If your paycheck stopped tomorrow, how long could you last – weeks, maybe months? In this episode of the Tax Rep Network Podcast, host Eric Green sits down with Elza Sarkisian of Northwestern Mutual to discuss the financial risk too many professionals overlook: disability insurance.
You’ll learn:
- Why your income – not your house or retirement account – is your greatest asset.
- The staggering odds of becoming disabled before retirement.
- How disability insurance protects your lifestyle, your family, and your business.
- What tax professionals need to know about coverage and planning.
Packed with real-life stories and practical strategies, this episode is a must-listen for anyone who depends on a paycheck – and every advisor who wants to elevate their value.
Join Eric and Elza for the free webinar on this topic on September 10th by registering here: https://taxrepllc.com/20250910-income/
Contact Elza at elza.sarkisian@nm.com
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Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
How Long Can You Live Without Your Income With Elza Sarkisian
I am joined by a friend of mine and our topic is important. It came up in a conversation then I mentioned it on a webinar. We’ll get into all that but the issue is, how long can you live without your income? If that sounds like some like your theory, it’s a major reality. I am joined by Elza Sarkisian, who I met through friends, but we have a lot in common.
I don’t think people know all of my background but I was a bartender. I got all my licenses for insurance when I first got into the accounting practice because they go well together. Elza is a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual. Elza, I’m going to let you tell your background. First of all, thanks for doing this. I appreciate this.
Elza Sarkisian of Northwestern Mutual
Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here and I’m honored. I’m with Northwestern Mutual. I got my degree in financial planning and retirement planning. A little bit about my background is, I was a bartender for about fourteen years, which is a long time. About halfway through, like my early twenties, I realized that there’s no longevity in this career. I give a lot of credit to those who do live out their lives in this career, but it wasn’t for me.
I went back to school right before COVID. I was going to school for biochemical engineering because I wanted to be a doctor. When COVID hit, I, like everyone else, went through financial distress. I had a life-saving and I was just paying my bills to my life savings. I wasn’t getting on employment at the time for the entirety of COVID, but that’s a different story. I did as best as I could given the circumstances I was in but eventually, my life savings ended. I had to liquidate my one Bitcoin that I had at the time. Two weeks later, it skyrocketed up to like $65,000, which would have been life-changing for me at that time.
I just went through so much mental distress over it and it was a bad spiral. I almost lost myself in the process then I had a revelation of, “This is not my fault.” There’s a systemic error in the educational system in which we go into depth about the Pythagorean theorem and the cold war and the Spanish war, and all these great things that are worth learning about but for twelve years straight without getting any education on the financial system, how to pay taxes, how to read a mortgage and how to read a car insurance policy, being thrown into the world with no background on that.
I realized that this was my calling and I had to help people never feel the way I did in that moment. I got my degree and I was still bartending at that time. A couple of my regulars asked me what I’m doing outside of bartending. I told them my dream was to get a PhD in financial psychology and behavioral economics and go to the board of education with some credentials behind my name and say what is going on and why are we evading the situation of like why is society built this way and how we can fix this. I’ve been here ever since. I enjoy making a difference in people’s lives and educating people on ways that they could change their family’s generational wealth and their current incomes.
What Is Disability Insurance
A couple of things. I was a bartender. I started my own T-shirt printing business in college. I would put the experience I got as a bartender for 40 years up against any other experience I’ve had. You get to deal with people in all kinds of situations and there is a real education you get doing that and being able to deal with people. I know there are a lot of accountants that read this. It’s simply a skill you have to have like now.
The real opportunity is advisory. What is advisory? Stop doing the preparation and the bookkeeping. That could be automated. We don’t go through this. We’ve done shows and webinars. If you’re reading this and you haven’t taken any of that. We can teach you all that shit in one day, how to automate your practice and how to start making more money. It’s tax advisory, tax planning, estate and financial planning, IRS representation and CFO services.
