Who does Dr. Nicole typically work with?

Her published planning profile is individuals and couples aged 40 to 60 with household income of $150,000 or more — most between $250,000 and $400,000 — who earn both W2 and 1099 income and want to delegate complexity to a CFP®. She also accepts client referrals regardless of present financial position.

What does financial planning cost?

The initial planning engagement runs 60 to 90 days and costs $1,500 to $4,000 depending on complexity. Ongoing planning is $1,500 to $4,000 per year, billed quarterly. Optional investment management is generally 1.00% to 1.75% of assets under management, charged by the third-party manager.

Do I need a minimum amount of money to talk to her?

No. The profile above describes her typical planning client, not a gate on who she will speak to. In her own words: "We gladly accept referrals from our clients for their family, friends, and colleagues — regardless of present financial position."

What happens on the first call?

She starts with the life, not the ledger. Her opening question is what you would be doing if money weren’t the issue. In her words: “I want to talk about everything else before I get down to the nitty gritty of the numbers.” No statements required.

What are her credentials?

She is a CFP® who entered the securities industry in 1991 and holds Series 7, 63 and 65 licenses. She holds a doctorate from Boston University conferred with top honors, an M.Div. magna cum laude from New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and a B.S. cum laude from Oral Roberts University.

How is the practice regulated?

Securities are offered through Vanderbilt Securities, LLC — member FINRA and SIPC, registered with MSRB. Advisory services are offered through Vanderbilt Advisory Services. Harvest Wealth Financial is not itself a registered broker-dealer or registered investment advisor, and is a separate, unaffiliated entity from Vanderbilt Financial Group.

Does she only work with people of faith?

No. She is an ordained pastor and says openly that people often come to her because she is a woman of faith, but the planning work is the planning work. Her faith-and-finance programming is a distinct offering for churches and ministry leaders who specifically want it.

Financial plannerPastorSpeaker

If money weren’t the issue, what would you be doing with your life?

That is the first question Dr. Nicole asks — before the statements, before the numbers. Thirty-five years of financial planning that starts with the life you want, from a CFP® who understands what money feels like after the worst day of your life.

Book a free hour What is financial trauma?

Dr. Nicole B. Simpson, CFP®

Credentialed. Credible. Called.

CFP®

Since 2000

Doctorate

Boston University

WTC survivor

September 11, 2001

35
Years in the industry: 9
Books published: 60+
Pro bono planning hours

Her work has appeared in

TEDxCNNBBC World NewsBlack EnterpriseGoBankingRatesInvestmentNewsInvestopediaThe Huffington PostThe Star-LedgerNews 12 New JerseyMarquis Who’s Who98.7 Kiss FMWFAN Sports RadioTalk Radio 1190 AMThe Bev Smith ShowMy9CN8

How people arrive

“My financial life is a mess, and I need your help.”

Her words for how most people open the first conversation. Not a spreadsheet problem — a life that got complicated faster than the money could keep up.

Chaos

Nothing is anywhere

Accounts at five institutions, an old 401(k) nobody has looked at, insurance you cannot remember buying. No single place where the whole picture exists.

Avoidance

Money is the conversation you keep not having

Most people are afraid to talk about money. So they don’t. And the not-talking compounds quietly, for years.

Time

You didn’t think you had enough to manage

A significant share of her clients never gave it much attention because they assumed there wasn’t enough there to plan around. Now the clock is the problem.

Freeze

When it’s overwhelming, you stop

Some people freeze. Others dig. Facing a hole, the first instinct often isn’t to climb out — it’s to make it deeper. Both are trauma responses, and both are workable.

Three ways in

One practice, three doors

She is a financial planner, a pastor and a speaker, and she has stopped keeping those in separate rooms. Whichever door you come through, you get the same person.

Plan with me

Financial Freedom Planning

A written plan, a roadmap, and a CFP® who coordinates the whole picture. Published fees, so you know before you call.

See the program and fees

Learn from me

Financial trauma, explained

Two books, a body of published writing, and a framework for the money decisions that follow a crisis.

Start with the guide

Book me to speak

Keynotes and workshops

Five signature talks for conferences, churches, associations and corporate audiences. TEDx speaker.

Speaking topics and booking

The Lower Manhattan skyline at dusk, with One World Trade Center at its center.

Why this work

The worst experiences in your life do not have to define you for the rest of your life.

Rebuilding taught her something the financial planning profession does not have a process for. When catastrophe arrives, everyone attends to the catastrophe. Almost nobody is ready for the question that lands seconds later.

