My journey into financial planning began in Washington, DC — nearly ten years after graduating from Duke University in 1992. When my now-husband, Jay, and I combined our households and finances in 1999, we were navigating a system that didn’t yet recognize LGBT couples legally. We knew we could benefit from professional guidance around investing, taxes, and legal issues — but finding the right advice wasn’t easy.

We met with several financial planners, but every one of them assumed we were married. Their recommendations — though well-intentioned — didn’t apply to our situation. It became clear that much of the financial services industry wasn’t equipped to support unmarried couples — LGBT or otherwise — in a thoughtful and legally sound way.

That experience lit a fire in me. I saw a real gap in the industry and felt called to do something about it. I returned to school to earn both an MBA and a Master of Science in Financial Planning (MSFP), so I could provide the kind of support we needed but couldn’t find.

After completing my MBA at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts in 2005, I joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in McLean, Virginia. There, I worked in the firm’s Personal Financial Services group, preparing income, gift, and estate tax returns for high-net-worth individuals and providing comprehensive planning to executives at companies like Capital One and General Dynamics.

That experience was invaluable — but I never forgot the importance of making expert financial guidance available to those who’ve traditionally been underserved or overlooked. That’s why I launched A2Q: to offer thoughtful, inclusive, and reliable financial planning for real people navigating real life.