One is the idea of elevating yourself but as part of that, to become a business owner, in other words, start owning a business and not a practice. What prompted this is our conversation about disability insurance, which is a topic. It’s not a great opening conversation but the point being, it’s something I’m very passionate about. I have a lot of disability insurance because that was my greatest fear. It’s becoming not only losing my ability to earn but now becoming a burden on my family. It’s not like I’m dead.
I get it. Maybe I have to be taken care of or I need skilled nursing or whatever it is. For those of you reading, I bet most of you have life insurance. Now, if you get into a car accident, you have a twenty times greater chance of being disabled than dying. I happened to mention this on a webinar. Elza, we met over dinner and then we had coffee. I mentioned it on a webinar I did and we launched a poll. How many people have a disability? How many people here don’t have a disability?
Now, these are tax rep members who I view as quite bright. They’re building practices or whatever. They’re all CPAs who are enrolled agents. They’re not dumb people but 72% don’t have a disability. I’m like, “Are you fucking kidding me?” I know you’ve already spoken with one and there’s some more that I’m going to refer over. If you’re reading this and you don’t have disability insurance, if you already have a financial pro you’re working with, first of all, find a new one because they should have brought this up to you. We’ll give you Elza’s contact information at the end of this.
It’s critical for people to understand. By the way, on September 18th, 2025, Elza and I are going to do a webinar. It’s free. There is continuing ed for it because we’re going to talk about disability insurance, and also the tax aspects. You’re going to have to make a decision on how you want to treat it in terms of, God forbid, you need the benefit. How is that going to get taxed? Out of the gate, Elza, what is disability insurance?
Essentially, disability insurance is protecting your greatest asset, which most people think it’s their 401(k) or their home. It’s you and your ability to earn an income that drives everything that we’re doing from day-to-day, groceries and paying bills to saving for emergency funds, colleges and retirement. If you get disabled, it does have immediate and direct implications on your everyday life. The fact is, your retirement accounts are also taking a hit at this.
You in 20 or 50 or 70 years, you’re going to take a hit on this. I believe that the statistics are after two years of disability and not having disability insurance, your retirement accounts take a 15% hit. After a five-year disability, it’s a 33% hit. Those aren’t small numbers. That’s a difference between like $2.5 million or $4 million or $5 million at retirement.
Let’s just walk through this because I know a CPA. The CPA at the time was around 53 years old and selling his practice to a larger firm. You’re looking at the transition of the practice. It was over a million-dollar purchase price then if it weren’t for them, higher salary than he was making because of a bigger firm and they get bigger fees. They’re going to pay, let’s say a million and a half but they’re going to grow that to $2 million to $2.5 million just because of their pricing and the other services they’re going to bring to the table.
Disability insurance insures as close to 100% of a person’s income as possible. Share on XHe ended up getting disabled and because he’s disabled, the purchasing firm backed out because now he became disabled in a way that he can’t function in a professional setting. It was a terrible accident. He went through the windshield and brain damage. It was bad. It’s like he hurt his back and now he is using a walker. He’s completely disabled. No disability insurance. His income is basically gone because the firm buying backed out.
Now, he can handle his own clients. Back then, we didn’t have the automation involved. It’s not like he had staff that could pick up and keep everything even keel. He was a solo guy. His practice vaporizes and within 60 days, the clients have gone. They’re going to go find somebody else. “I need my bookkeeping down. It’s tax return season or whatever.” They vaporized. Income is gone. He now has to be taken care of and there is no income coming in because they ended up selling one of his life insurance policies to a factoring company, which you’re getting a fraction of.
A financial disaster at every level for the family and for him. His practices are gone. I had a little bit of a disability. We’ll get into this, but a lot of people have a little bit through their employer or whatever. We put stuff in place here where we have a significant amount of disability. I got to tell you. This is the thing I don’t mind paying for and I hope I never get a benefit from it. I hope I retire and go away.
