Unleash Your Financial Potential
Megan J Rutherford
Financial Advisor
My Team and I Empower Driven, Growth-Minded Individuals with Dynamic Wealth Strategies
Personal
Megan’s passion to help families and women secure their financial future began when facing one of her greatest challenges early in her life, her best friend and father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when she was 18. He passed away at the young age of 58, Megan was 24, leaving her in charge of distributing his estate. Watching the progression of the disease quickly rob away the strength of the man that was the provider and father figure to so many completely shifted her conviction to having gratitude for every moment. With three older sisters and many family members adversely affected, Megan found herself thrown into making financial decisions that she didn’t feel mentally or emotionally prepared to make.
This laid the foundation of how she combines compassion and planning in all situations, realizing that the magnitude of a solid financial plan will create peace of mind by working when needed most so that her clients are able to focus on what really matters, spending time with their loved ones. Megan’s mission is to free her clients to enjoy financial security and abundance.
Professional
Megan is a Financial Advisor with Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company. She has held several positions in banking on the federal and state level while completing her Biology studies at The University of Texas in Austin. She’s lived globally in the south of France and worked in global marketing and operations in the biotechnology space lending to her innovative, openminded approach of enjoying life and supporting the goals of her clients.
In 2016, Megan realized that the deeper calling to serve others through education and wellness wasn’t completely satisfied via her science and business studies; so she set out to complete her advanced Yoga teacher certification while also becoming the first woman in the Austin Northwestern Mutual office to place 40 new business contract in 6 months and succinctly pass her 7 & 63 federal securities exams. She deeply believes that a dynamic financial plan is the foundation of living a healthy life.
Creating a path for women is also a key driver in Megan’s career, inspired by the hard-working examples set by her heroic mother blazing the way in corporate America as a project manager over hundreds of employees in a Fortune 100 company; and Jessica Salazar, the only female Managing Partner for Northwestern Mutual, who has been an incredible mentor and friend since Megan started her journey with Northwestern Mutual in 2017.
An organization that is near and dear to Megan’s heart is The Refuge for DMST™ (Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking). Megan helped raise awareness and funds, while also offering financial planning master classes for the girls. Within a year of running her planning business, Megan moved into the field director role for Northwestern Mutual Austin and was awarded the Melanie Rychlik Superstar Award for recruiting and developing the most new advisors in 2019. During her time working in biotechnology she was elected to act as secretary for the Women@Luminex Leadership Team.
Here are my areas of expertise
Financial Planning
Insurance Protection Strategies
Life Insurance Strategies
Retirement Planning & Income Strategies
Education Planning & Funding
Disability Planning
Multigenerational Planning
Estate Planning
Lending a hand in my community.
As part of Northwestern Mutual, I'm proud to help accelerate the search for better childhood cancer treatments while supporting families undergoing treatment, and survivors from late effects. Here are some of the organizations we partner with:
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF)
ALSF funds cancer research, raises awareness, and supports the families of children with cancer. Since 2012, Northwestern Mutual, its employees, and financial professionals like me have donated more than $20 million to support ALSF and fund over 400,000 research hours.
Beads of Courage
Beads of Courage is an art-in-medicine program that helps kids with cancer tell their unique treatment story through colorful beads that are symbols of their courage.
How Northwestern Mutual helps you live the life you want.
When people feel better about their money, good things happen—they become more confident and feel more secure. For more than 160 years, Northwestern Mutual has helped people achieve the financial flexibility they need to live more and worry less.
Being a mutual company means Northwestern Mutual reports to its clients, not Wall Street. They don't believe in chasing fads or taking undue risk for short-term gains. Instead, they take a long-term approach—both in the way we help people plan to reach their goals, and in the way they do business. This has served their clients (and mine) well through all kinds of economic ups and downs, including wars, recessions, even the recent pandemic.
It's why I'm happy to be part of a company that's in it for the long-haul and prioritizes clients over profit.
