About
Katie Braden, CFP® - The Personal Side
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In business and life, Katie aims to laugh everyday, have fun whenever possible and not take things too seriously. In fact, when told to "pose professionally" for her photos, she instantly (and comically) rejected the traditional notion of what "being professional" means and, well, these outtakes say it all.
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Katie is known for her energy, passion and sarcasm and for her love of traveling the world. She's been to 50 countries across six continents with many places yet to visit. And she loves traveling so much, she got her private pilot's license in the summer of 2021.
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Throughout life, Katie has refused to follow the status quo after seeing too many people go through life, checking the boxes, doing all the "right" things and finding themselves unhappy and unfulfilled. She firmly believes life is for living now, not decades from now, and embraces that through extreme spontaneity.
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Thankfully, she found a fellow status-quo-bucking-spontaneous-traveler in her husband. They've been known to suddenly move states, hop on international flights for spur of the moment trips and sell all their belongings to move to another country (then move back after a whopping 47 hours abroad). Yet, it's thanks to the power of financial planning and continually asking deeper questions about life that they're able to do this.
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And behind the energy and spontaneity, Katie shares openly about her challenges, missteps and struggles with anxiety because in order to best help each other, and clients, we need to acknowledge that we're all human and that no one has a perfect life.
Katie Braden, CFP® - The Professional Side
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Katie is the energetic and passionate founder of Innovating Advice which she started after 15 years in financial services to combine two of her passions - helping to grow the financial planning profession and leveraging the power of video.
After moving abroad and graduating from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia with a degree in photography (which Katie credits for honing her creative outlook and approach), she returned to the U.S. and joined her mother’s successful fee-only investment advisory firm. As the intended successor, Katie learned all aspects of the business, obtained the CFP® designation and became a shareholder. As she began to take on more
responsibility and looked towards the future, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a better way of doing things and that the existing financial advice and financial planning models were outdated.
So in 2013, Katie left and started one of the first completely virtual, fee-only, monthly retainer (no AUM) financial planning businesses, Belmore Financial, in her quest to change the profession and live her happiest life. She began speaking out about the need for the profession to evolve and embrace technology, fee and service models that change the conversations with clients (away from products and assets under management), expand access to the traditionally unserved and underserved and increase efficiencies for both planners and clients.
In the years since, Katie has had the pleasure of speaking, consulting and working with financial services professionals in over 35 countries and territories. As she fell in love with helping and inspiring others to evolve their businesses, she wound up Belmore Financial to focus on working with advisors everywhere to help them better help more people (and themselves!).
At Innovating Advice, Katie is joyfully focused on helping financial advisors leverage video to grow their business, improve their client experience, and attract more of their ideal clients. She does this through the vibrant Innovating Advice Community (IAC), Video Creation Masterclass, workshops and speaking.
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Katie is often featured in the media, is a 2016 InvestmentNews 40 Under 40 alum and has served on CFP Board's Women's Initiative (WIN) Council since 2014. Having worked virtually throughout her 15 year career, she can often be found traveling the world (when the world is open for travel), flying with her husband (both are pilots) or enjoying the sunshine at home in Port Charlotte, FL.
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