Biggest Barriers To Overcome In Disability Insurance
You could say, “You just wasted that money.” No, I didn’t because I sleep better at night knowing that if something happens, my kids aren’t dropping out of college. I’m not losing my house. At least I’m not a solo. They’d have to pick up the slack at the firm. I’m sure that would suck. I’d hope someone would miss me but at the end of the day, it’s not this collateral damage that’s going to roll out level by level through my family, friends and my practice. Things would just continue to motor along.It’s pretty clear why it’s important. What are the biggest barriers? Have people just not thought about it? Are people willing to roll the dice? When you meet with people, I’m curious about what conversation looks like.
Exactly what you said. They just want to roll the dice. A lot of it is just not being educated and the idea of the possibility of getting disabled. Statistically speaking, there’s a 35% chance, I believe off the top of my head. Don’t quote me on that. It’s 33% or 35%. Anyone in the 30s now has a 33% chance of getting disabled by the time they turn 60. Those aren’t small odds. We’re not just talking about society’s view that disability is usually like in a wheelchair. That’s not necessarily. What a disability is.
The definition of disability is not being able to perform your substantial material duties at work. That could be Lyme’s disease or cancer. Everybody knows somebody that knows somebody that has cancer. It could be mental disabilities. It could be complications from pregnancies. There’s so many things that could happen like a car accident. We drive machinery every single day and it’s not our fault. It could be somebody else whose speeding, drunk driving or under the Influence. Whatever the case may be.
There’s so many different obstacles in life that could cause a disability. It’s just irresponsible to not take action by harnessing what you have that drives your entire lifestyle. People have dreams of retiring in Italy or buying rental properties. How is that going to happen if, God forbid, something happens to you?
Depending on your profession. I will tell you. My experience has been, and again, mostly attorneys and accountants are reading this. There’s a couple things. One, you need to have this but this is the thing you should bring up with your clients. First of all, it sends the message that you’re thinking about them as a whole and that dovetails into what else we’ve talked about. It’s about automating your practice and subscription pricing. The whole pitch of that is, “I am your advisor. I’m not just the guy who does the return. I’m not just the person who’s shoveling stuff into QuickBooks.”
You want to bring this up with your clients because you just should. It also sends the message of, “I’m looking at you holistically.” Do you have your estate planning documents? I’m talking to you but also, your clients. If not, get them to someone. Elza, you don’t want to listen to this. If you want to boil this down, what you’re going to do is you’re now going to develop a relationship with a financial planner who can send you back to work. That’s number one.
Number two, you develop a relationship within the state planner. This is the kind where you build a network by doing the right thing by the client. One thing I have found is if you have clients that go off their feet and I mean that in a wholesome way. They’re up on ladders or roofers. This can get pricey because of the rest. Elza, we’re going to be doing a lot more together. You’ll discover when you’re doing an offer in compromise or any payment plan with the IRS. It’s based on an ability to pay.
The client comes in and from a listing, let’s say they owe $100,000. You just found the last six years of returns. You got them into compliance. They owe $100,000 to the IRS. You go through the 433, what we call reasonable collection potential analysis. It’s a formula, which Elza will become very acquainted with. I’m having her help me in my practice. You go through this analysis and the client could pay a thousand dollars a month. It’s income minus the allowable expenses or they can fully pay. There’s a ten-year collection statute, a thousand a month. A hundred and twenty a month is 120,000 and they only owe a hundred getting into a payment plan.
When we go to the next level, what does the client not pay? They could. Health insurance is an allowable expense. Term life insurance is an allowable expense. Disability insurance is an allowable expense. Tell the client, “How long can you live without your income?” They’re like, “I don’t know. Two months.” I’m like, “Go talk to Elza. You should have disability insurance.” “It’s like $275 a month.” “Let me tell you this. We can get you into a no payment plan. You’ll pay the $100,000 back over eight and a half years or nine years.” “I thought you could do an offer for me.”
