Doing Things Right: What We Can Learn from the Industry’s Largest Woman-Led Firm
"It started as an initiative just within the firm to do things better, to create well, to invite women to a table and to make that table a comfortable, safe space to come and talk and be a part of."
Welcome to WomenShare: a marketing guide for women in financial services. On today’s episode, Joanna Ehresman and Leah Alter are joined by Karen Reifel, CFP®, a senior wealth advisor at Beacon Pointe Advisors.
Beacon Point is the largest female-led RIA firm in the country with women making up over 60% of their corporate team and features the Women’s Advisory Institute, a branch of the firm committed to serving women.
Karen joins us to share the ways that she and her team are tailoring services to address women's unique financial concerns and creating meaningful content and engaging events that marry finance with social experiences.
Karen opens up about the emotional intelligence she brings to her client relationships and the double-edged sword of nurturing that characteristic. Our conversation touches on the timely shifts in societal norms towards empathy in wealth management, the pressures women face juggling multiple roles, and the vitality of asking for help.
Key takeaways:
1. Tailored Financial Guidance for Women: Karen Reifel shares insights into the development of financial content and events designed specifically for women's financial needs, focusing on the significant question of their financial security. This addresses the unique challenges and concerns that women face in financial matters.
2. Importance of Representation and EQ: The feedback from female clients has led to a more diverse representation in the company’s materials and events. Additionally, Karen discusses the pivotal role of emotional intelligence in her work, including both its value and the challenge of managing it, and the societal trend towards empathy in wealth management.
3. Challenges and Support for Women: Leah highlights the pressure on women to juggle multiple roles and the importance of recognizing their limits and seeking assistance. This acknowledges the often-overlooked need for support systems in the professional and personal lives of women.
4. The Value of Continuous Learning in Leadership: Karen places a strong emphasis on the role of curiosity and ongoing education in career advancement, and the normalization of admitting when one does not have all the answers, especially in mentorship roles. This promotes a culture of growth and humility in professional settings.
5. Beacon Point Advisors' Growth and Culture: Karen Reifel details her role at Beacon Point Advisors and the firm's focus on hiring for culture fit, with over 60% of its leadership being women. She underscores how female leadership has become a competitive advantage, attracting similar talent and contributing to the firm's growth strategy, which includes client retention, organic growth, and a strong corporate marketing team.
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So it wasn't that the firm sought to create a
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female focused enterprise. As I'm sure you know about Beacon
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Point, it's really about culture fit. What we're looking for in hires is
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somebody that is, you know, knowledgeable or teachable, a good fit for the
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role, and just a good personality fit for the firm. That
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is, you know, really the most important. And that has led, I
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think, by coincidence to female leadership.
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But it's just been all I would say that all of our hires have just
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been a continuation of the desire to keep a good strong company
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culture.
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Thanks for joining us. I'm Leah Alter. And I'm Joanna
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Ehresman. And this is Women Share, a marketing guide for
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women in financial services. And today we are getting
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insight into how one of the country's leading advisory firms has
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found success. We're so happy to be joined by Karen Reifel, senior
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wealth advisor at Beacon Point Advisors. Beacon Point
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has more than $30,000,000,000 in client assets and is
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the largest female led RIA firm in the
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nation. Karen wears many leadership hats within the company.
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She works with clients in Beacon Point's private client group.
