You & Your Money

Women & Finance

March 29, 2023 Leisl L. Cording, CFP® CDFA® , Holly Wanager, Hailey Costa, Daria Zalewska Season 2 Episode 12
You & Your Money
Women & Finance
Show Notes Transcript

As #WomensHistoryMonth comes to a close, tune in for helpful advice and insight about women in the world of finance featuring Leisl L. Cording, CFP® CDFA®, Holly Wanegar, Daria Zalewska, and Kate Pitts.

Find more financial resources for women at whzwealth.com/WomenLivingWell

#PlanInvestLiveWell #WomenLivingWell #YouAndYourMoney #podcast #empoweringwomen #womenshistorymonth

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Welcome to You and Your Money. Empowering you to reach your goals with tips to help you Plan Well, Invest Well and Live Well. I'm Jim Zahansky, principal, managing partner and chief gold strategist at Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors. Today's episode features Leisl Cording, senior vice president and financial advisor at Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors. Take it away Leisl Got a full house this morning with several members of the team at Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors here to talk about women in finance in honor of Women's History Month. Glad to see some new faces from the firm as well as returning favorite senior vice president and financial advisor Leisl Cording. Welcome Leisl and team. Before we get started, I understand we have Daria on the phone. So when we get her in on the conversation. Daria, good morning. Good morning. How are you doing this morning? Oh, I'm wonderful. Thank you so much. Glad to hear it. Tell me, who do we have with us today and how do we how does this all relate to Women's History Month? Well, Ben, today we have with us the wonder women of WHZ and they are Holly Kate and joining us by phone, as you said is Daria. And the reason we're here today, because as you mentioned, it's Women's History Month and you can't really think about Women's History Month or how to support equality for women in the future without considering that role that money and finances play in those efforts. And it's less than 50 years ago that a woman wasn't even guaranteed the right to get a credit card in her own name. So the idea of empowering women financially is something that's very top of mind in the financial industry right now. I know you've mentioned before how few women there are in financial planning and the wealth manager field. That's exactly right. Only about 25% of financial advisors and wealth managers are women. And not only that, the industry also still has a way, way to go in terms of knowing how to really effectively serve the needs of and preferences of female clients. And so I'm very proud to be one of the few in the financial advisors and also very proud to be part of a wealth management firm that breaks the mold when it comes to the current status quo of women in the financial industry. Understandable. And how exactly has Weiss Hale and Zahansky breaking that mold. Yeah, well, there's a couple of ways. To start off right now we're digging into data about what women actually want and need from the financial planning process, and we're implementing that into our practice so we can ensure we're living up to the mission of providing an exceptional wealth management experience for all female clients. And then WHZ breaks the mold in terms of the proportion of its female advisors and staff. So as you can see, I have two other great women studio and one on the phone, and our team has actually always been almost a majority female. But in the last several months we've had a number of promotions and a new addition to our team and they have increased the female representation in both advisory and in leadership roles and that's why I have them here with me today. That's great. So let's hear a bit about each of you then I'll start off with Holly. Good morning, Holly. Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Weiss, Hale and Zahansky. Good morning, Ben. I've been with WHZ for almost four years now, originally managing our client service team and have over ten years experience in the financial services industry. Throughout my time here, I have been working towards the various financial certifications required to become a financial advisor myself, and a few months ago I was promoted to associate vice president wealth advisor. I'm working directly with clients from the financial planning and advisory perspective, along with Leisl and the rest of our advisory team. That's fantastic. Congratulations on all your hard work. And what about your previous role as director of client service? Thanks. Well, I'm happy to say that role went to a very deserving candidate, Hailey Costa, who unfortunately couldn't be here today. But we're very excited to see her growth in this new role for her. Hailey has been a great addition to our team since joining almost two years ago, and she also brings nearly ten years of financial industry experience to our team. Excellent. Congratulations to you as well Hailey. And I know we do not have one person whose brand new to the team. She's joining us by phone because she works remotely from sunny Florida. Daria Zalewska thanks for joining us today. Tell us about yourself and your role at Weiss, Hale and Zahansky. Thank you. I just joined the team a couple of months ago as a senior associate paraplanner, where I provide support to the advisory team, researching client's needs and formulating an entirely tailored and personalized financial plan that will serve them in reaching their financial goals. I'm so excited to be working with this great team and particularly with other women in the field. Actually, I'm