Derenda King, ED.D, CFP®, CSLP®

I worked in higher education and held various positions at local colleges and universities in Southern California. In addition to my 20 years of experience in higher education, I am also a Certified Financial Planner™. This unique expertise helps me provide clients with invaluable insight on how to create a solid strategy to save and pay for college.

In my former roles, I encountered countless students struggling to pay for their college tuition. I spoke to parents that were desperate to find ways to pay for their child’s college education, many of whom had resorted to ravaging their retirement accounts and/or taking out second mortgages to pay for college expenses. There were several times when I was asked to submit letters to the financial aid office advocating (essentially begging) for more aid on behalf of my students because they were in danger of dropping out. As a result, many ended up with a substantial amount of student loan debt – in fact, one had over $60,000 – for a bachelor’s degree! To add to that, a significant number wanted to pursue graduate or professional degrees, which often meant taking out more student loan debt. These experiences (among others) are why I am committed to helping families develop a sustainable funding plan BEFORE their child steps foot on a college campus and to helping those with student loans create the best strategy for repaying them – both of which enable me to bridge my love for finance and education.