Leadership

Financial “Personal Trainer”

Married women tend to outlive their husbands, inheriting not just their late spouse’s wealth, but also the responsibilities for the household’s finances and investment accounts.

And for many wives-turned-widows, financial management rapidly presents itself as a responsibility they’re not prepared for.

“Their immediate knee-jerk was, ‘Oh, I don’t understand this stuff, my husband takes care of it, I can’t be bothered,” said Therese R. Nicklas, CFP®, president and Certified Money Coach® at The Wealth Coach for Women, Inc.® “Then when the husband wasn’t there … Their life seemed to unravel because they didn’t have an understanding of basic finance.”

The Wealth Coach for Women provides clients with comprehensive financial planning services that can include wealth and investment management, but just as often involve developing a retirement or savings plan and examining financial goals. The firm does not maintain a minimum to invest, and prospective clients are assessed on whether their needs and dedication mesh with the firm’s commitment to helping investors take charge of their financial future.

“I am like a personal trainer for your finances, and if you don’t want to show up and you don’t want to take the action, and you think that just by hiring and paying me that things are going to get better, then we aren’t going to be a good fit,” Nicklas told “The Suit” during a recent interview.

Nicklas added that many prospects approach advisors hoping someone will gloss over their financial mistakes and “make everything all better.” That’s not how it works, however, and prospective clients need to be ready to do the difficult, exhausting work of carefully sticking to their financial plan, she said. “When a client is committed to improving their financial well-being, and they follow the advice, seeing them attain their goals is so rewarding. It’s an empowering process for the client and advisor”, Nicklas said.

The Wealth Coach for Women, is a fiduciary fee-only firm, meaning Nicklas is committed to putting client interests first. The Department of Labor’s new fiduciary rule was “long overdue” in that it finally created a definition for what a fiduciary is, but Nicklas cautioned people against assuming that non-fiduciaries are up to no good, and not all advisors that claim to be fiduciaries truly fit the definition.

headshotNicklas instead encourages investors to become financially savvy so that they can critically assess their financial advisor, understand if they are a fiduciary and participate in the decision-making process. She stresses that the key to meeting client goals is communication and education.

“My process is all about communication … If I’m talking to them at 30,000 feet then they aren’t going to learn anything,” she said.

For more information see www.wealthcoachforwomen.net

 

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