Healthy Advisor

Carolyn Armitage spent decades building a career in wealth management while privately carrying the emotional effects of childhood trauma. For years, she compartmentalized those experiences, believing she could simply push through them while focusing on work, achievement and daily life. After an emotional breaking point following her mother’s funeral, Carolyn began exploring deeper forms of healing...

Terri Kallsen has had an outstanding career in financial services over the last 30 years. During her tenure at Charles Schwab, she led 7,000 employees and managed $1.6 trillion in assets, played a key role in transforming Wealth Enhancement Group as COO and over the last two years, she has been instrumental in building Rise Growth Partners, the RIA investing company started by former United Capita...

Throughout his career, RJ Moore has led some of the largest wealth management firms in the industry through challenging times. He’s held CEO positions at Cetera Financial Group, Legal & General Investment Management America, and ABN AMRO La Salle Bank. He’s also the former president of LPL Financial. But perhaps his biggest challenge came during the summer 2023, when he was diagnosed with Stag...

This month, Jamie Hopkins’ new book, “Your Retirement Sketchbook,” co-written by Bonnie Treichel, hits bookstores, and a lot of advisors know Hopkins as a retirement planning expert. Less known is his own personal story, which includes the passing of his father in a job-site accident when he was 8 years old. “This has impacted so many things in my life—my desire to be a dad, a sense I would die ea...

In 2018, Melissa Caro’s perfectly healthy 72-year-old mother was suddenly diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, and within 24 hours she became her sole caregiver, her financial planner, her life coach and her healthcare advocate. At the same time, her 87-year-old stepdad was falling apart and spiraling into dementia, and her husband was in the hospital with severe back problems. As a Type A personal...

After facing divorce, financial hardship and even losing her home in a wildfire, Bridget Venus Grimes rebuilt her life and career around helping other women do the same, taking control of their finances, finding community and redefining success on their own terms. In this episode of The Healthy Advisor, host Diana Britton sits down with Grimes, president of WealthChoice and co-founder of Equita Fi...

For 35 years, Mark Singer owned an independent financial planning firm, Safe Harbor Retirement Planning, in the Boston area, a Commonwealth Financial Network affiliate. During that time, he was living life at full speed—running three businesses, exercising, playing golf, boating, spending time with grandchildren—until he had a life-changing stroke in October 2022. He lost his ability to speak, swa...

Ryan Marcus has a passion for helping the wealth management industry better serve the neurodivergent community. He argues that the industry is not serving them in an intentional way. Neurodivergence refers to divergence in mental or neurological function from what is considered typical or normal. It’s frequently used with reference to autistic spectrum disorders. The issue is personal to Ryan, who...

Lisa Erickson spent 37 years in financial services, ultimately leading the Public Markets Due Diligence team at U.S. Bank, which manages over $500 billion in client assets. In addition to her business acumen, she was best known for her selflessness, positivity and character. But earlier this year, Lisa chose to retire early after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a movement disorder of the...

The summer after his freshman year in high school, John Connell went on the Texas Giant rollercoaster in Arlington, Texas, the tallest wooden rollercoaster in the U.S. at that time. John ended up in the hospital, with injuries the doctors weren’t sure he’d recover from. That became an “origination point,” a wake-up call that forever changed the trajectory of his life. In this episode of The Health...

After a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry—rising from clinical research to business development and marketing—Paula Nangle took a step back to raise her young children and reflect on what truly mattered.    Motivated by her early experiences with money and a desire to make a meaningful impact, she reinvented herself as a Certified Financial Planner, helping others navigate their fin...

Drew Shockley grew up on a dairy farm in Tennessee. He started working in insurance for $7.50/hour, and by his 30s had built and sold multiple companies—including an eight-figure exit in 2020. From the outside, it sounds like a dream. But the road to Drew’s success was not a straight path. Along the way, he experienced burnout and struggled with the pressure of leading a much larger team. The pers...

