It’s a suggestive coincidence: Before they independently decided on careers in wealth management – and certainly long before they met – Elaine Martinez and Melina Mastromartino-Leberge, partners in Women2Women Wealth Management (W2W), thought it fitting to work in the field of counselling.

“When I first left school I was interested in going into either law or social work and counselling,” says British native Elaine. She married at 19; three kids became career enough. In 1994, Elaine decided to go back to work, this time in another area of interest: Finance. “I realize now that the counselling side mixed with the finance, is what financial planning is.” Elaine’s daughter – who just finished her commerce degree – is now following in her Mother’s footsteps.

Melina’s bachelor of science degree was leading her toward psychology until a dislike for anatomy gave her pause. So the patriarch of a close-knit Italian family – who had always encouraged Melina to make something of herself in the land of plenty – made the fortuitous move: “My dad threw me into banking,” says Melina matter-of-factly.

Melina and her investment advisor husband had a son, Austin. When Austin was 5, Melina’s husband passed away unexpectedly, leaving Melina a young widow. “Our goal had been to partner up,” says Melina. “Then my focus was ‘you know what? We need more women to focus on women.’ And then I met Elaine.”

With complementary skills, “we just seem to mesh well on all levels,” says Elaine. “Elaine has a real understanding of the planning process. I bring in banking solutions, which includes the credit as well as the investment side,” says Melina.

W2W is a private investment advice arm of TD Waterhouse Private Client Services in the Toronto area. Investment advisors Melina and Elaine know a thing or two about what women want (and need) in an advisor. They have a combined experience of 35 years and the resources of the parent company supporting them. This includes access to insurance specialists, private client lawyers, and charitable giving specialists, to name just a few members of the W2W professional advisory board.

So what’s the first thing women want? Most likely not to be told what they want.

I got a telling response to the question: What’s one piece of financial advice you would give a women who is perhaps unknowledgeable in this area? “I couldn’t tell you without knowing the whole story,” says Elaine. W2W’s approach to wealth management necessitates knowledge of a particular woman, her family’s goals, where she sees the kids going to school, maybe even her choice of beverage. Says Elaine: “We go out to clients’ homes, sit on the couch, have an espresso…”

“Or a sambuca,” Melina chimes in about a longtime client who favours the more exciting drinks.

“This is how we get to know our client on a familial level,” Melina continues. Only after this “discovery phase,” can Melina and Elaine build a personalized plan and then monitor it, all the while making sure the client is educated. Melina and Elaine advise men and women, but they believe that women more readily respond to their approach. “Women take an interactive two-way approach; they say ‘let’s build this together’,” says Melina.

Elaine says: “We like our clients to know not only what we’re investing but why….That’s how [accused fraudulent financier] Earl Jones and all that happens. People say ‘well, everybody else is invested with him; he must be good.’”

To unwind, Elaine is typically at bootcamp fitness at 6 a.m. On this particular day, she’s lamenting that she could have slept for 45 more minutes. “I was awake at 4:30 this morning…and all of a sudden my mind started going. And then there was no going back to sleep.”

Melina’s workout of choice is spending time with now-eight-year-old Austin. “Just being with him is a de-stressor. Well, a different kind of stress, I should say,” she laughs.

Elaine and Melina are also involved in organizations like Junior Achievement and the Canadian Women’s Foundation, and participate in the Weekend to End Cancer and the Ride for Diabetes Research.

Up next for W2W is continued growth: Getting in front of more centres of influence; further simplifying processes so that “financial planning” need not be intimidating; restoring investor confidence in general after a turbulent year. One of the best parts is the social side. “We both enjoy meeting people and that’s obviously a benefit of the job,” says Melina. “Actually listening to people’s stories fascinates us. The networking is something we’re really enjoying.”

“What we really pride ourselves on is that we’re looking at what’s important to a client, and it doesn’t include just the money,” says Elaine. “Your total wealth is more than just what you own.”