I'm from Newburgh, New York, north of New York City. When I was in high school, my mother joined Merrill Lynch as a broker after being divorced from my stepfather. She had run several small businesses and owned a nursery school. My cousin was running a bond division at Merrill and thought she would do a great job.

I come from a strong line of women. My great grandmother owned a dress shop in the 1950s in our town, and I was nine when I saw my mother working to get started in the financial business. I had always associated Wall Street with men, so to see her get a job there had a big influence on me. While attending college, I interned with my mother during the summer and became addicted to the business. I had no idea it involved more than crunching numbers on a spreadsheet. It actually involved working with people.

I joined Merrill after I graduated in 1986 and worked in administrative roles to get my feet wet. I got my CFP and Series 7 and partnered with my mother for five years, and then we left and worked at Paine Webber for a decade. Following that we joined First Union, which turned into Wachovia. Our favorite joke is that she got me out of the house, but I followed her to the office.

At one point in my career I couldn't get management to expand my divorce practice. It was an uphill battle, but one that I thought was worth fighting. If I were to do one thing differently in my career, I would have gone independent earlier.

In 2006, I co-founded Alexandra & James with James and Alexandra Lebenthal. Most of our clients are people who have gone through a financial transition. Our particular expertise is working with clients who sell businesses and those who get divorced. My mother still works with me, and we still share some clients.

Some of the questions I ask clients are how they make decisions and who they rely on for advice, what was the best financial decision they've made and what was the worst? Those four ideas get them talking. You need to understand how clients collect information and who helps them make decisions.

When people are divorcing, it's important to know that emotions drive the process. The divorce financial process and the regular financial process are not the same. Advisors need to understand how divorce law affects a couple's split. While as an advisor you cannot legally represent a client in a divorce, you can better advise them financially if you know the laws and nuances about distributing money pursuant to divorce.

As told to Pat Olsen.