as an attorney, and focused his practice on taxation, business planning, and estate planning. He graduated from Rider University with a B.S. in Business Administration and earned his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.