When natural disasters hit, your life can turn upside down. Beth Bosworth experienced this firsthand when Hurricane Helene hit her town of Asheville, N.C. on Sept. 27, 2024. The hurricane caused severe damage to the city, including fallen trees, destroyed power lines, and flooded roads. Her neighborhood is still feeling the effects of that storm several months later.   In this episode, Diana Britt...

When Stacie Calder first joined the financial services industry, she pounded the pavement and quickly climbed the corporate ladder. But her rise came with a cost.  In this episode, she opens up about the persona she adopted to fit a traditional mold of leadership, one that silenced her authentic voice in favor of external approval. A turning point came when a close friend called out her lack of vu...

What happens when professional achievement outpaces personal well-being? Dr. Preston Cherry, founder of Concurrent Financial Planning, seemed to have it all—a thriving career and a secure six-figure salary in his late 20s. But beneath the surface, he was stuck in a seven-year fog, struggling to align his personal life with his financial success. In this episode, Diana Britton, executive editor at...

Mary Saylor had been working hard to earn her accounting degree at Penn State University when she got some shocking news at the beginning of her senior year—she was pregnant. And while many women would think of it as a roadblock, Saylor saw it as a blessing. It didn’t stop her from pursuing her degree and a career in financial services. If anything, it made her more determined.   Not long after gi...

Many advisors know Aaron Klein as the super-friendly, charismatic leader of Nitrogen, formerly Riskalyze, the company he founded about 13 years ago as a risk tolerance documentation tool. He’s since stepped down from his role leading the company. What most advisors probably don’t know is Aaron’s personal journey—the challenges he faced balancing running a major fintech company with adopting and ra...

Michelle Begina started her journey to financial independence after an unexpected betrayal. When she was just 17 years old, her parents used her college fund to buy a yacht instead of supporting her education. Michelle then had to forge her own path, overcoming adversity and reshaping her perceptions of money and trust. In this episode, WealthManagement.com Managing Editor Diana Britton sits down...

George Kinder, raised in St. Clairsville, Ohio, was inspired by his passion for freedom and creativity to explore a deeper purpose for his life beyond traditional career paths. His work as a tax preparer revealed a universal longing for fulfillment, leading him to pioneer life planning, a method empowering individuals to pursue their true aspirations. And while he has trained hundreds of advisors...

Adventure racing—an off-road, navigation-based sport that fuses endurance, strategy, and teamwork—became a life-changing journey for Ryan VanGorder. What started as a casual comment while watching The Echo Challenge with friends transformed into a relentless pursuit of his physical and mental limits. Since 1999, Ryan and his team have tackled grueling competitions that stretch from a few hours to...

Having grown up around financial planning, Matthew Newman realized the importance of having everything in place before tragedy strikes. His father’s advice to plan for the negative moments was a lifeline.  At age 39, he was diagnosed with Grade 3 Astrocytoma, a form of brain cancer. At the time, he had three children under 5, and his father-in-law was battling pancreatic cancer. All of a sudden, h...

It was not just one struggle in her life that shaped Marissa Nehlsen. Since her formative years, she’s faced adversity and come out stronger every time.  Despite significant hardships, including the loss of her family farm, enduring domestic abuse from her father, and coping with Stargardt disease, which has led to blindness, Marissa has built a seven-figure business and become a coach, speaker, a...

In her role as head of culture and field experience at RBC Wealth Management U.S., Shareen Luze is responsible for making sure the firm’s 2,200 financial advisors feel supported and have a similar employee experience as those in the home office. One particular area of focus, which has become more acute in the global pandemic, has been mental wellbeing.    But Shareen has had her own mental health...

While studying at Duke University, Martine Lellis started to feel sick. It developed quickly into a hospital visit where she was diagnosed with pneumonia in both her lungs. The condition escalated into a near-deadly situation, so her doctors decided to induce a coma even before her parents were able to reach her.   It became so serious that while in a coma, she received her last rites, the religio...

Kimberly Sanders followed a typical path into financial services, gaining an undergrad in finance and working for a series of banks and brokerage firms. When she became pregnant, she made the decision to stay home for eight years to raise her kids. But when it was time to return to work, the path was not so smooth.   For Anna Howard, her path into the industry was driven by a desire to earn valida...