Women & Wealth:

August 2025 Newsletter

In this month’s newsletter, we’re excited to introduce a new series called “Women & Wealth,” designed to bring more representation and focus to women’s financial experiences. For our very first edition, we’re exploring what “Empowerment” truly means—and what it really looks like in action. Read on to hear how the women in our office define and live financial empowerment every day.

I’ll be honest, articles titled “Women and Wealth” can get my back up. My mother’s generation did the heavy lifting to give women access to schools, careers and equal treatment under the law. That fight is far from over, so she taught me to push back on generalizations that underestimate women. So, my gut reaction is to ask why there needs to be anything different about women when it comes to money. But as my career has developed, I’ve realized that studies about women are giving advisors important tools to help all clients be financially empowered.

Here’s the thing: study after study shows that, on the whole, women are significantly less risk tolerant than men. That can lead them to invest more conservatively resulting in lower long-term growth that can leave them inadequately prepared for retirement, especially given their relative longevity. However, studies have also shown that this lower risk tolerance is based, not on gender itself, but on income insecurity and disparities in net worth; education can reduce the gap; and advisors tend to underestimate women’s risk tolerance in the first place. My own experience bears this out. Among the couples I work with the less risk tolerant person is not necessarily the woman, it is the person who grew up in a home with fewer financial resources, or sometimes the one who took time out of a career and now has substantially lower retirement savings than his/her/their partner.

So, what does financial empowerment mean? It means having resources in your own name; understanding the role of risk in a portfolio so you can make informed decisions about balancing risk and safety based on your unique goals and life circumstances; and working with an advisor where you feel safe to ask questions and share your hopes and concerns. You don’t have to be a financial expert, but having clearly defined goals, a plan to get there, and benchmarks to check in on your progress can give you the confidence to conquer any money insecurities you might have.

Let’s talk about something that doesn’t get talked about enough: empowering women in wealth. For a long time, women weren’t encouraged to be a part of the money conversation, but that’s changing – for the better! Still, it’s okay if it feels a bit unfamiliar.

Financial empowerment doesn’t mean you have to know it all or do it all. It means feeling confident in making decisions that reflect your life, your values, and your goals.

Some women want to take the lead on every financial detail. Others just want to understand the big picture. Both are valid. What matters is that you feel supported in whatever level of engagement feels right for you.

My role is to help you learn, ask questions, and help you feel supported while you build confidence at your own pace. You’re not behind. You’re not alone. And you’re absolutely capable.

I’ve worked with women who had never opened a statement—and now they’re making informed decisions rooted in their values and goals. That’s real growth. And it’s what inspires me every day.

Let’s keep learning and growing by taking a step into this conversation – together.

We hear the word “Empowerment” so often, it’s started to lose its meaning. There are thousands of webinars, articles, and social media posts telling women to “feel empowered” with money, but what does that actually look like? And how do we get there?

I used to think financial empowerment meant having all the answers; having all the resources; having money! It’s easy to think financial empowerment is about how much you have, but for women especially, it’s about how much ownership you feel. Ownership over your decisions, your goals, your values, and knowing that your money reflects all three.

I care so much about this because, for a long time, I didn’t feel that way. I thought I had to earn my seat at the table by knowing everything first. So, I stayed quiet, afraid to ask, afraid to get it wrong. But the turning point came when I realized: ownership doesn’t mean knowing everything. It means being unafraid to ask.

To me, that’s what empowerment really looks like: ownership, not perfection. It means knowing what’s important to you and making financial decisions that reflect your life—even if your path looks different from everyone else’s. Sometimes that looks like asking a question without shame. Sometimes it looks like saying no to things that don’t align with your goals. Either way, it’s yours.

Now, my goal is to help other women step into that same sense of ownership, not because they’ve mastered every financial concept, but because they deserve to feel confident and supported as they learn. The goal isn’t to do it all alone, it’s to feel like your voice matters in the conversation.