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She's board director for the Beacon Point Women's Advisory
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Institute. She coauthored an international best selling book
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with other women leaders in the firm titled your dollars, our
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cents, a fun and simple guide to money matters. And she
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cohosts the firm's financial planning podcast dollars and cents. So,
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Karen, with all that you have going on, we are just so happy that
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you are here to join us on Women's Share, and welcome to the show. Thank
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you so much. I'm excited to be here. I love what you're doing, and I
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love the podcast. Thanks for having me. We are just absolutely thrilled that you're
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here today. So let's we just like to dig right in. So
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Beacon Point is a lead is leading the industry in terms
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of women and leadership positions, which we just love,
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with over 60% of your corporate leadership team being
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women. So first of all, congratulations. That is a huge
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accomplishment. We know in the industry that that is
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60% is really, like, way above that in
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terms of what your peers are doing. So we're curious. Was
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this done by design? Is it a by product of having a
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woman as a CEO? We just love to hear your thoughts around
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that. Yeah. I mean, I I gosh. I wish I could take credit
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for that, but I I can't and I won't. But,
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you know, it really was. I do know that it wasn't by
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design. And I know that because, you know, our CEO,
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Shannon Ussi, she is obviously a female. But
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she wasn't involved she wasn't solely involved in the hiring process. I mean, my
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hiring process for me, I mean, this was 12 years ago. I met with
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7 7 different leaders at Beacon Point before they decide I mean, they called
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me, but then I went through 4 interviews, you know, met with multiple people on
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the hiring process, before they decided that I was a good fit. So it
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wasn't that the firm sought to create a female
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focused enterprise. As I'm sure you know about Beacon
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Point, it's really about culture fit. Right? What what what we're looking for
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in hires is somebody that is, you know, knowledgeable or teachable,
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a good fit for the role, and just a good personality fit for
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the firm. That is, you know, really the most important. And that has
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led, I think, by coincidence to female
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leadership. But it's just been, you know, all
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I would say that all of our hires have just been a continuation of the
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desire to keep a good strong company culture. And I would also say
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or I would imagine that women going through the hiring
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process are probably going to see that representation
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and be more drawn or compelled to say yes to I mean, I'm speaking for
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myself personally. I think that would really stand out to me if I were in
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a position of, you know, hey. I'm looking at a role at firm a
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versus firm b, and I could see myself represented in
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leadership. That it's so compelling. Yeah. I mean, it was I from
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personal experience, it was great to meet with Shannon and our director of wealth
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planning, Connie Stevens, you know, and see what they were doing. I mean,
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yeah, from a an attracting female talent,
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it certainly gives us the competitive edge, I think, because we we
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are represented and we do feel, you know, the sky is the limit.
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Now so Leah and I are marketers by by
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background, as you know. And so we'd love to hear a little bit more
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about your growth strategy as a firm at Beacon Point. So $30,000,000,000
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in assets is sizable. Right? And you all have grown
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from my understanding knowing someone, personally who works at
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Beacon Point, right, is that there's a lot of intention to how you operate.
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So and we had the pleasure of meeting Ali Warner, from your
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corporate marketing team. So we know you've got a strong corporate marketing team, plus
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advisors are out doing their own business development. Is that right? So,
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yeah, tell me what like, how does a typical practice grow within the Beacon
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Point ecosystem? Yeah. So I'll speak first to where I
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sit as an advisor that has, you know, a pretty full book of clients. I've
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been here for 12 years. So, you know, there is only so much time in
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the day, and I can only serve so many clients well. And so the most
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important contribution, I think, that I make,
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as a seasoned adviser with Affirm is in client retention. Right? I
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mean, one one way to grow is to just keep what you have. And so,
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you know, taking care of my clients, being in front of
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my clients to make sure that they feel safe and secure
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and, you know, we continue to have a trusting relationship that
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answers their life questions as they arise. Like that's that that is my probably my
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biggest contribution to growth. But it also lends toward multi
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generational planning and and and client relationships, right?
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So organic growth comes in that way, be it by family
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members or, you know, just good friends or
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professional colleagues and so forth. So that referrals
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is, I would say, the second. The first is making your clients happy enough to
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wanna stay with you and continue to work with you and then talk about you
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to other people and make those those connections. And I think
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one of the ways that I feel just so grateful for
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that to to be able to do that and be, you know, in front of
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my clients, which is very important is through our
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marketing team efforts. Right? And they're, you know, our marketing team is
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fantastic. You met Ali. I mean, she is just also a female and wonderful
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to work with. And, she and her team help
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create my digital brand that allows it just saves so much time for
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me to then, you know, again, be client facing and do those things that I
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I need to do to wear an advisor hat. So and that's been really great.
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And then, of course, like, community. Being being present in the
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community, you know, our local communities just in our day to day lives is also
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helpful in a way to just build relationships and possibly bring on new clients. I
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you know, because this is a female focused podcast, though, I'll be honest
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and say that my community involvement ebbs and flows, with life. I've got
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2 young boys at home. So, you know Yeah. Right right now,
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it's ebbing. It's not necessarily flowing. Oh, I see. But, you
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know, when they get into sports and bigger and, you know, we can be out
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more with them, in a public setting, and then I think that
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that will that will come in time. Great. And I think it's also oh, go
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ahead, Leah. No. No. I was just, I was just gonna say
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too something you said just sparked to me, which is, you know, you
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all at Beacon Point have made a real
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investment. That's what I like to call it when we talk about marketing and investment
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in a marketing team, right, that has helped you on that.