Not “what happened” — but “what can we do financially?” Who takes care of the family. What happens to the income. Which decision has to be made this week.

That is the gap she has spent twenty-five years working in, and the reason a financial planner went and earned a doctorate in trauma-informed care. Two decades before the credential, she was already doing the work.

I don’t only speak about trauma — I have lived it.

1991
Enters the securities industry
2000
Earns the CFP® designation
2001
September 11 — the South Tower
2016
Becomes Pastor of Micah 7 Ministries
2020
Doctorate, Boston University
Today
Advisor, author, pastor, speaker

Read the whole story About the practice

Credentialed

Thirty-five years, and the paper to prove it

Less than 1.9% of financial planners are African American or Hispanic. She has spent three decades being the exception, and being recognized for it by the industry that made her one.

CFP®Certified Financial Planner
Series 7, 63 & 65Securities licenses
DoctorateTransformational Leadership, Boston University
M.Div.New Brunswick Theological Seminary
B.S.Oral Roberts University
OrdainedSenior Pastor, Micah 7 Ministries
CFP BoardCenter for Financial Planning Diversity Advisory Group

ALM ThinkAdvisor Luminaries

Thought Leader of the Year

2024

InvestmentNews

Women to Watch, Trailblazer of the Year — Finalist

2023

InvestmentNews

Hot 100 Movers & Shakers

2023

TEDx Mavili Square

TEDx speaker — “9/11 Survivor”

May 2023

Top 100 Financial AdvisorsInvestopediaLifetime Achievement Award — honorable mentionInvest in OthersWoman of the YearZeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.Excellence Award — Top Movers & Shakers of the Accounting IndustryMYCPE ONELiterary Global Book Award — WinnerThe Quiet Shift · inaugural award, Health: Aging/50+International Book Award — Finalist2023, Health: Aging/50+#1 Amazon Best SellerThe Quiet Shift · Physician & Patient Home Care categoryAmazon Best SellerBreaking Free From Financial Trauma · on release, September 2024The BookFest Award — Winner, 2023Dare 2 Dream and The Quiet ShiftBook Excellence Awards — FinalistSeal published on her book pagesInternational Impact Book Awards — WinnerSeal published on her book pages

Promotional placement

Times Square billboard

Arranged by a third party. A promotional placement, not an award or an endorsement.

All press, awards and appearances

The work she is known for

What is financial trauma?

Financial trauma is the lasting effect a distressing event has on how a person handles money. A job loss, a diagnosis, a death, a disaster — the event ends, but the responses it trained stay behind, shaping spending, saving and avoidance for years afterward.

Dr. Nicole’s position is that these responses are not character flaws to be corrected but patterns to be identified and planned around. Once you can name yours, you can build a strategy that accounts for it instead of one that quietly assumes it away.

It is the subject of her doctoral work, the subject of Breaking Free From Financial Trauma, and the reason the majority of her practice has arrived by referral.

There is an emotional connection between the decisions that you make and how you spend your money.

The full guide Read the book

Four common responses

Freeze
The statements stop being opened. The decision keeps getting deferred. Not laziness — a nervous system protecting itself from more bad news.
Spend
Something hurts, so something gets bought. Her example: facing a hole, the first instinct is often not to climb out but to dig deeper.
Avoid
The topic gets changed. The appointment gets moved. Money becomes the one subject the household does not discuss out loud.
Over-control
Every dollar tracked, nothing ever spent, no amount of savings ever enough. Vigilance that looks like discipline and feels like fear.

Which one is yours? Take the assessment

Authorship

Nine books. Two that built the practice.

She sells most of her books from the front of a stage. Both of these came out of the same place her planning work does — the connection between what happens to people and what happens to their money.

Amazon Best Seller on release

Breaking Free From Financial Trauma

A Practical Guide To Embracing Emotional Health & Financial Freedom

The book that gives her practice its name. Written out of the position she describes as the one nobody plans for: the second question, the one that arrives right after the catastrophe — what can we do financially?

Author: Dr. Nicole B. Simpson
Available as: Paperback; Kindle; Audiobook

Read a chapter free Book details

#1 Amazon Best Seller · Literary Global Book Award winner

The Quiet Shift

Navigating Through the Emotional and Economic Impact of Aging Parents In the Family

Long-term care, special needs and aging parents. Her framing of it, from the call: not if they die, but what if they live — and how that lands on multiple generations at once.

