Back to InsightsBy Kyle Young, CFP®, CRPS®, ADPA®
June is a month of celebration.
It marks the arrival of summer and the many occasions that honor family, freedom, achievement, and community, including graduations, weddings, Father’s Day, Juneteenth, Loving Day, and Pride Month.
It is also a time to recognize the courage, resilience, and determination of those who fought for the right to live openly, love freely, and build lives on their own terms.
What connects many of these celebrations is the shared pursuit of independence and opportunity.
For many LGBTQ+ individuals, the journey toward equality has been marked by a series of firsts: the first legal protections, the first openly LGBTQ+ elected officials, the first recognized marriages, and the first opportunity for many couples to build families with the same rights, dignity, and legal standing afforded to others.
Each milestone represented more than a legal victory. It represented greater independence – the freedom to make choices about one’s life, family, future, and legacy.
As we launch Pierstone Wealth Management during Pride Month, that idea of independence carries special meaning.
At its core, financial planning is about freedom. It is about creating the ability to make decisions with confidence, support the people you love, pursue opportunities that matter to you, and build a future that reflects your values. While those goals are universal, the path to achieving them is not always the same.
As an independent RIA, we have the freedom to build a firm grounded in our values and guided by intention. We are committed to cultivating an environment of inclusiveness and respect, delivering disciplined advice that strives to empower clients to turn financial resources into opportunity, and creating a lasting impact through meaningful support of the communities we serve.
Throughout my career, I’ve seen how often wealth management is centered on assumptions that don’t fit the lives of many successful people.
LGBTQ+ couples frequently face unique family planning and estate considerations. Women often encounter challenges related to balancing career advancement and caregiving responsibilities. Business owners must navigate the risks and rewards of building successful enterprises while pursuing their personal financial goals.
The common thread is the need for advice that recognizes the full complexity of a person’s life, relationships, responsibilities, and aspirations.
While every client’s circumstances are different, Pride Month offers an opportunity to recognize a community whose financial planning needs have often been overlooked or misunderstood.
The LGBTQ+ community has historically faced planning challenges that traditional financial institutions have not always fully addressed. Even after decades of progress, many individuals and families continue to navigate unique legal, financial, healthcare, and estate planning needs that benefit from tailored advice and support.
Marriage equality was a landmark achievement, but it did not erase decades of planning complexity. Many couples spent significant portions of their lives building assets, purchasing homes, naming beneficiaries, and establishing financial arrangements before legal recognition existed. Today, families may still encounter challenges involving adoption, surrogacy, parental rights, healthcare directives, and varying legal protections across state lines.
Retirement planning can present additional difficulties. LGBTQ+ individuals may be more likely to rely on chosen family networks rather than traditional support structures, creating greater concerns around caregiving, long-term care planning, and healthcare decision-making later in life.
In addition, family-building journeys often involve substantial financial commitments through adoption, IVF, IUI, surrogacy, and related legal processes. Thoughtful planning is needed to help ensure these important life goals align with broader healthcare, insurance, and long-term financial priorities.
These realities reinforce the importance of working with advisors who understand both the financial intricacies involved and personal experiences that shape each planning decision.
As a gay advisor, I have experienced firsthand how valuable it can be to work with professionals who understand the nuances of your life – someone who appreciates the broader context surrounding your goals, relationships, family, and future. It is one of the reasons I was honored to contribute to the development of the Accredited Domestic Partnership Advisor® (ADPA®) program, an initiative designed to help financial professionals better serve LGBTQ+ individuals, couples, and families.
At Pierstone, our mission extends beyond managing investments or building financial plans. We help clients turn wealth into opportunity – transforming financial management into a catalyst for personal fulfillment and ensuring wealth becomes a powerful expression of clients’ values, priorities, and aspirations.
While we have a deep commitment to serving the LGBTQ+ community, our broader mission is to serve individuals and families whose lives, ambitions, and circumstances deserve more than a one-size-fits-all advisory approach. This includes women, business owners, executives, and multi-generational families facing important financial decisions and life transitions.
For some, that means building the confidence to make a career transition or launch a business. For others, it means preparing to start a family, caring for aging parents, creating a charitable legacy, or ensuring a surviving partner will be protected no matter what the future holds. For many, it simply means having the freedom to make choices from a position of strength rather than uncertainty.
That is what independence looks like – and why launching Pierstone Wealth Management during Pride Month feels so appropriate. We do so with gratitude for those whose courage expanded the definition of freedom and opportunity for future generations – and with a commitment to helping our clients build lives of purpose and possibility.
We believe true independence is about having the freedom to live authentically, provide for the people and causes you love, and shape a future that reflects what matters most to you.
