Mary Lou James, CFP®

Mary Lou James, CFP® came into the insurance and then investing industry with a teaching background in 1983 and has expanded her footprint in the industry to include financial: education, planning, consulting and coaching.

Mary Lou, aka as Lou to her friends and clients, brings decades of experience to those she serves. Today if you asked what she does for a living, it would be this: connecting people to their dreams and purpose and what really matters to them and showing them how their money management plays a big part in their dreams.

Years ago, Lou began to see a pattern with her clients…they came needing advice on their money but did not seem to have a dream for their life bigger than getting out of debt, paying for college, and having money for retirement. Their basic strategy was financial survival. She began to wonder about the American Dream her parents and grandparents had…you know the one…Mom, Dad, apple pie, help others, and leave the world better off for having been in it.

In 2017, after 34 years in the financial services industry, Lou had lost faith in the investment world as it occurred to her that it was all about them making money with a smaller view on what was best for her clients. When she found a way to implement investing using science and academics, which she had studied for her credentials, it resonated with her and transformed how she does investing. Her practice today is based on combining concepts and theories from top financial behavioral experts and Nobel Prize winning academics.

Today, this passion has led her to take a stand for clients to be free and at ease around money. Lou engages people in monthly educational events and will be implementing an initiative to empower women and families to elevate their financial literacy in the first quarter 2023.

Lou has many philanthropic interests, financially supporting many charities both now and through her estate. She grew up the daughter of two World War 2 veterans who worked their entire lives with veterans to develop community and ensure their lifetime benefits. Lou began volunteering with her parents’ service work to veterans from the age of 5 until her mother’s
passing and is pursing future activities with them. She is a published author in the book How She Learned, Women and Girls Empower Others with True Stories About Finances and is actively working on a book about eldercare after caring for her parents and mother-in-law for over 20 years.