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Because I think a lot of advisors feel like they
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have to take that on themselves, and it always ends up getting
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moved to the bottom of the list. Yeah. And when you actually have a dedicated
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resource, whether that be in house or outsource, it
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takes that to the top of the list. It becomes a
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priority without being your responsibility. And and and you said
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you've been there for 12 years, so you've you've probably gotten very used to that.
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But have you seen that make a big difference in
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in your business, in your retention, your growth?
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Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you're you make such a good
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point, Leah, because, you know, when if you're tasked with
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serving clients, right, and then also being
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solely responsible for additional growth and business development, something
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is gonna have to give or or both things only get half of the effort.
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Right? Because we can't do all things really well. And so, yeah, I mean, having
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that team to support me. If you tell me to post on LinkedIn 10 times
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in a quarter and you'll get, like, a prize, I'm not going to post on
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LinkedIn. The prize is not worth it. You know? It's just not I mean, depending
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on the prize, of course, but probably not going to be you're
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right. It would be deprioritized, amongst the other
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competing priorities. And you know, I mean, sitting in a client
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facing role, you never know what can become of
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higher priority, you know? And when you have a full book of clients, you
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could your complete your day could get derailed because you had a client's father pass.
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And that is the most pressing thing that you can help somebody with in that
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day and other everything. Forget LinkedIn. You know? So, yeah, it's been a
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tremendous, tremendous resource for me as an
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adviser. Joanna, what were you gonna say? I know you were
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probably picking up on, a different part of her her response there.
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Well, no. What I what I was kinda chuckling about is you're talking, Karen.
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So talk about having to take my own medicine. So in my own
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consulting business, it's like I'm as a marketing consultant, I am not
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marketing my business because I'm busy, you know, working it's the same thing.
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And I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm I feel like such a hypocrite, but I
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get it even more now that I am not just the person in corporate
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marketing being like, but, Karen, there's the prize for the LinkedIn post.
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Why aren't you doing it? You know? Yes. You're you are perspective
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page. Joanna, you're the chef that eats pizza at home. Right? Or top
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rock? I mean, it's yeah. Yes. I get it. I get it. Yeah.
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Mhmm. Yeah. We just had a conversation with our producers actually
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about some of this stuff and, you know, it's it's always humbling
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to to know that you're really good at your
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job and helping other people, and
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you too have a lot to learn and grow as well.
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And it's always that sort of balance of being able
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to celebrate the successes and also knowing that you've got like
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room to grow. Yeah. I think there's something to be said I I mean, we
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could spend a whole podcast on this, so I don't wanna get distracted. But, Leah,
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you're so right because there's something about
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acknowledging where we could be doing better or where we need
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help that is. It's good for us personally when
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we do it. I think it's something that is just so helpful for us as
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females to do, especially with the number of hats that we all
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wear. But I also think it's in being open about that dialogue
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is so freeing for other women to say,
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that really takes a load off of my shoulders. You know? I saw a
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girlfriend's kid's drawer not long ago, and, I mean, their folding
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was not happening. I could tell she was letting the girls put away their things
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on her own, you know, and I it was a little bit chaotic and I
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thought, oh man, that makes me feel kinda good. I don't have to have perfectly
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folded clothes and look, they're they're living a happy life, you know. So there's a
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lot of permission in being open about that. So we digress, but I I
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think No. But we live in this, like, very curated world,
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right, where we think that we're on this this island where we're
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not as successful or as productive or
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as organized or whatever word it is that you wanna Yeah. You
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know, do. But the truth is is like none of us have it figured out.
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We're all just doing the best that we can. Right? That's right. That's right.
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So we'd love to hear more about the Women Advisory Institute
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at Beacon Point. Several several, excuse me, of our guests
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have found breakthroughs by focusing on certain niches,
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and that appears to be the same for you at Beacon Point.
