Ep. 22: The Breadwinner’s Partner: Empowering Women Through Financial Trust with Bridget Grimes
What does it cost to trust someone who publicly champions your success but privately limits it?
In this episode, Anne Claessen speaks with Bridget Grimes, CFP and president of WealthChoice, a fee-only financial planning firm serving high-earning breadwinner women. After a decade in an industry that repeatedly asked her to shrink, Bridget’s perspective on trust is shaped by both the damage that experience caused and what she chose to construct afterward.
Listen in as she shares what she learned about trust from both sides of professional betrayal. You’ll learn why stated values without supporting structures are not values at all, what intentional succession planning actually requires, and how the wrong firm became the reason she built the right one.
What You’ll Learn:
Why fiduciary responsibility and personal trust are not the same thing.
The real cost of the gender pay gap in financial planning and advisory firms.
How fee-only RIAs can build stronger advisor partnerships through clear expectations.
What intentional succession planning looks like inside a family-owned firm.
How structured communication helps Gen Z advisors transition into financial services.
What women in finance need from firm leadership beyond stated support.
Ideas Worth Sharing:
"I think a client's only going to take the steps that you suggest if they really believe that you are trustworthy." - Bridget Grimes
"Whoever your tribe is, you have to have this group of people." - Bridget Grimes
"If you are surrounded by folks you trust, who you know are interested in sharing and helping each other succeed, then far more women will succeed in this industry." - Bridget Grimes
About Bridget Grimes:
Bridget Venus Grimes is a CFP Board Ambassador and founder of WealthChoice, a fee-only financial planning firm built around the financial lives of breadwinner women. She co-founded Equita Financial Network, a community and RIA platform designed to keep women-led advisory firms in the industry on their own terms. Her work as an advisor, speaker, and mentor is shaped by her own experience navigating financial discrimination and rebuilding professional trust from the ground up.
Resources:
Follow Bridget:
LinkedIn: Bridget Venus Grimes, CFP®
Follow Anne:
LinkedIn: Anne Claessen
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