I love what I do. Every day I get to empower women to take control of their finances and retirement. It’s my passion to ensure that what happened to me doesn’t happen to them.

In the late 90’s both my husband and I had jobs working in the energy industry. With a young family of 3, we shared the financial responsibilities of our household. The financial markets were doing well at the time, but our jobs made it impossible to make sure we had invested in the market correctly. This concerned me. What if something happened to me or to my husband? Would we be financially secure?

To help ease my concerns, my husband reached out to a well-known professional advisor. He was extremely cordial in our meeting, telling us all about his wife and two kids. The problem was he didn’t spend much time asking about us. In fact, not once did he ask about our family, our children, our goals outside of our assets, or our plans for college or weddings. What bothered me the most, however, was the feeling that I wasn’t even a part of the conversation. I noticed that he never looked me straight in the eyes, he never asked for my thoughts or opinions, and he never bothered to address me in the conversation. It was as if he only wanted to do business with my husband. This baffled me.

Immediately my mind started forming questions: 1) How can I trust this guy with my money if he’s not including me? 2) If something were to happen to Karl, how would I survive with 3 little children? 3) What would happen if I had to take care of Karl or a child that became disabled?  That’s when it hit me. I didn’t want my husband to be my financial plan; I wanted us to have a plan . . . a plan that would ensure we could enjoy our golden years.

This was my “aha moment.” It was at that moment that I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my career helping others . . . specifically, women and their families. I never want to see other women experiencing that feeling of being left out or undervalued in their finances, whether they’re married, single, widowed, or divorced. Approximately 95% of women will be their family’s primary financial decision maker at some point in their lives. They need to be prepared with a financial plan alongside a family plan that will allow them to reach their goals – be it traveling, leaving a legacy, or donating to a charity. My mission in life is to empower women to do just that.