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October 13, 2023 11 mins
The PA Conference for Women is coming up October 19th and, in its honor, we're talking to women who inspire. Today I speak to Lorna Kapusta Head of Women and Engagement at Fidelity Investments, one of the industry’s largest and most diversified financial services companies, Lorna is responsible for a firm-wide initiative committed to helping women become more engaged in their finances and, more confident investors. You can follow along with Lorna on LinkedIn and in Fidelity’s Women Talk Money community. Website: www.PAConferenceforWomen.org Facebook: Pennsylvania Conference for Women Instagram: @pennwomen X (formerly Twitter): @PennWomen
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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
The transplant myself from New York.So being a Yankees fan, which which
is younger in growing up and Iknow growing up in Red Sox plant or
in Red Sox plands or a castis always interesting. Yeah. Yeah,
you really can't buck the tide there, It's uh I learned that probably my
first week when we went to agame. My kids were young and wearing

(00:22):
New York Yankees hats and it wasit was not a good moment. Well,
Lauren Capista, right, Laurna Larna, sorry, Laurna caps before you
popped on, just to all realquick, nice to meet meet you,
and learning you got my last namecorrect, which no one in the world

(00:46):
does, so that's amazing. WellI got some coaching there from Lauren,
so uh so it was it's allgood. Okay, great, so we'll
talk Mala. Did you want tosay anything else before we get started.
I just wanted to thank you foryour participation and for doing this today.
So and fidelity has been tremendous.We love working with Raj and Joe and

(01:07):
the rest of the team, sothank you both for for your help with
us. So we appreciate it.Now we're excited anytime we get to talk
about women, money and financial wellness. It's our favorite topics, so real
good. And Lorene just said beforeyou kick off, so just going through
the basics. So we're going torecord today. It's just we're on a
video, but it will just bean audio recording. Yeah, and then

(01:30):
it'll run on ten fifteen before theconference on ten nineteen. Right, you
wanted to make sure that it wastimed up so it'll be like the Sunday
right before the conference. Yeah.Perfect. Yeah, we have some research
and news coming out, so wejust wanted to make sure that was live

(01:51):
before this. And I'm going togo off video so I'm not distracting with
being in the office. Okay,all right, cool, thank you,
very nice to meet you. Allright, all right, so let's get
going and we are rolling. I'mLorraine Ballard Morrel. The twentieth Annual Pennsylvania
Conference for Women will be held inperson October nineteenth at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

(02:13):
It's part of the nation's largest networkof women's conferences in the country,
with events in California, Massachusetts,Texas, Pennsylvania of course right here in
Philadelphia, as well as year roundprogramming in honor of the conference. We
are speaking with trailblazing women who've brokenthrough glass ceilings, shattered stereotypes, and
paved the way for progress and equality. Lorna Capista, Head of Women and

(02:38):
Engagement at Fidelity Investments, is oneof the industries which is one of the
industry's largest and most diversified financial servicescompanies. She's responsible for a firm wide
initiative committed to helping women become moreengaged in their finances and ultimately more confident
investors. Well, Laurna, thankyou so much for joining us here today,

(03:00):
and I know that women in financesis very key to your own personal
mission. Tell us about your roleat Fidelity Investments. Thank you so much
for having me here today. AndI so appreciate the description of being travelazing,
but what I believe is that we'reall travelazing together. My role at
Fidelity is really about helping women atevery stage of their life become more engaged

(03:25):
with their finances. And the reasonwhy this is so important to me and
it's such a large commitment of thefirm, is my own personal journey.
I was someone who had a growingcareer, a growing family and took a
divide and conquer approach with my husbandand our finances. And I came to

(03:47):
Fidelity it was about just under tenyears ago and had a life changing moment
where prior to being at Fidelity,I was stressed about money. I would
question things such as buying a TVor if I should be saving for three
children college. And I came toFidelity and I joined a women's workshop and

(04:08):
learn all about you know, thefinancial foundations, but how to organize my
money and where I had opportunity todo more. And it was a pivotal
moment for me where I became muchmore engaged and understanding truly what it meant
to be in charge of my moneyand making decisions and what it isn't And
I would say to this day,I am much less stressed, feel much