Author: Dr. Nicole B. Simpson, CFP® and Sharon Stanford
Foreword by: Reverend DeForest B. Soaries, Jr.
Available as: Paperback; Kindle

Read a chapter free Book details

Also published

More of her books

How working together works

Real fees, published before you pick up the phone

Most advisors will not tell you what this costs until you are in the room. She already publishes it, so we have kept it — and made it easier to read.

1
Initial Planning Engagement
60–90 days
$1,500 – $4,000
for the initial engagement, depending on complexity
What’s included
- Goal clarification
- Income and benefits review
- Cash flow analysis
- Monthly savings targets
- Account review
- Risk assessment
- Delivery of your Financial Freedom Roadmap
2
Ongoing Financial Planning & Advice
Continuing
$1,500 – $4,000
per year, based on complexity. Billed quarterly.
What’s included
- At least 2 planning meetings per year
- 4–6 points of communication per year
- Ongoing coordination of taxes and investments
- Plan revisions as your life changes
3
Investment Management
Optional
1.00% – 1.75%
of assets under management, generally. Third-party managed.
What’s included
- Third-party portfolio management
- Coordinated with your written plan
- Available alongside either step above

The full program Book a free hour

From the front of the stage

She sells most of her books from a stage

Five signature talks, built out of thirty-five years of practice and one very bad morning. TEDx speaker, national media contributor, and a regular in front of churches, associations and corporate audiences.

Speaking topics and booking

Called

The third word is not marketing

She is the ordained Senior Pastor of a church, the founder of a nonprofit teaching financial literacy to people coming out of incarceration, and a leader of a community association twenty-five years old. This is the part of her life the current site hides.

An open Bible lit by a shaft of warm light.

Senior PastorPlainfield, New Jersey
Micah 7 Ministries
“Called to serve, committed to the call.” A church now in its tenth year, built on the conviction that there are greater needs in the world than there are in the church.
FounderPiscataway, New Jersey
Dare 2 Dream Institute
Financial education, business training and entrepreneurial support for returning citizens and underserved communities. Programs: Financially Fit Bootcamp, You Are A Business, Dream Academy.
“Most of us are in here because of money.”— a program participant
ChairNew Jersey
Generation X Community Association
Founded 2001. “Transforming lives through faith, education, and economic empowerment.” Twenty-five years of scholarships, financial literacy courses and community service.

Faith & finance

Questions

The things people ask first

: Financial trauma is the lasting effect a distressing event has on how a person handles money. A job loss, a diagnosis, a death or a disaster ends, but the responses it trained stay behind — shaping spending, saving and avoidance for years afterward. Dr. Nicole’s doctoral work is in trauma-informed care.
: Her published planning profile is individuals and couples aged 40 to 60 with household income of $150,000 or more — most between $250,000 and $400,000 — who earn both W2 and 1099 income and want to delegate complexity to a CFP®. She also accepts client referrals regardless of present financial position.
: The initial planning engagement runs 60 to 90 days and costs $1,500 to $4,000 depending on complexity. Ongoing planning is $1,500 to $4,000 per year, billed quarterly. Optional investment management is generally 1.00% to 1.75% of assets under management, charged by the third-party manager.
: No. The profile above describes her typical planning client, not a gate on who she will speak to. In her own words: "We gladly accept referrals from our clients for their family, friends, and colleagues — regardless of present financial position."
: She starts with the life, not the ledger. Her opening question is what you would be doing if money weren’t the issue. In her words: “I want to talk about everything else before I get down to the nitty gritty of the numbers.” No statements required.
: She is a CFP® who entered the securities industry in 1991 and holds Series 7, 63 and 65 licenses. She holds a doctorate from Boston University conferred with top honors, an M.Div. magna cum laude from New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and a B.S. cum laude from Oral Roberts University.
: Securities are offered through Vanderbilt Securities, LLC — member FINRA and SIPC, registered with MSRB. Advisory services are offered through Vanderbilt Advisory Services. Harvest Wealth Financial is not itself a registered broker-dealer or registered investment advisor, and is a separate, unaffiliated entity from Vanderbilt Financial Group.
: No. She is an ordained pastor and says openly that people often come to her because she is a woman of faith, but the planning work is the planning work. Her faith-and-finance programming is a distinct offering for churches and ministry leaders who specifically want it.

I am credentialed, I’m credible, and I’m called.

One free hour. No numbers required.

Bring the situation, not the spreadsheets. She starts every first conversation the same way — with where you want to go, not what you have. I want to talk about everything else before I get down to the nitty gritty of the numbers.

Book a free hour Meet Dr. Nicole

Educational and general in nature. Not individualized investment, tax or legal advice.