Let’s go get disability insurance. It’s allowable. The IRS would look at it. That’s smart because if you become disabled, you can’t pay us. We’re all on the same page here. We’re all on the same team. A thousand dollars minus $275, is $725, if I’m doing the math right. What’s $725 times 12? I can tell you now. It’s not full payment. It’s $725 times 12, it’s $8,700. For ten years, it’s $87,000. Now I can’t pay full price. If I can’t fully pay, I can make an offer and compromise. What would my offer be? Twelve months of future income of $8,700. We just settled $100,000 debt for $8,700. That’s pennies on the dollar because you did the right thing.
They said, “Can I drop this after the offer?” I’m like, “I know you’re stupid, but try not to act like it. You need this.” Jeff and I just celebrated birthdays. One thing about becoming 55 is we’re very grumpy and so, I don’t hold back. I used to try to smooth things over and I sound like it’s not being an idiot, “Would you please? You need this stuff.” For the tax rap pros, if you’re wondering why we’re talking about disability. This is one of those things you have in your pocket.
Determining The Coverage Of Disability Insurance
Again, you should have it. You should tell your clients about it anyway just because you’re a pro and you’re supposed to do this for your client. Number three, it’s one of those factors or one of those tools or one of those things we can pull out when we want to justify adjusting a person’s RCP calculation. Out of curiosity, Elza and to get back to this. For those folks who have never thought about disability, how do you determine coverage? Is that something I get the pick? Is there a limit? How does this work?
Essentially, the first question I ask my clients is, “What is provided through work?” Typically speaking, it’s 60% short term disability. Short term disability versus long-term disability. Short-term is usually a couple of months to several months. Twelve months is the most I’ve ever seen but technically speaking, it could go up to two years. I’ve never seen two years before. Long-term disability is paid until retirement age or when you can go back to work. This could be like seventeen years until you retire or can go back to work, whichever is sooner.
When someone has 60% disability, that’s great because we want to ensure close to 100% as possible. They won’t let us do 100% because then no one has an incentive to go back to work, but 99% of your income is covered. Which is better than 60%, but we can get into that a little later into the conversation. Sixty percent of your income is covered short-term. That means if statistically speaking, you get a disability. They are around 2.2 to 2.5 years. That means you are self-insuring for the remainder of one year and a half. Depending on what is covered through work.
Sixty percent is covered through work because it’s an employer benefit and the employer pays for it. There are tax implications, so let’s take easy numbers. You’re making $100,000 and 60% of that is $60,000. $100,000 divided by twelve, obviously you’re not getting $8,333 because of 401(k) contributions, employee benefits and taxes. It’s around $8,000 you’re getting a month. Sixty percent of that would be $5,000. Can you live off of the $3,000 difference that you’re not going to be getting anymore? That’s the first question I asked them.
Now, because it is an employer benefit and they’re paying for it. There are tax implications, which means depending on your tax bracket. It’s more like $3,700. You just lost about four and a half thousand dollars. How does that make you feel? Can you live off of that? Can you pay your mortgage and probably the new set of medical bills that you’ll be having to deal with? Can your partner deal with that difference?
Can they pick up shifts or is it not like that job? These are all questions that play into how much. When talking about how much monthly benefit, we just want to maximize that. If you’re making $8,000 a month, we want to get as close to $8,000 as possible so that you can continue living the lifestyle you lead now without having to take a step back from it.
I might get the single people that are like, “Whatever.” The reality is, once I had a family and then I had that accountant that I knew go through that. It drove home the, “I might end up being a burden. Now, there’s no more income. We’re going to go back up in short order.” No. It just struck me as, I would almost suggest in some ways, now at my age. It’s almost more important than life insurance. Not really because if I die, I don’t get the disability either. I probably would still want life insurance, but the bottom line is, it is a critical component. I would argue a business plan.