(04:30):
more in control. But it's notjust about my money. It's actually had
a positive impact in my career andin my life. And I am looking
to help all individuals, obviously particularlywomen have that same moment and feel they've
got to know how to be totallyin charge well. Fidelity is a sponsor
at this year's Pennsylvania Conference for Women, and we'll be focused on financial wellness,

(04:55):
which is certainly something as you indicated, that all of us could learn
from. And I wonder if youcan give us a few tips, financial
tips and ways that we can maybebegin to frame our goals in a in
a productive way. So it's greatabout Fidelity is it's overall mission is around
helping all customers and people to becomefinancially well and really achieve what's important to

(05:18):
them. And the foundation of financialwellness really starts with financial literacy. And
when I think about financial literacy,it's not something we're often taught in schools
early on. That's starting to change, but it's just the beginning. And
it's really about helping everyone understand whatthey want to do with their money and
what their goals are and really howto think about things such as budgeting,

(05:41):
saving and how to make their moneywork harder through investing. And the goal
of financial wellness is for what youhave, regardless of what it is.
It's just make feeling like you canmake informed decisions around what steps you are
taking and where you want to go, so that you can feel confident you
are on a path to get there. And so our goal is to just

(06:04):
help everybody feel more secure in theirfinancial situation, and I would just say,
really feel more informed about being ableto make good decisions in organizing our
finances. And as I said,for me, doing that was a major
move just to feel better. AndI would say less financial stress, which

(06:25):
is what we want for everybody.So if you're someone who's just starting this
journey or well along your journey,I think about it as bravo. It's
one of the foundational things that weall should you prioritize And so just a
couple of steps to think about.The first thing for where people are when
they're trying to achieve financial wellness isto just take a step back and do
a financial checkup, understand your paycheckand what's coming in, and then where

(06:48):
you're spending, and really begin tokind of organize that money so you're putting
some away to save for retirement,you're building up an emergency fund, and
you're being thoughtful about those other expensesin a way where you can begin to
cover it all. The second thingI always talk about is when you're thinking
about that financial foundation, we talkabout goals. I know for me and

(07:12):
my family, I have three children, we were looking to live secure today
but also wanting to help our childrenhave a little bit of support in going
to college, and then obviously planningfor our own retirement. So whatever your
short or long term goals are,put those down on paper, write them
out, you can use a toolif you'd like. And then lastly is

(07:32):
around really aligning your money with thosegoals. So think about with the money
that you have and where you're heading, what you can do to make sure
if you've written down those goals thatyou're thinking about, organizing your paycheck and
what you have in addition so thatyou can really start to think about paying
for today, saving for tomorrow,and all of those goals in between.

(07:55):
Well. As you have indicated,Fidelity has a strong commitment to uplifting women's
awareness of how we can all becomemore financially secure. And I wonder if
you can tell us about what Fidelityis planning to do next in committing to
expanding access to education and financial servicesfor all and also especially for us women.

(08:18):
Ah, there's so much, whatI would say, is in store.
So one of the things that we'veheard from women most is their access
to getting the right financial help,having forms where they can really learn about
that financial help. And we haveseen that for all women, over fifty
percent love learning from one another.And so one of the big things that

(08:41):
we're really focused on is how dowe create the right foundation and I would
say the right forums so that womencan come together with those who are trusted
experts within this field and really learnabout the steps they can take. One
example of us and Fidelity really leaninginto this support is what we call our

(09:01):
Women Talk Money Community. It isa community almost five hundred thousand women that
come together on a regular basis throughoutthe year and we talk about money actions
and unique factors that women face suchas caregiving or living longer and higher health
care costs, and we talk aboutthe actions that you can take. But
I would say that's just one example. Another example, and also going to

(09:24):
be at the conferences around advocating foryourself and your career. And I'm really
excited that Alicia Sundberg is a panestand going to be joining to share at
the Fidelity at the Philadelphia I saidFidelity, but I meant the Philadelphia Conference.
And so those are just two examplesof expanding our support. But what's
coming even more. We just cameoff of the most awesome summer of her

(09:48):
where women showed their buying power throughoutthe summer and really had such a positive
impact on our entire economic system.This is a great time as women more
and more are getting involved in theirfinances for many to step forward, and
we are seeing some really strong progressand healthy financial habits from women that we're