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So how did the Women Advisory Institute come to be, and
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how is it growing? Yeah. So, gosh, I'm gonna take us back to
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2011. So we noticed early on,
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obviously, that we were in a unique position in the RIA
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space to be female led. At the time, I think we've done
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we've had so much growth since then in other channels. But at
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the time, even our small group, I think our holiday party was maybe
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40 people including spouses back then. So pretty wild. And
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but even still we had female leadership roles. We had senior wealth
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advisors like myself, who I mentioned before our director of planning was
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female, head of marketing female, CEO female. So that that presence was there and we
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wanted to leverage it. It wasn't enough for us to say, wow, this is really
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cool. Like, we are women here as Roar. We wanted to do something with it,
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and we we knew 2 things. We knew that we were in a unique position,
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and we also knew that most of our client meetings were with men. And
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not because our relationships were only with men, but we just weren't
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seeing the female counterpart come to the table. And
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I I will take a little bit of responsibility for that. I mean, it it's
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embarrassing, but honest to admit that there was a time
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in our process where, you know, the portal through which you could see
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your accounts with us got assigned to the primary account
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holder. And you can guess who that was 9 10 out
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of 10 times. Right? It was the the first listed
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account holder, which is usually the male. And so we weren't even
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sending portal invites to the to the female. And acknowledge
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it started actually more as an initiative. It's become an institute, but it started as
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an initiative just within the firm to do things better,
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to create well, to invite women to a
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table and to make that table a comfortable, safe space to come and
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talk and be a part of. And so even something that started as small as
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again, like, the portal adjustments, getting everybody involved,
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addressing emails and including both parties on even on a meeting
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follow-up. So if I don't see wife in a meeting, she's still going to be
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looped in on any meeting follow-up and summary. So that she, at a
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minimum, knows who I am. But then what we see happen is you can probably
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see where this is going. Wife ends up coming to meeting number, maybe not 2,
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but maybe meeting number 5. Right? And so it was
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an awareness that led to action. And then we started creating
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content that was around the things that we knew were
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most important to women. You know? Not, you know, what risk adjusted
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return do you need to retire, but, like, am I going to be okay? Right?
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And then at the end of the day, kind of here is what women want
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to know. And so I wouldn't say that the content is miraculously
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different when it comes to finance. Like, finance principles are not
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wildly different between men and women. But I think the delivery of them can
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be can be different. And that's what we sought out to do. So it started
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with a content development. We started creating more content, posting it on our website, sending
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it out to our female clients. And then that evolved into events. We would
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do local office events where we'd have women come together, and
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talk about something finance related but then we'd always have to try to tie
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something fun into it just to make it, like, light and entertaining and social,
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very social. That was also an important aspect. And then
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that led to, like, an email blast. We were sending
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emails, like, a weekly email blast, and we turned that email series
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ultimately into the book. And that's where, you know, kind of the book was born.
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So it was a long road. Yeah. Can I just tell
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you the primary contact in the CRM system issue
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went through the same thing at the firm where I spent a bulk of my
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like and it was I was mortified as a
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woman in the company that, you know, we hadn't solved that
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sooner? And Yes. You know? Right. Like and now, I mean, in 2024, you're
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like, oh, how could that ever have been? You know? Mhmm. But in 2010, it
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was like, oh, boy. We gotta fix that. Yeah. Yeah. And I would also say
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credit to and I don't know if this is necessarily a generational thing, but
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a lot we learned a lot from our women clients
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speaking up and calling it out in a couple of places. Right? In a
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in a not in a horrible, you know, mean way, but, like, we would
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have case studies in some of our seminar presentations or webinars, and
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they're like, why is the case study a male engineer? Why
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can't it be yeah. And and it just those I just
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feedback is a gift and that was such a great gift that helped us to
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change and do better. And so it seems like there's parallels.
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Yeah. You can point it. Yeah. That's it's such a funny example because we're preparing
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for, one of our women's advisory institutes, are we're doing a
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virtual webinar next week. We have someone doing a presentation,
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so it's a 3rd party presentation. And a few of their slide decks had
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really great these super cool, like,
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visual aids to go with what they were talking about. And they were real I
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mean, right when I saw them, I thought those were really neat. That, like, hits
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hard. And then Ali, of course, as Ali does says,
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the men the the the characters on those slides are men. Can we change
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those to women? And I thought, oh, yeah. They are. You know? Even I can
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still kind of like look past it, which is bizarre. But, yeah,
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that little things like that go a long way. And you're right. Sometimes you learn
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because you just get some honest feedback from clients.
