We're excited to announce that Ryan J. Dobens, Director at KBF Advisory, is the winner of the inaugural Distinguished QSBS Advisor Award. Ryan was formally recognized at the 2026 QSBS Summit in Jackson, Wyoming in late September.
Ryan was selected by his peers. The nominations we received described a practitioner who pairs deep technical command of Section 1202 with a rare commitment to sharing that knowledge, and who has done as much as anyone this year to connect the community of advisors working in this space.
The Distinguished QSBS Advisor Award is a peer-nominated honor for tax, trust and estate, and startup advisors who excel at both technical advising and client service related to Qualified Small Business Stock. We launched it this year because demand for sophisticated QSBS guidance has never been higher, and the practitioners setting the standard deserve recognition.
Nominees were assessed primarily on the written feedback submitted by their peers. The award recognizes advisors who excel at advanced planning, transactional work, and navigating nuance without compromising client needs, and who have built a reputation for consistent quality across every aspect of their practice.
Ryan is a Director at KBF Advisory, where he leads the firm's QSBS work. He advises multinational businesses, venture capital funds, and private equity firms on partnership taxation and complex federal tax planning.
Before joining KBF, Ryan spent more than a decade in the National Tax offices of PwC and Ernst & Young. There he advised on how partnerships and LLCs are taxed, how allocations operate, and how venture funds and their investors can secure and preserve QSBS eligibility.
His training spans both accounting and law. He is a CPA, holds a B.S. in Accounting from Plymouth State University (summa cum laude), and earned an M.S. in Taxation and a J.D. from Northeastern University. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 2016 and is a non-practicing attorney.
Ryan is also a prolific author and speaker:
The nominations came from attorneys and advisors at leading law and accounting firms, and they returned to the same themes.
He connected the QSBS community. Ryan organized and has helped lead the monthly Section 1202 Study Group, a forum that brings together many of the country's top QSBS practitioners. Nominators credited that group as the foundation for the inaugural 1202 working group meeting in Las Vegas, which Ryan helped organize. One nominator put it plainly: “clients are better off now that the QSBS advisor ecosystem is connected”.
He shapes the literature. Several nominators pointed to his forthcoming BNA portfolio on Section 1202 as a major contribution, alongside his many articles and presentations.
He is generous with his time. Peers described Ryan as someone who always makes time to talk through a difficult 1202 question, and who readily accepts invitations to speak at events and conferences. As one nominator wrote, “he is a huge resource for all of us”.
He educates founders and colleagues. At KBF, Ryan has led internal training so his team can better serve clients, and has hosted lunch-and-learns and a webinar for emerging growth founders.
If you want to hear from Ryan firsthand, start with his recent appearance on “QSBS, Solved”, our podcast dedicated to Qualified Small Business Stock and QSBS rollovers.
