Echo recently sat down with Michael Kitces on the Financial Advisor Success Podcast to discuss how you can own your future by continuously reinvesting in yourself to build the advisory career you want. 

In this episode:

Echo talks about how she built her career starting out in the industry from scratch as an immigrant to the U.S. with just $800 in her pocket. She started studying finance as an undergraduate, then decided that it would help her career to get a CPA license, so she joined a public accounting firm to get the requisite two years of audit experience. Then, transitioned to the personal financial planning division of a regional accounting firm and earned her CFP certification to build her professional credibility and help overcome the fact that she looked young when sitting across from older clients. Why Echo ultimately went out on her own at a cost of losing two-thirds of her AUM to rebuild the vision of the advisory firm she wanted to build. And why, as an already successful advisor in her 40s, she still decided to go back and get her CFA certification on top of juggling the challenges of growing the business and being a parent to her daughter Nina.

Jordan Highley's podcast, Highley Invested, with Echo Huang, CFA, CFP®, CPA

This episode of Highley Invested brings you the story of Echo Huang, a Certified Financial Planner, Public Accountant, and Chartered Financial Analyst who is the founder and president of her company Echo Wealth Management. Echo was born and raised in China and thanks to Hong Kong TV, she became a dreamer. So at the age of 20, she left China for an opportunity in the US with nothing but $800 to her name. 

Echo Huang just finished this podcast interview with Kimberly McLemore, the host of Your Resource for Success Podcast! She is excited to share her personal journey in personal wealth management business and hope to educate and inspire more women to pursue this career path.

Only 23% of Certified Financial Planner professionals were women in 2000 when Echo passed the CFP exam (today, it’s still 23%). Only about 20% of all financial planners in the US have the CFP designation.

Have you heard the one about the young Chinese girl who came to America with only $800 in her pocket, but now owns her own wealth management company, has several advanced degrees, and manages over $150 Million in client assets? You know, the one who authors best selling books, ballroom dances, holds CFP, CPA, CFA designations, and plays a concert piano? Well if you haven’t, hang on and enjoy this episode of the Remarkable People Podcast, the Echo Huang Story!

For immediate release: 

Saint Paul, Minn. – A local group of female financial planners, the Goddesses of Financial Planning, today announced a $25,000 donation to the Center for Financial Planning initiative in honor of the group’s 25th anniversary. The funding will support the initiative’s work to promote women and diversity in the financial planning industry.

Founded in 1995, the Goddesses of Financial Planning is a group of more than a dozen women financial advisory firm owners in Minnesota. The group meets regularly to share strategic advice and best practices to support each other in the financial planning industry. In addition to the Goddesses of Financial Planning, each member also belongs to the Financial Planning Association of Minnesota (FPA MN), a nonprofit organization of more than 900 financial planning professionals.