Should We Work Together?

I provide financial planning and investment advice to proactive and motivated divorced women looking to take control of their finances and use their resources in a fulfilling way. Not yet divorced? Learn about my divorce financial consulting services. (While my services are catered to women, they are not exclusive to women. What’s most important is a shared philosophy of financial planning.)

Yes! Divorce can be just as much a financial event as it is a legal one. The stakes can be high and yet the financial aspects are often overlooked or underestimated. As a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst^® professional, I’m uniquely qualified to help individuals and couples proactively understand the financial aspects of their divorce before they sign on the dotted line.  Learn more about these services here.

Think of financial planning like a puzzle. Each piece—including your income & expenses, tax situation, investments, insurance, and estate—should be evaluated both individually as well as how it fits with the other pieces in order to form a cohesive financial picture. Financial planning is not a single event but a collaborative, ongoing process to accommodate life’s changes and your continuous evolution.

My financial planning services may include:

• Income & expense analysis and budgeting
• Tax strategies
• Goal setting and progression
• Saving & Investments
• Retirement planning
• Education planning
• Social Security strategies
• Optimizing employer benefits
• Estate and legacy planning
• Charitable giving
• Insurance needs and risk analysis
• Transition services including settling estates or asset division

I have found that the best client relationships are those that begin with a specific set of shared values. For me, that includes:

• You’re interested in developing a long-term relationship with someone who can be your trusted financial advocate through all of life’s challenges and successes.
• You desire to proactively manage your money and set an intentional plan in place for your future.
• You believe in principled, long-term investing and not market timing. I’m not someone who will give you hot new stock tips. We will set a plan, monitor it, and adjust it as necessary using an educated system that governs our decision-making process.
• You want to manage your financial life with the help of modern technology.
• You value expert advice and believe that successful financial planning requires effort, determination, and is a service that’s valuable enough to partner with a professional.

I deliberately chose the name Cultivate Financial Wellness for a few reasons. First, “cultivate” implies empowerment; we have influence over our situation, and we have the power to change it. Second, it implies intention; we should know what we want to change about our lives. Third, it implies hope; the belief that our intentions will come to fruition.

This quote sums up my business name well:

A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them. 

– Liberty Hyde Bailey

I had to have Wellness in the name. Anyone who knows me knows that I have always loved physical fitness. (Think back to the 1980’s Jane Fonda workout tapes. I had the leotard and everything!). Over the years, my personal wellness expanded from physical fitness to spiritual and emotional fitness through my faith, yoga, meditation, and therapy.

Humans are complex. There is no distinction between our physical, emotional, professional, spiritual, social, or financial lives. Collectively, they influence our overall feeling of balance and wellbeing.

My business name communicates my mission to help women cultivate financial wellness in the enduring and noble pursuit of a harmonious, fulfilling life.

CFP® professionals must meet rigorous education, training, and ethical standards. Anyone holding the certification must be committed to serving their clients’ best interests. The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification is considered the standard of excellence in financial planning.

Much like a medical doctor’s Hippocratic Oath, a financial advisor who is a fiduciary has a duty of good faith and is ethically bound to act in their client’s best interest. It is important to know that not all advisors are bound to this standard. CFP® professionals commit to acting as a fiduciary whenever providing financial advice to a client.

No problem! Cultivate Financial Wellness can work with you no matter where you live. I’ve intentionally designed my practice so that we can easily and conveniently connect through a video conference platform. We can also leverage additional technology to securely share personal information and give you complete access into your investment accounts, at any time. And if you do live near White Lake, Michigan, and want to meet face to face, we can designate a meeting place where you’ll be comfortable discussing your finances.

Cultivate Financial Wellness, LLC has selected Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. as primary custodian for our clients’ accounts. The Charles Schwab Corporation is one of the nation’s leading providers of financial services. Through their operating subsidiaries, they provide securities brokerage, money management and financial advisory services to individual investors, independent investment advisors, and corporate and retirement plan sponsors and participants. The Charles Schwab Corporation is financially stable, and they are committed to their continued financial health. Their capital structure and liquidity are sound, and their internal controls and business standards are designed to keep client assets safe. They maintain a disciplined focus on risk management and strive to operate the firm conservatively to minimize investment risks. They know that their success ultimately depends on how they serve all of their clients and their confidence in Schwab. Financial results and more information about The Charles Schwab Corporation’s business and financial condition can be viewed at any time at www.aboutschwab.com.

These materials have been independently produced by Cultivate Financial Wellness, LLC (CFW). CFW is independent of, and has no affiliation with, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. or any of its affiliates (“Schwab”). Schwab is a registered broker-dealer and member SIPC. Schwab has not created, supplied, licensed, endorsed, or otherwise sanctioned these materials nor has Schwab independently verified any of the information in them. CFW provides you with investment advice, while Schwab maintains custody of your assets in a brokerage account and will effect transactions for your account on our instruction.