Standout Financial Literacy Efforts by Independent Advisors

July 2023

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Michelle Arpin Begina, CFP, CIMA 

Senior Partner & Financial Advisor, Snowden Lane Partners | New York

Michelle Arpin Begina, a New Jersey–based financial advisor, is passionate about humanizing financial conversations. She has brought that passion to reforming K-12 education policy and public speaking on TEDx.15

“What I’m really interested in is understanding what’s underneath the decisions,” Begina said. “It’s really just about understanding who somebody is in relation to their money from an emotional standpoint.”

A mom with two students in the New Jersey public school system, Begina noticed a lack of financial psychology education in the New Jersey financial literacy standards in 2019. With the goal of opening a conversation about financial biases and underlying beliefs, she reached out to the New Jersey Department of Education with a proposal. The outcome: beginning in 2022, the New Jersey DOE rolled out new school lessons about money narratives and behavioral bias and their impact on personal financial decision-making.