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Mhmm. Well, and we always say I mean, this has come up
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so many times in this podcast, which is things don't change
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until you shine a light on it. Yes. And then once you shine
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the light on it, once you have that awareness, you can't go
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back. Right? You have to make changes. You have to
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evolve and grow. And
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sometimes it takes, yeah, a client saying, hey.
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What about me? Why aren't I represented on this slide or, you
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know, on that email? And then it changes everything. Yeah.
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And and and it's not true of everybody though. Right? I mean, some client feedback
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is such I'll never forget I had a a female client say to me, and
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she was working with me at the time because she was going through a divorce.
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So that's what brought her to our table was, you know, a money transition as
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it is often as the case. And so it was a divorce scenario, and she
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said to me, you know, I just Karen, it was
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not because I wasn't interested. It's not because I don't feel like I
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can or that I, you know, didn't want to. It's that it was a
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necessary division of labor between my husband and I on who did what.
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And he did this, and I did it. You know? And so she was
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she was almost kind of I think during her married years when her kids were
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young, I think she was almost just as happy being not a part of it.
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And not Nina, I'll tell you right now, my husband is very happy. He doesn't
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need to be that where that happened in our marriage, you know. He cheats because
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I'm an advisor. So, like, he really leans into it. But, you know, so and
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that's okay too. I think the important thing then is just
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understanding that position that our female clients have and making sure that they
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know well enough, you know, we're here. This is what we're
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doing for you. These are the things we can help you with. So if ever
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you need independently, you know, turn to us. Well, and related
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to the Women's Advisory Institute and the female leadership, you
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know, as we're having discussions about you coming on Women's
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Share, you shared the perspective that, you know, you see one of
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the unique advantages we have as women is emotional
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intelligence and bringing that EQ to the table. So would love to
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hear you expand on, you know, how has that showed up for you personally?
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And then how have you how do you see that within the industry
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more broadly? Yeah. So I know that the female
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the audience will certainly relate to this, and I I haven't found a better way
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to describe it, so I'm gonna steal some paraphrase. I'm gonna paraphrase,
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Maggie Dent. She's an author, an Australian author who writes on parenting a
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lot. And I recently caught an interview that she said something to the effect
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of, like, there is a mental load that women carry for the
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people that we love. It is part of our nature to be nurturing.
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And so we're always kinda our minds are always assessing.
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Right? We're assessing if everything is okay. We're making sure that we didn't miss
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something. Right? You know, did I remember my son's show and tell
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project? Are we running low on type pods? Are we you know, I mean, did
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I forget something for a client that is time sensitive? I mean, I mean, our
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minds are just very full, at full capacity at every
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moment. I mean, they're working to do something. And again, with that nurturing mentality,
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it's what we do for the people we care about. We want to make sure
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everyone is okay. And I don't know about you, but that doesn't leave me. It
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is always with me. I cannot turn it off. And that's true
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in sitting across from somebody in a room, speaking about
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something that is very personal and also very important to them, which is money.
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I am assessing. I'm assessing if what I said landed in the way that
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I expected it to land. Right? It's that social awareness.
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What words are they using? And then I know to
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use those same words. Right? They're I mean, we speak in the language that we
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know. And so if my client is telling me if they're using a certain word
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or phrase because that's what's resonating with them, well, then I need to stick with
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that or phrase. Right? There's just that awareness, I think, that comes from
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our our nurturing natural disposition that
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helps create trust and understanding in
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client relationships. And I really don't think that it, you know, there's
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just so much value in that. And
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I don't sometimes I wish I could turn it off. I mean, it's not really
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even something that I'm trying to do. In fact, sometimes I have to try not
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to do it based on the circumstance, you know.
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So, yeah. Lighten that mental load. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And
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so it's, you know, it's like many things. Some of the things that we wish
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we could change about ourselves make us strong in other ways that we wouldn't change.
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And so that is definitely one of them. So I think there's just a an
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awareness, a social awareness part of, you know, EQ that I
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think we we had to manage. You know? Yeah.
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Yeah. It's interesting. We had, Julie
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Raggots from Carson Group on, in January in one of our
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episodes, and she's a researcher, right, and has studied. And one of
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the the areas or points she made is she's
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like, yes. That is something women tend to be stronger on, although
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she doesn't believe it's necessarily natural.
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It's from socialization. Right? Which is true. I mean, the end result is the
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same where I believe it's broadly true that women tend to be more empathetic.
