Abacus is a partner of Daylight, offering pro bono financial services and planning. Clients of Daylight have the option to take advantage of a unique, free session with an Abacus adviser about their finances. These 45-minute one-on-one sessions are for LGBTQ+ people seeking answers to their most pressing financial questions.
Common areas of discussion during the session include:
Abacus provides professional expertise for financial goals, estate and investment planning. They also offer counseling to help with costly mistakes and financial empowerment.
Abacus prides itself on its core values: serve others, listen deeply and speak with care, bring genius and enjoy.
With the pro-bono session, Abacus prides itself on creating a calming environment for its LGBTQ+ clientele. They achieve this by combining expertise and emotion. The expert-approved, comprehensive financial analysis is to help decide your future goals. Then they add emotional insights to help give purpose to clients’ money.
A part of their website is dedicated to discussing LGBTQ+ financial issues and the Abacus team has expertise in topics such as marriage decisions, staying financially protected, starting a family and legacy planning.
Registering for a pro bono session is simple. Click here to fill out a brief form to sign up for your session. Then, after reading the agreement, it directs you to schedule a session on an available date.
They recommend coming prepared with questions, so write those up immediately! Space is limited but sessions are offered on an on-going basis. If you’re not ready now, don’t worry, there will be a session for you in the future.
Why Abacus?
Now there are a few things to keep in mind with Abacus’s services. First, these pro-bono services are limited to one session per household. They are meant to serve as a place to get your high-level financial questions answered by a professional. These sessions are not a replacement for on-going guidance. If you want in-depth and on-going financial planning and investment management, you can schedule a 15-minute introductory call here.
Abacus offers a free beginner finance course with Abacus Academy, their online learning platform. This part of their site was made to teach people how to gain confidence in their financial decisions. Plus, they have two incoming courses called, “Business Owners: Organize Your Money Life” and “Money & Values: Creating Your Money Mission Statement.”.”
Abacus is a founding B Corp, meaning that they meet “the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” They are also a sustainable business, dating back all the way to February 2008. Their clients provided funding for the “first environmentally screened, industry neutral, and globally diversified passive (index) equity funds in the marketplace.”
Since then, they’ve been working on limiting their carbon footprint in every aspect. They reduce their commercial air and car travel, mainly by telecommuting and video-conferencing. Along with that, they’re 90% paperless and keep compost bins.
According to the official B Corp website, they’ve been honored with the “Best for the World Honorees” nearly 20 times. Most recently, they were honored for Best for Workers 2021 and Best for Customers 2021. And the greatness doesn’t stop there. Every year, Abacus donates 1% of the overall revenue to different charities. These charities focus on human rights, climate change and education. Some of which are the Jane Goodall Institute, Women’s Earth Alliance and Global Grassroots, to name a few.
Financial comprehension, especially for LGBTQ+ people, is important for many reasons. Federal legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples is still quite new. So one vital piece of financial knowledge to have is to know the financial implications for both marriage and domestic partnership. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
According to Northwestern Mutual, the LGBTQ+ community is one of the wealthier pre-retirement populations, yet one of the least prepared.
An extensive study from Merrill Lynch on the LGBTQ+ community and wealth gaps concluded a lot of startling information. One of which being that LGBTQ+ individuals were less likely to have achieved key financial milestones like buying a home and paving the way for financial independence.
Within the same study from Merrill Lynch, they found the top three biggest ways financial institutions can build trust for the LGBTQ+ community. The ways include:
Over 50% surveyed agreed that how companies refer to the LGBTQ+ community tells them how much a company respects the community. Abacus is proficient in these, and more, making sure the LGBTQ+ community is happy and ready for their financial future.
Abacus is a partner of Daylight that offers pro bono financial services and planning for their LGBTQ+ clientele. The accessible, free sessions have helped many gain financial independence. The sessions go over a plethora of topics, so all of your questions, from taxes to finance goals, can be answered. With Abacus’s green initiatives and customer satisfaction programs, it’s no wonder they’re considered a lifesaver in the community. If you’re an LGBTQ+ client of Daylight, looking for financial guidance, you can register here.
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