Long-term care by itself as a standalone policy can be very expensive. You can make it inexpensive by adding it to a whole life policy. Share on XThe same way we have original missions. We have general liability insurance and business Interruption insurance for the next pandemic or whatever. Our business takes a huge hit if me or Jeff or Jay or one of the other partners goes down because you’re talking about someone who originates work and they also generate a lot of work and a lot of revenue. To me, it’s just one of those things that everyone should just be checking off the list.
Different Types Of Disability Insurance
We talked about short-term and long-term. Within this, are there any particular different types of disability? We’re getting to the outer limits. Are there different types of disability insurance? I know there’s the short-term and long-term, which you covered. Are there particular policies that may bring other benefits? I thought I saw someone years ago that included long term care. I don’t think they still do this. I don’t know if those products even exist. Are there combination products? Is it the standalone short-term and long-term?
Disability is a standalone product. There are different types of disability but to answer a question, long-term care is usually paired with life insurance, whole life insurance. You’re 100% right when you say, disability and term insurance are pretty much two initial things that we want to implement into everybody’s strategy. If you lose your income, we have no more relationship because you’re probably going to want to liquidate all of your assets to be able to pay for your mortgage, bills, kid’s educational funding, X, Y and Z.
The second component of that is the life insurance, which covers the mortgage for your spouse, the educational expenses, if you perish. The whole life insurance is paired with the long-term care writer because they want you to have the whole life insurance. They make it very affordable to tack on long-term care. Long-term care by itself as a standalone policy can be very expensive. Adding it to a whole life policy is very inexpensive and they have different benefits but we can do another discussion on life insurance.
We will because it’s one of the last great planning tools. Again, for the accountants who are reading, I’ll give you the idea in 30 seconds and we’re going to move on because we have limited time and it is a whole other discussion. If you make more than 175 or something. You can’t do a Roth IRA. The way you do this is you have a whole life or at least a permanent policy, whether it’s universal whole life. You can overfund it up to a limit. There’s something called the MEC or the modified endowment contract rules that you can’t cross, but you can overfund.
Which means now you’re paying more in it because it’s part of a life insurance policy. Unlike a mutual fund, it’s not taxed every year. You’re putting an after-tax dollar. It doesn’t get taxed every year. It grows tax deferred within the insurance policy and you can invest it in mutual funds or whatever just like a Roth. Later when you retire, if you take out loans to yourself, you’ll never pay tax on the games.
Integrating Disability Insurance To Your Existing Plan
For the accountant, that’s very quickly on why life might be still one of the greatest investments people who earn money can make because you can effectively create a super Roth off through the use of the whole life policy. Enough on that. I am sorry. I have some questions that I wanted to ask you knowing you were coming on. I wanted to ask you and I think you’ve already answered this. How would I integrate the disability with my overall plan?
The disability feeds the plan. We write a contract. You’re not excited about it, but you understand the importance of it. Two months later, you get disabled. Now you call me. Not Northwestern Mutual. You can call me because I’m your advisor. We have a personal relationship, and we get that started immediately.
Northwestern Mutual has such a strong underwriting process, we make sure that we know everything beforehand so that when it’s time to pay the claim, we’re not fighting. A huge reason why Northwestern Mutual is such an amazing company to work for is because of its financial backing and its underwriting. Combined, they don’t fight clients on claims. A fun fact. If every single person that had a policy through us filed to claim now, we’d be able to pay everyone out. That’s a cool fact.
I know. We have insurance through Northwestern Mutual. It is an old and very stable AAA rated company. I happen to agree. We get this all the time. Who should I go to? One of the other attractions is, for instance, if you come to me and say, “Who should I go to for payroll?” ADP and paychecks are the two. Why? Are they the best? There are other good payroll companies, but they’re the biggest. They’re public and billion-dollar companies. First of all, by the way, it’s always the bookkeeper that steals the payroll, always.
