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Carey Farmer talks managing money, being a mom and helping others

Carey Farmer, Senior Vice President and Private Client Advisor at Bank of America Private Bank | Photo by: Dorly Roy For women in business, maintaining appropriate boundaries between one’s professional and personal lives may pose a bit of a challenge
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Carey Farmer, Senior Vice President and Private Client Advisor at Bank of America Private Bank | Photo by: Dorly Roy

For women in business, maintaining appropriate boundaries between one’s professional and personal lives may pose a bit of a challenge, especially due to society’s expectations of women. Today, women in positions of power are dominating the workplace, however, as the traditional nine-to-five office structure is becoming a thing of the past for Xennials and Millenials, proper personal care and keeping is a must.

Carey Farmer, Senior Vice President and Private Client Advisor at Bank of America Private Bank, has dedicated her life to helping people maintain peace regarding their finances, that way, they can have a stress-free personal life.

“My role is to work with high net worth clients who are looking for someone to come in from the business perspective and personal side,” Farmer says. “We take care of our clients, not just their money. We do a holistic approach to our financial management.”

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Farmer’s duties as a Private Client Advisor include helping clients with financial management, wealth structuring, trust services, credit and banking, investment management and specialty asset management. While her day consists of various meeting and appointments throughout, Farmer is providing financial assistance from the moment she wakes up until she goes to sleep for the night.

“I never really stop working,” Farmer says. “I think one of the biggest things for women, especially of my generation, is that we no longer work a nine-to-five job. When we leave the office for the day, and I go to pick up my kids from dance competitions or baseball practice, I’m constantly talking about the work I do and seeing how I can help additional people. I want to be a resource for people, I cannot be that unless I’m out there, working with people and helping provide them with what they need.”

During the week, Farmer will join her clients at luncheons, meetings and other company events. She can also be found working with non-profits. With 17 years in finance, Farmer’s work has become her lifestyle.

“If a client reaches out to me at 10 o’clock at night, I will usually respond to them,” Farmer says.  “I do a lot of my office work in the evenings, when the kids go to sleep. My husband and I will sit on the couch and pop our laptops open, and that’s our time together. I always say that my love language with him is business.”

Throughout Farmer’s career, she has come across many women business owners who seem to struggle to ask for help. She believes that by associating with like-minded individuals, one is able to thrive in the realm of business in entrepreneurship.

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“It is worth it to surround yourself with equally brilliant women or men,” Farmer says. “It’s not asking for help, it’s aligning yourself with key business partners.”

Prior to becoming a financial advisor, Farmer worked in commercial lending, where she met several women business owners who felt guilty about focusing too much on their businesses.

“That caregiver guilt isn’t limited to our personal lives, it extends to our financial lives,” Farmer says. “The wife is, a lot of times, the person managing the family books. You can still run your business and still run your personal financial lives if you’re with the right people or with the right company.”

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As the mother of three children, Farmer wants her daughters and her son to see that a business owner can carry their work into their personal life and still maintain relationships with their friends, family and loved ones.

“There is something about your children seeing you as a career woman and the volunteer mom at school,” Farmers says, “but also having them see you sitting in your pajamas at 6:00 o’clock at night and ordering DoorDash.”

Farmer will speak at Local Profile’s Wonder Women event on August 1. Tickets can be purchased here.