Influential Woman · Financial Services
Andrea Stiernstrand
Owner, Visible Wealth Planning
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Her Story
About Andrea
Andrea Sternstrand is a financial advisor and entrepreneur dedicated to helping women gain confidence, clarity, and control over their financial futures. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, Andrea founded Visible Wealth Planning in 2024 after spending more than twenty-five years in the financial services industry, including a successful career in investment management and the hedge fund sector. Her decision to transition from institutional investing into personal financial planning was deeply personal and driven by her desire to serve women who often feel overlooked or underserved in financial conversations. Having experienced the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry herself, Andrea became passionate about helping women better understand their finances so they can make informed decisions and feel empowered in every area of their lives.
Andrea’s work focuses primarily on women and families navigating significant life transitions, including divorce, widowhood, career changes, and other pivotal moments that require both financial guidance and emotional support. She believes financial planning is about far more than numbers; it is about creating confidence, stability, and opportunity. By combining her extensive investment background with personalized planning strategies, she helps clients understand how money can work for them and grow alongside their goals. Leaving a highly lucrative hedge fund career to launch her own advisory firm stands as one of her proudest professional achievements, reflecting both her entrepreneurial spirit and her commitment to aligning her career with her values and purpose. Throughout her journey, Andrea has credited hard work, perseverance, supportive mentors, and especially the encouragement of her family as key drivers of her success. She also recognizes the influence of mentor Lee Ainslie in shaping her professional path.
A graduate with a bachelor’s degree in finance earned in 1997, Andrea holds both the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) certification and the CPWA designation, underscoring her commitment to excellence and lifelong learning in her profession. She is an active member of the Financial Planning Association and remains deeply involved in community and philanthropic work. Andrea serves on the Children’s Hospital Advisory Board at the University of Virginia and mentors young women through Girls Who Invest, helping encourage the next generation of female leaders in finance. Guided by values of integrity, empathy, hard work, and service, Andrea continues to build a practice centered on empowering others while creating meaningful impact both professionally and personally.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Andrea
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute a lot of my success to my Mother, who taught me that hard work, grit, perseverance and good attitude is the key to success. My Mother was forced to return to workforce when I was a child after my family fell on hard times. Watching her work her way out of piles a debt, put my brother and I through school, all while balancing being a Mom and a wife, is truly my inspiration for helping other women become empowered around their financial lives.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received, besides working hard and persevering through challenges before you quit, is that perception sometimes is more meaningful than reality. You might think that you're working very hard, but if everyone perceives around you that you may not be, or that you're slacking off, sometimes that's more meaningful than what the reality is. So you have to care about how you are perceived within the work environment. This advice has shaped how I approach my professional presence and reputation.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think there's so much opportunity in this field for women. The advice I would give to women who are thinking about coming into this field is that there are so many skill sets that you get to use. If you're interested in investing, you get to use that. If you're interested in helping people, you get to use that. Even if you're interested in psychology, there's an element of behavioral science that goes into this industry. It really blends being able to use certain skill sets, and then also being able to help people, which is a wonderful thing.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say the biggest opportunities are significant. Believe it or not, only 23% of financial advisors are women right now, and we've all heard about this generational shift with trillions of dollars moving into women's hands over the next 20 years. There's an opportunity for women advisors to help other women, because there have been many studies that have shown women prefer to work with women and sort of take a different approach to planning and investing. The biggest challenges we're facing right now is that we try to offer a differentiated product, and breaking through the barrier of what people's perception of financial planning is. It's a challenge because what we're offering is very different from what the traditional model has offered in the past.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity is at the top for both my work and personal life. Empathy is also critical in both areas. Hard work is a value I hold dear in both spheres, and community, in terms of being a servant to my community, is very important to me. These values guide how I run my business and how I show up for my family and community.
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