Since medical professionals perform very specific duties under a lot of stress, they usually get the highest disability claims possible. Share on XIf someone there embezzles, you’re never even going to know. They’re too big. They’re just going to pay for it. If the local person embezzles, you’re going to know when the special agent showed up at your door. By the way, you’re out the money and you still owe the government taxes. The fact that you were in an arrangement with this other person, that’s a contractual problem. Go shoot them. You still have the government’s money.
This is what we do. It’s the same thing here. I’d rather someone go to you who has a company that we know behind it, versus someone who’s probably going to be slightly cheaper. There’s a company and I don’t know how they’re rated. I don’t know who they are. You’re in a good place. Trust me. To get back to the question. Remember you said, you can’t have 100% but 99% coverage? How does all that get factored in? It’s based on income to an extent. Is that the person’s choice? You tell them, “This is the most you can get,” then the person just picks based on what they want to spend and how much coverage they want.
I will offer them the maximum because we should just apply for it just to see. Not everyone can get disability and not everyone can get the maxed disability. I’ve had clients say, “I have enough of a twelve-month emergency plan where I’ll squeeze by, let’s say, 40% instead of 100%.” That’s totally fine with me. I’m not going to fight them on it but sometimes, they come back and they buy more either because they got such a huge pay increase or they know somebody that had to go through it and they’re like, “You were right. I should increase how much I have.”
Other Aspects To Consider In Disability Insurance
After Jeff and I saw that CPA go through that, that was the first thing we did. The best clients or the best estate planning clients, my law partner Christian will tell you. If somebody that went through with a whole probate and everything with a family member that didn’t have their documents. After going through that, most people are like, “Screw this. I’m not doing this to my kids. I’m not doing this to my family. I’m going to do what I need to do to put on the pieces in place.” Aside from coverage price, is there anything else people should be considering when they’re choosing disability?The quality of the company is obviously behind it.
If you’re not independently wealthy, you should have disability insurance. That’s number one. Number two, there are different types of insurance, depending on an occupation. Everything is rated through an occupation. I could put in two different clients, $100,000 made each. One of them is a carpenter and the other one is a financial advisor. The carpenter has far more risk of falling off a ladder or hurting a shoulder and is no longer able to do contractual work where their premium is going to be a little bit higher than the financial advisors.
Now, there’s a third aspect that comes into place. Both of these financial advisors and carpenters would go under the same insurance, which is the modified occupation. If you can’t perform your occupation, you could perform another occupation and earn up to 20% of your pre-disability income. You’ll get full disability from Northwestern Mutual until you retire or can go back to work. Medical professionals are a little bit different and I could tell you a story about this.
Medical professionals have very specific duties. A lot of them are performing surgeries and are under a lot of stress. Medical professionals are the highest claims that we pay out. It’s very interesting. I was working with a cardiologist and he performed surgeries most of the time. If he develops a tremor, he can’t perform that duty anymore.
He can get a full disability benefit from us but because he’s not performing his true occupation in the medical field, he can continue collecting a full benefit while also doing something on the side like teaching, being a professor or helping students in their fellowship program while also collecting two full paychecks. One from the disability policy and the second one from his actual paycheck.
That usually only comes into play when I’m talking to a doctor but there are different types of policies. That typically doesn’t have to come into play if you work behind a desk or like those other occupations like medical professionals because they’re at such a higher risk and high stress and making so much money. They have a very specific contract and that’s why we want to make sure that’s being implemented instead of the modified-on occupation. Essentially, if you could be a greeter at Walmart, then your employer will stop paying your disability because you can have a job. You’re just not doing your job.
That makes perfect sense.
That’s another reason why Northwestern Mutual is such a great company. It’s because our definitions of disability and claims that are being paid and exclusion writers are so specified in the contract that when it does come time to pay the claim, we don’t back out of anything.
How Financial Experts Can Assist With Disability Insurance
For the CPAs and EA’s that are reading, how can they assist their clients with this? What should they be thinking about the conversation they should be having?
