The 46-year-old Philadelphia native recalls she was “attracted and intrigued by money” from an early age and expected to go into banking after completing her undergraduate degree in business administration.
However, the sudden death of her paternal grandmother during her sophomore year at the University of Delaware kick-started her lifelong crusade to improve access to personal finance for women and African Americans.
“It was the first significant death I had experienced in my life and it was the fact she had a very small life insurance policy that really got me interested in personal finance,” she says.
“I started wondering, how could this have happened? Why didn’t we know better? Why didn’t we do better? It was at that point I started really looking to help other families, including my own, to try to avoid some of the mistakes and pitfalls of not knowing what we should be doing financially,” says Wright.
When embarking on her financial planning career more than 20 years ago, Wright’s first role was with a small firm in Houston, which, unusually for the time, was owned and a run by a black woman.
“Given the percentage of black advisers – particularly black women – in this profession is very low, it was a blessing for me that I was able to come into her organisation. She was a mentor for me,” she says.
During a five-year stint, Wright achieved Certified Financial Planner status and in 2002 went on to start her own IFA firm, Ascension Wealth, where the majority of her clients are professional women aged between 30 and 65.
The daughter of a local businessman, Wright reveals she comes from a “family of entrepreneurs”, which sparked an interest in starting her own business.
“My father taught me it’s important to be an entrepreneur and have control of your destiny. That was instilled in me at a very young age, so I knew I wanted to start my own firm very early on.”
Asked if she consciously made the decision to target women, Wright admits it was a natural fit as, given her own reputation as a successful professional woman, she was quickly able to build relationships with those who are either the breadwinners or the “financially responsible one” within the family.
“It’s almost like being a personal trainer. I see my role as a financial planner as being a financial coach, helping people navigate finances throughout the various stages of their lives,” she says.
