Laurene didn’t take the traditional path into financial planning. She took the real one.
She started working at 16 to help her family make ends meet after her stepfather had an industrial accident. He went from bringing home $600 a week to $35. So she got a job, stayed in school, and figured out how to navigate a world that doesn’t wait for people to be ready.
She spent 31 years with AT&T — starting as a junior in high school, working her way up, and eventually retiring at 48 when they laid me off. She had a pension. I had time. And she was not going to spend it babysitting.
So Laurene went back to work. She has now had four careers. The one that shaped me most — before financial planning — was 13 years as a business consultant, walking into family-owned businesses and asking every uncomfortable question until people understood what they actually needed. She wasn’t the one with all the answers. She was the one who asked until the right answers surfaced.
That’s exactly what she does now.
For the past 13 years, she has been helping people build financial plans that actually hold up — through unexpected illnesses, market downturns, career changes, and the hard questions most advisors never ask. She started in mortgage protection, helping families make sure a mortgage wouldn’t become a crisis if someone got hurt or died. Now she works primarily with doctors and high-income professionals who are earning well but haven’t had time to build a real plan around what they’re earning.
Laurene’s philosophy is simple: Mission before commission. She doesn’t care how much she makes on a plan. She cares whether the plan is right for them. It took me three years to even notice how little she was getting paid by certain carriers — that’s how little she was focused on the money. What she focuses on is the outcome.
Laurene asks hard questions. she holds her clients accountable. And she show up every year at their anniversary to make sure they’re still on track — because a financial plan isn’t a one-time event. It’s a relationship.
Philosophy: Security Over Returns
Here’s what makes her different: she doesn’t chase returns. She builds security. Especially for doctors, people already have a high income. What they need isn’t more risk. They need a plan that protects what they’ve built, reduces what they owe to the IRS, and makes sure their family is never left scrambling. That’s what they build together.
Her primary focus is on doctors and high-income professionals between ages 30 and 50 — people who are earning well, living well, and haven’t sat down to build a real plan yet. Whether they’re worried about taxes, what happens if they can’t work, or just the creeping feeling that they’re missing something — I’m probably a good fit.
Learn more: https://www.yourwealthrefined.com/
Mike Saunders, MBA
Recent episodes from Mike Saunders, MBA (see all)
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