In the run-up to naming the winners of the inaugural RIA Intel Awards on September 14, 2022, RIA Intel will publish short features highlighting the accomplishments of this year’s nominees and Rising Stars.
When Lindsey Swanson was working from home for a traditional financial advisory firm in 2018, she found herself itching for something different.
For the first part of her career, Swanson had been with fee-only AUM firms where the typical client was a male in his 50s or 60s, was retired or about to be, and already had a few million dollars in investments. “I knew that I wanted to work with people who were stigmatized and underserved,” says Swanson. “I just wasn’t sure who that would be.”
It didn’t take long for Swanson, a certified financial planner, to decide that she would focus on helping sex workers and the challenges and opportunities inherent in their line of work. In October 2021, she opened for business and began catering to adult entertainers.
“Most people think of Pretty Woman or something along those lines when they think of what sex work is,” says Swanson. “What I don’t think people understand is that it’s very much a business for the people working in it, and it’s something that people take very seriously.”
One of her clients has a personal trainer, a personal assistant who works with her every day, and an operations team. “She’s self-employed, but she’s essentially a small business that is providing jobs to ten people,” says Swanson. “A lot goes into marketing and administration. People view this industry as a worst-case-scenario type of employment, but it’s really like any other business. It takes a lot of work to have all the moving parts come together.”
The company, which charges a monthly flat fee of $350 for ongoing advice or $350 an hour for project work, has been approached by many in the industry who are searching for financial help. Stripper Financial Planning covers everything from estate planning to cash flow, tax planning, insurance, and investments, and it doesn’t charge a percentage of assets under management or require a minimum account size to work with them.
“Being young and female hasn’t been helpful for me,” says Swanson. “I’ve always been fighting my entire career against that and trying to present myself differently so that people would take me seriously. This is a demographic of people who are mostly around my age and mostly female, so it’s been very easy to work with them.”
