Harris Financial Advisors
Torrance, CA
Mine is a story of a personal interest in planning becoming a need, then becoming a career. I had always been curious about investing and financial planning, but I found myself learning quickly and desperately when my marriage ended suddenly and I moved to a new city with my two young daughters. During that time, my youngest daughter developed a life-threatening lung disease. As a single mom, where was the money – not to mention the emotional strength – going to come from?
Determined to be a strong role model for my daughters and make a new start, I began taking the financial planning coursework necessary to complete the CFP® certification. Those were days of non-stop juggling. But after all I had been through, I knew I had valuable experiences to offer future clients, especially women in transition, like myself.
A woman who soon became my mentor hired me for my first financial planning position. She had recently become a widow, so between us, we had a good deal of life experience to help us understand and provide guidance to our clients. We knew many of the old guard stock brokerages and traditional planning firms were failing to provide the education, empowerment — and oftentimes the hand holding — needed by women who have recently experienced major life events.
Eventually I started my own firm. This year at Harris Financial Advisors, we are proudly celebrating our 20th year in business. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by extremely talented women and men. Five of us are CFP® professionals, one is also a CPA and one is a CFA® charterholder – I couldn’t have planned it better – we have one planner in each decade. I’m in my 60s, then we have a planner in his or her 50s, 40s, 30s and 20s. My daughter currently fills the 30s decade spot.
We have a special niche where we focus on and serve Women in Transition, because that’s exactly how I got into this industry. We are especially interested in longevity planning, preparing our clients to care for themselves and often their parents during their golden years.
Women are hungry to learn and take control of their financial lives. It’s just that sometimes we need someone to walk along side us in a position of collaboration.
If you would like to get to know Mary better, click here to visit her website.
