This profile highlights one of
If there were ever a person made to talk to about money problems, it might be Marigny deMauriac. A mental health counselor and a bartender before launching a career in financial planning, she'd heard her share of people's woes — and she was trained to help.
DeMauriac earned a master's degree in counseling and became a mental health counselor in New Orleans. She spent much of her time doing in-home counseling for issues like domestic violence.
One theme came up constantly.
"Every single person that I was meeting with, regardless of where they were socioeconomically, across racial divides, across gender divides, finance was a stressor," deMauriac said. "So I made that connection. There's a definite problem here that I can address."
READ MORE:
Additionally, deMauriac found herself working two jobs to make ends meet when her parents were nearing retirement age. She realized that at the rate she was going, saving for retirement wasn't much of an option.
The
"I was just thinking, I need to build something sustainable for myself because the current career trajectory is going to be exhausting for me, and one day I'm going to want to retire," deMauriac said. "So I started to invest for myself on a personal level, and then I was interviewing other people that work in the finance sector."
Eventually she landed on planning as a career, starting at Edward Jones before launching her own firm, the eponymous deMAURIAC. And as often is the case, her first career played a big role in her current one, leading her to
"When my mom was getting divorced in the '90s, at that time, she … wasn't able to take out a business loan without a man's co-sign. And yet, in a community property state in Louisiana, when they got divorced, she was responsible for half of the debt that he took out," deMaiuriac said. "If you think about the timeline of when women have gained access to these systems, it's very recent. It's one generation.
"My mom couldn't take out a business loan, and now I'm running a finance firm," deMauriac added. "That's a pretty amazing transition in one generation."
But deMauriac doesn't simply work with women who have accumulated wealth already. She's putting her time into helping women take the steps necessary to launch new careers and businesses and grow what they already have.
She regularly puts in pro bono time mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and offering business coaching sessions, including work through Vanderbilt University's Women in Business program, Loyola University's entrepreneurship programs and others. He telewealth model — a necessity during COVID — means she can serve clients all over the country while volunteering with and for women across the Gulf South.
"Getting to know Marigny and her work, it became clear that she isn't just running a successful practice; she's built something purposeful," said Ragini Nayar, a paraplanner extern who has worked with deMauriac. "She has built her firm around a thesis the broader industry is only beginning to embrace, that women's economic mobility is both an underserved market and a civil rights issue, and that independent, women-owned firms are essential to closing the gap. The result is a practice that demonstrates women-first financial planning can scale nationally, support a regional business ecosystem and channel capital back to women founders, all at once."
