Patricia Garcia from WB Financial Bowen Hills was crowned the Rising Star at the 2016 Women in Financial Services Awards, Oksana Patron writes.
Patricia Garcia, who has successfully managed to change her career from biotechnology to financial planning within just a couple of years, has been highly appreciated for being a passionate and dedicated adviser.
This was illustrated by the high number of referrals and loyalty she has received from her clients.
As a financial adviser at WB Financial Bowen Hills and a business owner, Garcia is most passionate about helping people, a thought she has had in mind since she first entered financial planning.
“At the end of the day I have always wanted to help people” she said.
For goal-oriented Garcia, it is all about these little changes and showing her clients how those small changes in their financial behaviour can have enormous benefits over the long-term. The way she sees it is that making small changes now will help her clients achieve their long-term goals in the future without significantly impacting their current lifestyle.
“I always say I am not here to maximise your money, I am here to help balance your today with tomorrow,” she said.
Since Garcia joined WB Financial, her enthusiasm drove her to continuously make the improvements that help transform the business, develop robust systems, and streamline processes.
In addition, Garcia’s persistent nature and strong motivation helped her achieve one of her life goals to have her own business as she has recently acquired a 60 per cent share in her practice from the current owner, with long-term goals to hire more financial practitioners and bring more clients.
The judges also commended Garcia for her valuable contributions to the financial advice industry through her involvement as the Queensland chair of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) GenXT Committee, and said she was an excellent role model for other young women in the industry.
The awards also recognised Sharon Hills from All Financial Services, Jodi Pettersen from Shed Enterprises, Jessica Cirillo from UniSuper, and Rhiannon Wilson from BT Financial Group.
RISING STAR
Winner
Patrcia Garcia
Financial adviser
WB Financial Bowen Hills
Finalists
Jessica Cirillo
Investment accountant
UniSuper
Sharon Hills
Financial adviser
All Financial Services
Jodi Pettersen
Business development manager
Shed Enterprises
Rhiannon Wilson
Claims consultant
BT Financial Group