Do you have disability insurance? Why or why not? Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s the lack of educational understanding around it. Also, just being able to wrap your head around it because most of the people I talked to were like, “I’m not going to get disabled.” Nobody plans on dying or getting disabled. The last person I spoke to who got to disabled didn’t plan on it. It’s just tying the heartstrings to everything that you have pretty much.
The title of this program is generally how I leave out. How long can you live without sharing? I find that brings it into real start contrast. In other words, there is no more income. Walk me through what that looks like and usually, that’s going to get ugly. It’s a conversation to have with the client. Again, if you’re reading this and you don’t have disability insurance and we didn’t get into this but we will on the webinar, is the taxability of this.
Jeff and I should we be deducting the disability payments now? Meaning it will be taxable if we ever end up receiving the benefit. Am I better off with the deduction in the higher tax bracket and paying the taxes in a lower bracket? Maybe. This is where for a CPA or EA, you can add a little value to the client. We got to get your disability. Call Elza and get this in place. By the way, let’s look at, should you be deducting it now and what are the savings, versus picking it up as income.
Upcoming Webinar And Getting In Touch With Elza
If that were your only income, you might, maybe or maybe not, depending on how much you get, be in a lower bracket. The taxability of this can also get a little interesting in terms of just strategy for a business owner deducted or not. Again, to be discussed during the webinar on September 10th, 2025. It’s free. There’s one CPE credit and CE credit for EAs. Join us.
We’re going to walk you through a lot of this and give you some good information you can go back to your clients with. Which I know we all tell you, you should be doing anyway but everyone’s so busy. This is something you need to deal with. It’s something they should deal with. Elza, for the folks reading, how do they get in touch with you? How’s the best way to reach you?
You can reach me on my phone. My direct line is (860) 837-3839 or email me at Elza.Sarkisian@NM.com.
Again, September 10th, 2025 is our webinar. Register now. It’s free. You’ll get some great info to take back to your clients. Start elevating yourself into the advisor they need you to be and you should get paid to be. Thank you for reading. Elza, thanks for taking the time. It’s been great.
Thank you for having me. I had a great time.
Everyone, thank you. I’ll see you on the webinar on the 10th.
Important Links
- Elza Sarkisian on LinkedIn
- Elza Sarkisian on Instagram
- Northwestern Mutual
- Elza.Sarkisian@NM.com
- Join Eric and Elza for the free webinar on this topic on September 10th
About Elza Sarkisian
Elza is a first-generation college graduate, raised with an unrelenting drive to succeed and a belief that hard work could open any door. While gifted with ambition and motivation, she wasn’t equipped with the knowledge or tools to build lasting financial stability. Like many first-generation individuals, she grew up without access to financial literacy—an invisible barrier that she didn’t even recognize until she had to face it head-on.
For over a decade, Elza worked as a bartender. It was a rewarding experience in many ways, but as the years went on, she realized it wasn’t a sustainable long-term path for the life she envisioned. Midway through that chapter, Elza made a decision to return to school and pursue a degree in mathematics, drawn by her love and understanding for numbers and problem-solving.
Halfway through her bachelor’s program, the world changed—Covid hit. Like many others, Elza faced devastating financial hardship. She depleted her savings to pay bills, lost her financial stability, and came dangerously close to losing herself in the process. In that moment of crisis, Elza came to a powerful realization: her struggles weren’t the result of poor judgment or a lack of discipline, but rather a systemic failure in our educational system that had not equipped her, or countless others, with the tools of financial literacy.
That revelation transformed Elza. She changed her major, even though it meant extending her time in school, and committed herself to a new mission: to help others avoid the pain she had experienced. Today, Elza is honored to live out that mission by guiding individuals and families through the most pivotal moments of their financial lives.
Elza firmly believes that financial planning isn’t just about numbers—it’s about protecting dignity, preserving legacies, and empowering people to live a more fulfilling quality of life.
