FA Magazine May 2025 | Page 34

COVER STORY | YOUNG ADVISORS TO WATCH

Partner, Senior Lead Advisor / Francis Financial / New York City

Andreas, Calif., a town outside Yosemite National Park that at the time had a population of about 2,000. Even through college, Colley, the child of parents who divorced when she was 7, lived a life buffeted by financial anxiety; at one point her family relied on neighbors for meals.

“ I experienced what it was like to not have money … and standing on the precipice of utter financial ruin,” says Colley. It’ s a life she literally ran away from: Colley took up running in high school because it required just one pair of shoes and shorts.( She’ s currently training for her fourth Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon— which begins with a 1.5-mile swim from Alcatraz Island and ends with an eight-mile run.)

Colley headed off 400 miles away to attend the University of California at Santa Barbara, and there she first studied chemical engineering because, she says, it was the highest-paying degree out of undergrad.“ My top objective was to be financially secure from day one,” says Colley.

She worked for nearly 10 years in the pharmaceutical business( mostly as a validation engineer) before relocating to New York in 2013 and eventually turning to her“ lifelong passion”: personal finance. She began at Francis Financial as an associate advisor in 2015.

A predominantly female-run practice, Francis Financial caters mainly to women dealing with major life transitions, such as divorce, career changes or the loss of a spouse. These clients mostly have assets under $ 10 million.

“ Though these women are in a different financial position than I was growing up, the fear is the same, so I really connect with them on that level,” she says.“ I want to see them grow in confidence and empowerment around money the way I did.”

Upon starting at Francis Financial, Colley was told to put the women’ s names first in correspondence or documents of any sort when dealing with a couple.“ Women being addressed as primary financial decision makers is not happening in the industry at large,” she says. But“ that’ s how we operate.” Colley is savoring the rich satisfaction of climbing her professional podium … with energy to spare.

Founder / Wise Stewardship Financial Planning / Sarasota, Fla.

Wise Stewardship Financial Planning in November 2018 at age 31, his goal was to help two distinct populations that he felt were underserved by the financial services industry: military families and young widows and widowers. In other words, people like himself. Kopp, who’ d graduated from Purdue University’ s Krannert School of Management in 2009 with a bachelor’ s in economics, had just completed nine years with the U. S. Air Force and recently married his second wife after losing his first wife to cancer. Launching a fee-only fiduciary practice gave him“ a way [ forward ] that aligned with my life experiences,” he says.“ It all came together.”

The firm offers holistic guidance that’ s especially well-suited to clients who are at a crossroads and may be riddled with financial anxiety, he explains. Most pay a flat annual subscription fee for a wide range of financial guidance, but a small number pay for short-term advice only. Investment management is an optional

add-on, he says, that’ s more popular with widows and widowers than ruggedly self-reliant ex-service members.

In 2020, Kopp went on to earn his CFP designation, followed two years later by a master’ s in personal financial planning and financial therapy from Kansas State University. To him, though, it’ s almost more important to master the art of financial planning, he says, as opposed to the science of it. He strives to understand each client’ s“ unique money story,” and empower them to confidently make decisions that“ reflect their personal values.”

He understands why some people distrust financial professionals. He himself used to be suspicious of the industry. His grandfather was“ swindled” by an unscrupulous advisor, he says. Then, as a veteran, he was barraged with“ predatory” pitches for high-commission financial products. Fee-only fiduciary advisors, he says, aren’ t typically interested in veterans who can’ t meet their asset minimums.

In addition, he knows how the“ brain fog of grief” can make widowed people easy targets for fraud.“ I set out to craft a client experience that accounts for the emotional, mental and even spiritual aspects of navigating what’ s next,” he says.

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