I created Given Not Earned, an inheritance consultation company, because the complexity that goes along with inheriting wealth is something familiar to me. I am passionate about helping others find solutions to the obstacles wealth presents. Read on to learn more about my story.

At age 28, I was gifted an income producing commercial property, and soon after that I was given ownership of a Trust that had been set up for my benefit. For years I pretended the money didn’t exist. I hadn’t done anything to earn it, so it didn’t seem right for me to touch it, much less spend it.

It wasn’t until I was about to get married and was considering buying a house, that I took honest stock of all that I had been given. My first order of business in stepping into this new reality was to write down all my assets and calculate my net worth. Then I started therapy. I began working through the grief and interpersonal conflicts that paralleled the gifting. Often times when money is gifted or inherited, it coincides with the loss of a family member, a divorce, or a traumatic accident. It was important for me to address my emotional state in order to move forward.

While continuing the deep personal work, I also began to, very cautiously, formulate a system of how I could handle the assets. I knew I wanted them to grow, and I desperately didn’t want to handle money poorly or spend it frivolously. I spent hundreds of hours educating myself on how to grow money. I read books, joined clubs, listened to podcasts and interviewed people I knew that had invested wisely. I learned about asset classes, such as real estate, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, buying and starting businesses. I also took a close, and surprising, look at the inherited team of people handling my assets; from the property management, to the financial advisors, to the large corporate accountants and CPAs. These were the professionals my parents had used, but I had to consider whether they were the right fit for me as I moved forward.

Beyond the tactical side of handling money in a wise way, I felt isolated emotionally from my peers. The struggles of being given an investment property and a well funded Trust weren’t things I could speak openly about. I often wished I could reach out to someone who understood where I was coming from, that had been through something similar. My consultation practice stems from over a decade of lived experience navigating the myriad complexities of inherited wealth.

I am here to work with people in developing a more thorough understanding of the impact this new wealth has on their lives - the ways it makes life easier and the ways it makes life harder. I offer inheritors a safe place to share their experiences, to discover what makes them truly come alive and guide them steadily in that direction.