Insights
Empowering Women Leaders
Personal reflections on the Four Pillars of Capital
Lowry Brescia recently chaired a panel at the STEP Miami Lunch & Learn event, where four inspiring women leaders shared their professional and personal experiences, connecting them to the Four Pillars of Capital framework. “After more than a decade of proprietary research into intergenerational wealth strategies, we developed the ‘4 Pillars of Capital’: financial, intellectual, social, and cultural,” Lowry explained. “Guided by communication and purpose, this framework empowers families to foster leadership, resilience, and unity, ensuring impactful legacies and the responsible stewardship of wealth.”
Carolyn Cole, founder of Cole & Associates, has over 20 years of experience in financial services, and is a leader in family office strategy, inheritor education, and communication through Kolbe while also in supporting Canadian entrepreneurs and multigenerational families.
Highlighting the evolving role of women in fostering purposeful cultural capital within families, she said: “A lot of times we think we have no culture, when actually we do. The culture inside your family is being grown, very naturally, organically all the time. You see it in everyday examples.” She shared how women are now “parenting with purpose” to design family values that span generations, ensuring lasting legacies.
Sarah Jacobson, Partner at Day Pitney, specialises in assisting international families with US ties, providing expertise in real estate investments, trust structuring, pre-residency, and expatriation planning, as well as advising family offices and establishing private trust companies.
Discussing financial capital, she delved into the growing presence of women in financial services and managing financials, fuelled by a significant wealth transfer. “Women are different in terms of how they like to invest,” she noted, explaining how increasing numbers manage wealth independently as business owners or post-divorce. “The trend we are seeing is they don’t want to work with their parents’ advisers, their father’s advisers, or their ex-husband’s advisers. There is a shift in financial independence.”
Catalina Goerke, Psychotherapist, and third generational psychoanalyst with advanced studies in neuroplasticity is also an expert in Mahayana meditation. Her approach integrates mindfulness and cutting-edge neuroscience to help achieve inner growth and resilience. Catalina works in partnership with the United Nations and a foundation in Latin America.
She addressed the concept of emotional inheritance, noting, “Women are fighting against the emotional inheritance of our mothers, being shy around money and feeling they’re not worthy.” Catalina emphasised the need for women to reshape their self-perception. She coaches women to believe in their worth to drive change across all levels of society, emphasising social capital through transforming emotional inheritance.
Johanna Mikkola, CEO and Co-Founder of Tech Equity Miami, is recognised for pioneering in accelerating learning and spearheads a $100 million funders consortium dedicated to strengthening South Florida’s tech ecosystem and expanding regional economic opportunities.
Reflecting on intellectual capital and women’s role in the tech industry, she spotlighted the importance of failure as a key driver of learning and growth in the tech industry. “I will try to succeed, and even if I fail, I’m open to failure. Without failure, I’m not learning anything,” she explained. This ‘growth mindset’, said Johanna, builds intellectual capital; it’s the “turbo boost to whatever I do in life.”
Lowry Brescia is Client Relationship Manager, Family Office, North America