Kwena Athalia Monama- Paraplanner

athalia-monama-vaI have 8 years of experience in the financial services industry. My passion for financial services started back in 2011. I was working at a Casino as a treasurer in the cash desk department. One day I met a financial advisor from a well-known financial services provider in South Africa, who made a presentation to me of the services that they offered. Then I thought to myself if I was working for 4 years and didn’t even have one financial product, how many people like me are out there? I only had a 32 days notice account with my bank and nothing else. That’s when I decided that I wanted to join the financial planning space to empower more people like me.

I joined a well-known financial services provider as a financial advisor to low-income earners. I really loved doing what I did because it empowered a lot of people and their families. I studied in the same field and obtained a diploma in Financial planning. I then joined an independent financial advisor who was offering holistic financial planning to affluent markets as a Paraplanner. That’s when my love for numbers shone through, I really enjoyed building the financial strategies for clients and seeing clients achieve their financial goals.

I was head-hunted by an Australian financial planning firm in 2018, to join their team as a Paraplanner. I was very eager to learn how financial planning is done internationally and I have loved the journey ever since. It was an amazing change and I’ve enhanced my skills in the following:

  • Cash flow management
  • Budgeting
  • Retirement planning
  • Investment planning
  • Risk planning
  • Superannuation/SMSF
  • Strategy building
  • SOA’s and ROA’s
  • Meeting/Review prep
  • FDS prep

athalia-monama-vaUnfortunately, the company was acquired by another financial planning firm in 2020 and all the remote workers were let go.

At the moment I’m finishing my post-graduate diploma in Financial Planning and running my “Storage wars” online business alongside my husband. Basically, I buy abandoned storage units and sell the contents.

I want to get back to Paraplanning because that’s where my passion lies. I miss building strategies for my clients, monitoring their expenditure, and reviewing their financial plans. I’m a very valuable member of the team because I’m innovative, efficient, organized, analytical, and believe in doing things right the first time. I work well individually and as a team, as I believe the word TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More.

I’m married with 3 kids, Tshiamo (11, boy), Boitshepo (7, girl), and little Lesedi (2, boy). I like going on picnics with my family or taking a holiday to unwind and have fun, the kids love that too.

For a copy of Kwena’s resume please click here.