Mary Beth Storjohann

Mary Beth Storjohann (’06, Financial Services)
Co-CEO 
Abacus Wealth Partners

Q. Could you talk about your path to executive management within the financial services industry?

A. After 10 years of working with clients on retirement planning, I wanted to transition into wealth management with clients in their 30s and 40s. To accomplish this goal, I established my own company in 2013, Workable Wealth, where I specialized in working with women and small business owners. During this time, I also authored a book and launched a podcast titled Work Your Wealth and my business grew quickly. In early 2019, I was approached by Abacus Wealth Partners to join their firm (which was larger than mine) as their chief marketing officer. In March of that year, I merged Workable Wealth into Abacus Wealth Partners and in February 2022, I was appointed co-CEO of the firm. As of today, we manage nearly $3 billion and have offices from California to Pennsylvania. 

Q. Are there a lot of women in the financial services industry? How has the industry evolved for women? 

A. As of 2022, only 23.6% of certified financial planner professionals were female, even though women account for 51.1% of the U.S. population. The financial services industry is making progress toward gender parity, but still has a long way to go. 

Q. What advice would you give young women who are considering a career as a financial advisor? 

A. Set up as many informational interviews as you can to learn about the industry and talk to other women. I would also say that you need to find mentors, as well as sponsors who will advocate for you. Women have a natural ability to build good relationships, be good listeners and have high emotional intelligence — all of which are skills clients want in an advisor. This career provides much potential to impact people’s lives, and it’s incredibly rewarding to work with clients to help them meet their goals, whether it’s more travel, a new home, a career change, philanthropy or retirement. 

Q. Are there any lessons you learned at SDSU that you still use in your job today? 

A. My time at SDSU taught me that there is no single path or definition of success. While I paid my own way through college and labeled “success” as graduating within four years with as little debt as possible, others gave themselves more time, studied abroad, or did what worked for their set of circumstances. In the end, many of us still ended up walking the stage to get our diplomas, despite the different journeys we each took to get there. The lesson that there is no right way to find or define success applies each day as I strive to support our employees to work in ways that best suits them, and with clients in creating recommendations for them to pursue as they work toward their goals.