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But if you have boys, like you mentioned, I think it's just really
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interesting to think about, I believe, anyway, the generation
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that's coming up. Like, our kids, you know, kids these
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days, but, like, have more more more empathy or
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it's more acceptable or it's modeled socially, right,
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for them to to display that regardless of gender, which I think
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is exciting because, because specifically
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in this space, in wealth management and financial advisers who are client
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facing, it's, yeah, been proven time and again the importance of, yes, you need to
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have IQ, but, like, there's there's also technology for that and
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automation for that, which is only accelerating. So EQ is the name of the game
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moving forward. So Yeah. You're absolutely right. I always there's you know, when I
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speak about females specifically, there's always this little
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voice in the back of my mind that is like, don't generalize or don't over
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generalize. Right. I wanna be I wanna be very sensitive to that because I think
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it's important not everybody is the same. Like, my client had said, I didn't wanna
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be involved. Like, you're not offending me. I don't care, you know. I prefer not
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to. You know? You don't need to email me or I'll call you when I
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need you kind of thing. And so I think but I think you're right. I
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think that overgeneralization will become less obvious
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or, you know, less of a need to do it because it'll just be more
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of the social norm. I agree with you completely, Joanna, that the social norms are
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changing and becoming more empathetic. Is
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not a gender, you know, faux pas one
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way or the other, you know, which I love. And and and this idea
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that, like, women are, like, we're supposed to be able
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to hold it all and carry it all and do all the
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things. Right? Which is unrealistic
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in a lot of ways. And where you see a lot of
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women just completely burn out because they're trying to be
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all the things all the time and never let a ball drop, and that's just
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not realistic. And those same set of expectations aren't
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necessarily set upon the
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male camp counterparts. And I think we're seeing a really
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interesting time right now where there's an acknowledgement of that,
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where women are getting to say, I don't wanna hold all the
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balls. I don't wanna I don't wanna juggle every single thing, like,
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I'm gonna focus here and outsource this, or get help
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here, or ask my partner for this. And
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it's it's a really nice shift,
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to see. And and yeah. The the
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nurture versus nature, I think that is just gonna be an interesting
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conversation that's gonna continue for years as we
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as people continue to evolve with help to your point,
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Joanna, of having technology that can help take some of those things
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off our plate. Yeah. And really get to
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expose us as individuals on and really
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where we want to spend our time and energy. And I think some of that
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is because we we're
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we expect it of ourselves too, to wear and to handle those hats. And only
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until we say, I I can't or I need
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help can we expect somebody to stand up. You know? I mean, my, you know,
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my my husband is not gonna do something that he knows I do all the
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time unless I say to him, I can't do it this time. I need your
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help. Right? So Yeah. Well, Karen, we ask every
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guest what is the best career
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advice that you've received? Gosh. That's hard. Because there
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have been several. But I think the one that makes that keeps
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me doing what I'm doing and genuinely interested in having a good time is
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to always stay curious. Don't stop learning.
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Always stay curious. And because I mean, in the world of finance,
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the just the scope of topics that I can have to
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mentally task myself to to comprehend and deal with on a daily
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basis is so broad. And that's a good thing
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because I know as a certified financial planner, I tell my clients I
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know
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client is great. Or the I mean, the economy is, you know,
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always something worth redigesting and comprehending and trying to
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figure out, and that'll never that's never going anywhere. But, yeah, I
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think that that is what really kind of fuels me. It's just like a genuine
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interest in what I do, an excitement to have conversations,
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and new ones. Right? So, you know, just
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looking more into information and data and understanding and regurgitating
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it is really exciting. So I would say just be find something you're interested in
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and then keep learning about it always. I love that. And it's also too,
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I think, paying attention to you know, we talk on this podcast quite a bit
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about just people assessing what is the right career for
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them and that sort of thing. I think it's it paying attention
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to where your curiosity takes you as well as your
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career evolves, and and refining
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what what works for you. But I can imagine in service of your
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clients that curiosity, a, there's the automatic
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trust if the answer is, that's a great question. I'm not gonna rattle off
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some, you know, unreliable answer. We'll put it that way since this
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is a PC podcast. But, but,
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but I'll I'll look into that and get back to you. Right? Like, that just
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builds the credibility and trust of, like, oh, great. Karen's got the resources. She
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knows exactly what to do. She's a smart cookie. She'll get it. So but you
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don't have to have it all. It is so funny that you use that example,
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Joanna, because if I were to think about something that I tell, like, our junior
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team of advisers when I, you know, work to mentor them,
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it is the reminder that it's
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okay to say I don't know. But it's a very I mean, when you're starting
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out, I don't care what your career is. It's it's uncomfortable to admit that
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you don't know. Well, when you've been in Riser for, you know, 16 plus years,
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if you say I don't know, it's because it's a really good question. You know?
