Guiding Clients Through Divorce: Financial, Emotional, and Professional Strategies

Gretchen Halpin is a strategic visionary with over 25 years of leadership and marketing experience. In her work with financial professionals and teams, Gretchen's primary focus is to accelerate and guide organizational growth in a positive, sustainable way. From successful entrepreneur to jack-of-all-trades strategic consultant, Gretchen's career path and journey to success have been guided by one true passion: to help people create the life and business they want, even when that means challenging the status quo.

Gretchen specializes in pioneering strategy and growth initiatives that drive success across every aspect of a business — from vision and objectives, to marketing and business development, to the overall client experience. Her top priority is to ensure that all decisions and initiatives are aligned with the mission and values of the firms in which she works. Gretchen has helped firms achieve success by elevating their brand identity and story to internal and external audiences, seizing new business opportunities, driving organizational change and translating strategy into action across all levels of the business.

But her ability to morph big-picture ideas into action and results goes beyond her current focus; it derives from her experience as the driving force behind several successful business ventures, including Soothe Your Senses, an organic aromatherapy product line she launched in 2001. What started as a passion for health and wellness expanded into an international spa brand — with retail distribution in 30 U.S. states and five countries — that grew 250-percent annually for eight years. 

As a co-founder of Beyond AUM, Gretchen and her team created and implemented a growth, marketing and technology plan that led an RIA firm to grow from $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) to more than $5 billion in AUM in five years. Under her leadership, Beyond AUM continues to assist firms, big and small, to reach their goals. Gretchen believes in working directly with advisors and their teams in order to cultivate a deep understanding of the importance and impact of their service and help support their client relationships. These experiences drive Beyond AUM's passion to see the RIA industry continue to thrive into the future. 

Under the direction of Gretchen and her fellow co-founder, Beyond AUM's marketing strategy was recognized by My Perfect Client and Masters in Accounting, and the team led the development of a personal finance blog that was named a Top 50 Financial Advisor Blog by Michael Kitces in 2014 and 2015. Gretchen has been a featured speaker at numerous industry events and conferences, hosted by leading organizations such as eMoney, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and Financial Advisor Magazine.

Mary Meadows brings a diverse background to her work as a financial advisor having spent the first five years of her career as an early childhood special educator at The Bell Center for Early Intervention. During that time, Mary Meadows recognized that financial wellness has an impact on more than your bank balance. Her passion to empower directed her to pivot to a career in finance. She joined the team at Porter, White & Company, an investment banking and investment management firm serving both individual and institutional clients, and worked there from 2011 to 2020.

As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® practitioner and a CFA® Charterholder, she has both the quantitative background to analyze markets and investments and the ability to explain difficult concepts. Her B.A. in Psychology and Master of Teaching from the University of Virginia complement the financial background and balances the depth of financial knowledge with the empathy and understanding of the human spirit.

Shannon O’Toole is an executive leadership coach, talent strategist, and people person at her core. For more than 20 years, she has built a career around understanding how people work and how strong leadership helps them thrive.

Her path began at General Mills, where she was drawn into the art and science of attracting and retaining top talent. That curiosity led her into executive search during the dot-com boom and eventually into a long tenure in the financial services industry. As Chief Talent Officer at Buckingham Wealth Partners, Shannon helped scale the firm from 75 to 500 employees and from a single office to 40 nationwide. She redesigned performance management, built training programs, created career paths, and coached both internal teams and more than 150 independent partner firms.

Today, Shannon works with founders, executives, and emerging leaders as they navigate the complexities of team growth, feedback, hiring, succession, and leadership transitions. Her coaching is clear, people-centered, and action-oriented. She is known for asking the right questions, challenging assumptions, and helping leaders move forward with confidence. Shannon’s approach is grounded in four essentials — clarity, feedback, kindness, and action — the same qualities she believes define the best leaders.