relatively new to the field myself. I transitioned over to the financial services industry in 2020 after 20 years of serving in the U.S. Air Force. So coming from that background, I do have a particular appreciation for women who break into male dominated fields, and I'm happy to share. I recently passed my CFP exam. Wow. That's amazing, Daria. Thank you for your many years of service and congratulations on passing the certification exam. You must have gained a really broad set of skills and experience while you're served in the Air Force. I did, Yeah. I retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel after being stationed all over the world, and I was deployed multiple times in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Operation Iraqi Freedom, and most recently, Operation Inherent Resolve. It was an incredible experience, and there are many skills I learned throughout my service, but I've been able to translate over to my new career. That's fantastic. I'm sure you've already proved a tremendous addition to the team and thank you again for your service Daria. At last but certainly not least, we have Kate Pitts. Welcome to the show, Kate. Now, you've also been with the firm for a couple of years already after working in finance in Boston, correct? Yeah. So I'm coming up on my two year anniversary at the end of March. So super exciting. Can't believe it's only been two years, but I came on board as director of client experience and relationships after working for over a decade and investment management at State Street Global Advisors in Boston. So great experience there. And now in this new role as client experience and relationships at WHZ. This was new when I came on board so kind of had to pave the way for what it meant and it's you know over the last couple of years, I've really spent some time putting a lot into thinking about what does that client experience look like and putting the client at the center of every decision that we're making. The other part of my role is the relationships piece, which I absolutely love. This is really about building meaningful relationships in the community, and this really allows me to be an ambassador for the firm. So I love doing that. And the last show that we had in December where we were talking about celebrating a culture of community and that was really talking about the support that our team provides to a lot of the local organizations in the area. And so it's another part of my role that I absolutely love doing at WHZ. Very nice. Well, you must have been doing a great job because you've also been promoted to associate vice president of client experience and relationships, right? Yes, very exciting. Really a tremendous amount of growth that I've experienced over the last two years being at WHZ and really looking forward to continuing to move the firm forward and think about the client experience and building and fostering stronger relationships in the community. That's wonderful and so important. Wow. Leisl you weren't kidding. There's a lot happening at WHZ these days, but let's not forget your news. I hear you were just featured in Fortune Magazine as a Five Star Wealth Manager under 40. I was, which was incredible. And that that piece recognizes wealth advisors from across the country who are under 40 and who were selected to receive the Five Star Wealth Manager Award from the Five Star Professional in 2022. And so I'm really proud of that. I'm also really proud that all three advisors, so myself, Jim and Laurence in our firm, who we are the only ones that are eligible right now, were considered and received the award. And that's really neat because only 10% of advisors in Connecticut are are nominated. So really great. That's just incredible Leisl. Congratulations. And before we wrap up, we do have a little housekeeping here and let listeners know that the 2022 Five Star Wealth Manager award is created by Five Star Professional, and the 2022 award was presented in November 22 based on data gathered between February and September 2022. Total of 2950 Connecticut area wealth managers were considered for the award, 290 were selected to receive it. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or selected for the award, but pay a fee for use of marketing materials. The award is not indicative of a advisor's future performance, and your experience may vary. For more information, visit fivestarprofessionals.com Leisl, Holly, Kate, and Daria. Thank you all so much for joining us today. This has been a great conversation. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ben. Yeah, thank you, Ben. Of course. That brings us to the end of this episode. As always, thanks for listening to you and your money and find even more episodes, videos and other resources at our website. whzwealth.com. Be sure to come back next week for more tips to help you live fearlessly and pursue your financial and life goals. Until then, live well. Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors offer securities and advisory services through Commonwealth Financial Network Member FINRA/SIPC a registered investment advisor. Fixed insurance products and services offered through CSC Insurance Agency. They practice at 697 Pomfret Street, Pomfret Center, Connecticut, 06259 and can be reached at 860-928-2341. Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors do not provide legal or tax advice. The tenured financial services team strives to support clients in achieving their financial life goals. For more information regarding wealth management and customize financial planning with Weiss, Hale and Zahansky Strategic Wealth Advisors, please visit. www.whzwealth.com