(10:13):
just excited about supporting more and makingsure that we are able to every step
of her journey provide the right helpthat she needs so she feels like she
could make informs money actions. Ido like to always ask my guests in
this series to share with us alittle bit about your personal journey. You
talk about how your career has beeninformed by your own personal commitment to financial

(10:39):
wellness. But I wonder, youknow, in a business that still is
largely very much male dominated, howhave you been able to leverage your skills
and your strengths to navigate towards thelevel of success that you have achieved.
So what I would say is,I think what I'm very lucky working at

(11:01):
the company that I am. Itis a company that is committed to serving
every individual, And so I wouldsay help along the way from so many
amazing and strong women as well asmen and others. For me, it's
really been about my personal passion andmy own journey from actually recognizing in an

(11:22):
industry that many years ago was predominantlymen, we had an opportunity to do
more to understand what help looks likefor her, how we may need to
do things differently, and how wemay need to show up for one another
in different ways to provide that righthelp. I mentioned Women Talk Money as
one example. It's been a greatarea of passion of this community of women

(11:45):
coming together because what I found iswomen from I would say all walks of
life are eager to come together tolearn from one another, to be inspired,
and it is informing women taking action. You know, one thing that
we do on a very regular basisis spend a full month. We bring
in even celebrity talent. In fact, Tracy Ellis Ross, who is highly

(12:09):
know an actresses, well as DanielleWeisberg, who is the co founder of
Skim the Skin, will be joiningus in the month of October, kicking
off October eighteenth for a set ofdiscussions, inspiration workshops where we're coming together.
We're built to serve women's unique needsand have real conversations about what we
want to do with our money,and I think we're going to look to

(12:31):
continue to keep going with things likethat that are just uniquely My passion is
about uniquely building the helpful women sothat they can drive well. I understand
that you've got Fidelity women talk moneyin this community, and how do we
become a part of that. Howdo we connect with that? So what's
great is anyone can sign up.It's free and you don't need to be

(12:56):
a Fidelity customer. It's at Fidelitydot com slash WTM and that will one
get you access to the full communityof help and it will also provide you
access to all of the more keydiscussions, the workshops, the newsletter that
is provided so that everybody can reallytake advantage of it. Fantastic. Lorna

(13:20):
Kapista, who is head of Womenin Engagement at Fidelity Investments, which is
one of the premier sponsors of thePennsylvania Conference for Women, which is happening
October nineteenth. If you'd like moreinformation, go to the pa Conference for
Women dot org. That's Paconference forWomen dot org. We are so looking
forward to getting all of that informationabout how we can become financially well and

(13:43):
to overcome our fears and our hesitationsabout really being in full control of our
finances. Larna, thank you somuch for joining us today. Thank you
for having me here today. DidI pronount your last name correctly? You
did? I did? Okay,just doublegick. Sometimes I'm like in the
zone all all, Loreene, youhave no idea how absta has been pronounced

(14:07):
over the years, honestly, like, I don't think anyone's pronounced it right.
So kudos to you. Oh well, thank you no again, Lauren
gave me the cheat cheat on that, Laurie. Yeah, so well,
this is wonderful and I love that. I'm going to have to join this
Fidelity Women Talk Money community because Fidelityis the the guardian of my four oh

(14:31):
one k. So I think it'sgreat and you should. I will tell
you, even for someone I've beendoing this for a couple of years.
Within this community, I learned somethingevery single time I joined, Yes,
that I could be doing, that, I should be doing, that I
should be thinking about. And it'sreally because so many women are actually sharing
kind of their own experiences and storiesand I figure out, oh, this

(14:54):
is something I need to be doingor preparing for. So I think it's
for anyone wherever they on their journey. I think it's been a real game
changer for us. Yeah, nowthat's fantastic. I'll be sure to share
that information as we share the interviewacross our social media and also on the
air. So thank you so much. This has been a delight, and

(15:15):
I'm looking forward to I'm looking forwardto the Pennsylvania conference and I will be
checking out some of those financial wellnessof workshops because I definitely can benefit from
that. So thank you so much. Awesome, so nice to meet you.
Mala, thank you, and ofcourse Lauren thank you as well.
Of course, thanks ladies. ThanksLorraine. All right, take care ybody,
bye bye bye
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