Clare Stenstrom

As an Executive Director, Private Wealth Advisor in Verdence’s New York office, Clare works with clients in the middle of major life changes involving money, such as the loss of a spouse, a divorce, or a sudden liquidity event.

Clare has focused on financial transitions across a long career in investment advisory, helping people make decisions during periods when their financial lives are in flux. In 2014, she and Anja Luesink co-founded Luesink Stenstrom Financial, the independent, fee-only firm that brought her to Verdence. Earlier in her career, she was a partner at Bourne Stenstrom Lent Asset Management and a principal at Parmelee Management Corp.

Clare co-created a program that offered pro bono planning nationwide to 9/11 survivors and the families of victims. It grew into the Financial Planning Association’s national Pro Bono program. She and Anja Luesink also built financial literacy programs, including one at Borough of Manhattan Community College and the MoneyWi$e program for survivors of domestic violence, now taught in Family Justice Centers across the country.

Clare divides her time between New York and Yackandandah, Victoria, Australia, where she and her husband established the Sudden Money Institute Australia to train financial planners in guiding clients through transition.

Get to know Clare!

If I could invite anyone, living or dead, for dinner, I would invite:

“My maternal grandmother who taught me how to cook. I inherited her budgeting book that kept food on the table through the Great Depression and World Wars I & II. I would love to learn more from her.”

A lesson or piece of advice from my parents that I find myself repeating:

“Watch the pennies and the dollars will watch themselves.”

A hobby I wish I had more time for:

“Cooking with native Australian ingredients.”

What makes me happy:

“My husband, family, friends and my great big dog.”