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Like, I don't know, or I can't remember because I have 50 other things, you
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know, that I was working on today. And I can't I can't pull it from
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my memory bank fast enough to get back to you. So I tell my team,
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you know, listen. It's okay to not know the answer. Don't don't lie don't make
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it up. Confidently say I don't know. Be just be
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confident in the I don't know. Like, that's a great question. I don't know, but
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I I'm gonna leverage my team, and I'm gonna get back to you. There is
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nothing wrong with that. Don't be uncomfortable saying that. You just gotta
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be confident in it. And I think that's that's okay. Because that that's what makes,
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I think, a lot of, you know, people starting out really nervous.
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And it just adds a whole layer of not being able to pay attention or
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socially aware because you're in your mind, and it's just like, okay. Yeah. I don't
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know something else. I don't know. Totally. I had a coach once say,
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what if your only job is to stay curious
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and open to where that leads? Mhmm. And
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that just opens up so many things. Like, if my only job is
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to be curious and follow those little
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paths and not try to couple them with an
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answer, create a plan, know what the outcome is, all of those
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things, and just be curious in what
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is coming. I'm like, it was a game
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changer for me both professionally and personally. Yeah. I think the
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advice that you gave about staying curious is just great life
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advice. It's great career advice, but it's great life advice too. Yeah.
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Yeah. Mhmm. This has been so good. We could keep talking for
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a long time. Is Is it already time? I know.
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It's so fast. It goes so fast. Just thank you
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again for being here and sharing your story and
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the Beacon Point story and just, like, the authenticity that you
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brought to this conversation. Just love it. So assuming
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everyone who's listening will be as big of a fan of you and Beacon Point
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as we now are from this conversation, what are the best ways for them
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to connect with you? Any Yeah. Places you wanna direct our listeners?
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Definitely to the website. We have offices all across the country. It's actually hard to
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keep up with how many offices we have. I'll be honest. I don't sit on
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that side of the business, but, beaconpoint.com. That's,
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beaconpoint with an e. I don't know why they did that, but point with an
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e, dotcom is is the place to go.
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Excellent. Excellent. And we'll make sure that's in the show notes.
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And and also just, you know, recommendation, check out their content, check out
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the Women's Advisory Institute, the Dollars and Cents podcast. If you love Karen and
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want to hear Karen more often, she cohosts that podcast.
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Just thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. I
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mean, definitely the highlight of my day. I like I said, I'm disappointed. I'm sad
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it's over, but thanks so much for having me. You guys are great. I love
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the podcast. Thanks for everything you're doing for women. It's it's really inspiring.
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Oh, thank you. Welcome. We appreciate that. Well, that's our show for
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today. If ours is a mission that you want to share in, join
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our email list, right from the homepage of our website, women womensharepodcast.com.
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And with that, I'm Joanna Erisman. And I'm Leah Alter,
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and we'll catch you on the next episode of Women's Share.
Karen Reifel
Senior Wealth Advisor
Karen earned her BA in Finance with honors from California State University, Fullerton and maintains the Certified Financial Planning™ (CFP®) designation. Beginning with a college internship, she has spent her entire professional career in the financial services industry and joined Beacon Pointe Advisors in 2011. As a Senior Wealth Advisor, Karen is responsible for managing client relationships for Beacon’s Private Client Group. Along with Beacon’s Investment Committee Members and Financial Planning Department, as well as other key professionals, Karen is tasked with coordinating all areas of investment and finance to create and implement cohesive life plans for her clients. She serves as Board Director for the Beacon Pointe Women’s Advisory Institute and co-authored Your Dollars, Our Sense: A Fun and Simple Guide to Money Matters, an international best-selling book that has ranked #1 in six different business/finance categories. Karen is also the co-host of Beacon Pointe’s financial planning podcast Dollars & Sense, helping listeners navigate various life moments and major life events through the lens of personal finance. Karen resides in Southern California with her husband and two sons.