Building Financial Confidence: Wealth Advisor Heidi Foster on the Path and Practice

Heidi Foster, CFP^®, Vice President & Wealth Advisor
American Wealth Management

Heidi Foster has sat across from hundreds of people at the most financially fraught moments of their lives — divorces, inheritances, retirements, new babies, market crashes. And in thirty-plus years of doing this work, she’s noticed something:

The money is rarely the real problem.

As Vice President and Wealth Advisor at American Wealth Management, Heidi has built a career on the belief that financial guidance is a form of healing — and that most people’s relationship with money was formed before they were old enough to consciously remember it. As she tells it in this episode, your money mindset was probably set by the time you were eight years old. In Episode 29 of What She Does, Heidi sits down with Liane and Annie for a remarkably candid conversation about wealth, psychology, working motherhood, and what it actually takes to help people find financial peace.

Heidi received the Order of the Laurel — USC’s highest honor for graduating seniors — and her MBA from UNR. She was recognized as a Twenty Under 40 leader in Reno. She is a FINRA-registered representative and has previously held VP roles at two major financial institutions. This episode is for people who worry about money, those who avoid thinking about it, and everyone in between.

In this episode:

✦  Why the goal isn’t just growing your portfolio — it’s helping you sleep at night
✦  The food analogy Heidi keeps coming back to (and why it actually works perfectly)
✦  What a week looks like in the life of a wealth advisor — part spreadsheets, part couples therapy
✦  The personal story behind why Heidi chose finance: her grandmother’s independence, her mother’s struggle, and a chance internship at Morgan Stanley
✦  How she navigated having three kids across her entire career — including a pregnancy complication that Wells Fargo refused to accommodate
✦  Her advice for career-changers who want to enter wealth management (and why doctors and athletes are natural fits)
✦  The childhood book that, to this day, explains everything she does

MBTI vibe: ESFJ / ISFJ / ESTJ
Genuine care for people • Reliability and follow-through • Comfort with routine and long-term relationships • Respect for process and detail • Trustworthiness as a core value

Listen to the full episode

Need to Know Facts*

About Heidi Foster
Heidi has more than 30 years of experience managing investments for individuals, families, and charities, creating diversified investment portfolios designed to achieve long-term financial goals. Prior to joining American Wealth Management, Heidi managed investments and advised high-net-worth families as vice president and senior investment manager in the private banks of two major financial institutions. In these roles, Heidi developed and implemented sophisticated investment strategies. She is a FINRA registered representative.

Heidi received a BS in business administration with an emphasis in finance from the University of Southern California (USC). In recognition of her work at USC, she received the Order of the Laurel, the highest award given to graduating seniors who show exemplary leadership and scholarship. Heidi obtained her MBA from the University of Nevada, Reno. In 2010, Heidi was honored by the Reno Gazette Journal and the Reno Tahoe Young Professionals Network for being an exceptional young leader with a Twenty Under 40 Award.

The mother of three, Heidi, enjoys spending time with her family and being active in her community. She is a member of several professional organizations and volunteers for a number of local charities.