SAGEbroadview Welcomes Associate Adviser Karina Salés

Please join us in welcoming Karina Salés to the role of Associate Adviser with SAGEbroadview. She will be physically located in our Morristown, NJ office but will travel to our Farmington, CT and Burlington, MA offices as needed. She is already busy assisting us with the array of financial planning support services that are essential to our personalized client care. If you’re in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by the NJ office and meet her in person. In the meantime, here is more about Karina:

The Professional Stats …

SAGEbroadview Role: Associate Adviser

Street Cred: 8 years in various positions in corporate finance, 3 years in insurance and financial planning with a nationwide company

Degrees and Such:  Bachelor’s degree in Accounting with minors in International Business, International Studies and Spanish, from Penn State University.

Professional Associations: Member of the Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA), The Penn State Alumni Association, and The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA).

Introduction …

After traveling the globe, Karina found her calling much closer to home when she joined us in our Morristown, NJ office in October 2018. As an associate adviser, Karina assists our wealth managers with client meetings and support. Her “techie” background comes in handy as well for maintaining our client relationship software and streamlining processes & procedures. Karina also is helping to soon kick-off our Young Professionals program, providing younger individuals (like herself!) with lifelong financial planning and portfolio management.

Upon graduating from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, Karina joined Johnson & Johnson’s internal auditing group in 2008, conducting worldwide internal audits and compliance reviews. Once she determined her professional passion was to be a financial planner, she transitioned her career accordingly, first as a financial advisor for a nationwide insurance company and, now, here with us.

Karina is currently studying to become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PROFESSIONAL™ practitioner. She spends the rest of her free time on three primary passions: her human family (Mom, Dad and boyfriend), her puppy Bailey, and preparing tasty meals. Having immigrated from Peru when she was 7 years old, she grew up in Mahwah and now lives in Wayne, NJ. She still enjoys Peruvian cuisine, but she also has a soft spot for Italian. And (of course) chocolate.

World travels …

When I was 7 years old, my parents and I immigrated to the U.S. from Peru. I’ve been traveling ever since. In high school, I participated in the American Music Abroad program, playing the clarinet; we spent a month one summer performing all across western Europe. After graduating from Penn State, I joined Johnson & Johnson’s internal audit division, visiting nearly 40 countries during my six-year tenure.

Lions and tigers and bears …

South Africa was one of my favorite assignments. I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg, and also visiting a national park where I got to see big game wildlife like rhinos and elephants, up close and personal. For an animal lover like me, it was a powerful experience. The lions were close enough to jump into our vehicle; I’m very glad they did not.

Closer to home …

My family is very important to me too. I love spending time with my mom, dad and cousins. Plus, I’m now a godmother to one of my cousin’s daughters and one of my uncle’s daughters. My boyfriend Dan and I are raising Bailey, a black-lab mix we adopted from St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center. We knew it was fate when we met her: Her shelter name was Carina – almost the same as mine! She jumped right into my lap, and we were done for.

Early life lessons …

I am an only child, and neither my parents nor I spoke much English when we arrived here. In Peru, I was in accelerated math classes. Here, I had to start from scratch with my ABCs, and take on a lot of early responsibilities. After college, I reached out to a financial planner to help me tackle my student debt. I not only learned how to manage my own budget, I helped my parents fix a few financial loose-ends as well. That felt so good, over time, I realized I wanted to help others in the same way.

When it’s time to unwind …

I’m into photography, especially family portraits, and street photography when I travel. Also, Dan and I have been having fun cooking lately. I think we’ve prepared about 50 Blue Apron meals together so far. It’s too bad they don’t have the set-up for my favorite Peruvian dish, tallarines verdes, a pesto pasta with steak. At least not yet.

SAGE Serendipity: There is a two or three note combination that makes music creepy. It goes by many names but mainly diablous in musica, which translates to Satan in music, also known as devil’s interval or the devil’s triad.  As Halloween approaches, our ears are often filled with this eerie unresolved soundscape. It goes way back to the Middle Ages and is prevalent in composers like Franz Liszt to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Quartz.com has a great article THE SPOOKIEST MUSIC RELIES ON A LITTLE DITTY MONKS USED TO SING ABOUT THE APOCALYPSE