Page 24 - Expert Issue 2015 (2)

Empowering Women

to Grow Wealth

Photo Courtesy of Laurie Itkin

Laurie Itkin is not your typical financial advisor. She entered the kin, “but if they don’t have a baseline foundation of knowledge, how
money management field as a second career only after she had do they know they are receiving excellent service from the financial
built her own wealth through investing. She uses her knowledge advisor they or their husbands trust to manage their money?”
and experience to empower women of all ages and income levels According to the Pew Research Center, 40% of American house-
to become successful investors and grow the money they work so holds with children include a mother who is either the sole or
hard to earn. primary earner for her family and 24% of married women out-earn
Itkin’s path to investing began with a $1,600 inheritance she their husbands. However, when it comes to investing that money
received from her grandmother. Instead of spending the money towards retirement, most women -- regardless of how much they
or putting it in a savings earn -- delegate those decisions to
account as most 24-year- their male partner. “This is concern-
old women would do, she ing,” says Itkin, “since more than 90%
bought her first shares of women at some point in their lives
of stock. She continued will be solely responsible for deci-
investing over the next sions they have to make concerning
24 fifteen years and achieved money.”
a net worth of one million Itkin provides complimentary account
dollars before she turned statement reviews for prospective
40. It wasn’t through a clients and often finds evidence of
lucky stock pick; it was women receiving poor service from
accomplished by living be- financial advisors who impose layers
low her means, investing of fees, send out complicated and
money instead of spending confusing statements, and fail to ex-
it, contributing as much as plain why they choose certain prod-
she could to her 401(k), ucts such as mutual funds and annui-
and buying and selling ties when a plethora of other low-cost
stocks in a brokerage vehicles are available. “When I man-
account. She educated age money for a single woman or a
herself by reading the couple,” says Itkin, “I spend the time
Wall Street Journal every to explain how I built a portfolio for
day and sharing investing them, why I chose the investments I
ideas with co-workers who did, and how I will adapt that portfolio
followed the stock market. as their life circumstances change.”
Whether she is being
interviewed on the evening To learn more about how
news, conducting a speak- Laurie Itkin can help you achieve
ing engagement, or signing financial empowerment, visit her
copies of her Amazon website at theoptionslady.com
best seller, Every Woman Contact Information
Should Know Her Options: Laurie Itkin
Invest Your Way to Finan- Financial Advisor, Coastwise
cial Empowerment, Itkin’s Capital Group
passion for improving 888 Prospect Street
women’s financial literacy La Jolla, CA 92037
is unmistakable. “I rec- www.theoptionslady.com
ognize that most women litkin@coastwisegroup.com
don’t have the time or con- Mobile: 858-220-4736
fidence to make decisions
about what stocks, bonds,
or funds they buy,” says It-