Catherine Valega founded Green Bee Advisory to help driven leaders — in the corporate world and in entrepreneurship — grow their wealth with intention and pay less in taxes. The goal is simple: create a financial future and legacy you’re genuinely proud of. You deserve more than a once-a-year review or an investment statement you barely glance at. You deserve someone who’s always looking ahead, making sure your plan reflects your goals, your values, and the new opportunities life keeps throwing your way.
Catherine's background as a linguist shows up in my work every day. She takes complex financial and tax language and turns it into something clear and useful. And brings empathy and honesty to every conversation, because money is personal.
In a recent WIE Suite Masterclass, Catherine Valega shared essential strategies for executive women navigating the complex landscape of wealth building, preservation, and transfer. With financial stress affecting 60 percent of full-time employees according to PWC’s' annual employee wellness study, Valega's mission was clear: to send participants home with at least one actionable idea to optimize their wealth journey and minimize their tax burden.
Traditional financial planning often falls short because it treats plans as static documents rather than living, breathing roadmaps. Valega challenged this approach with a fundamental insight: "The most important part of every plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan." She emphasized that by the time clients receive a printed or emailed financial plan, it has already become outdated because life circumstances and market conditions have shifted.
This understanding led Valega to advocate for what she calls "your dashboard for life," a customized financial portal that brings together all the various puzzle pieces of your financial existence in real time. "We accumulate so many moving pieces of our financial life. We have eight jobs over a career. We have IRAs. We have bank accounts and high yield savings accounts online and debts and insurance policies. And how do you keep track of all of this?" she asked.
For a sample client in their mid-forties, this dashboard revealed both accomplishments and opportunities. The couple had built a net worth of $8.6 million with a 61 percent probability of meeting their retirement goals. However, it also revealed a significant shortfall in college savings, prompting strategic conversations about prioritization.
One of Valega's most passionate recommendations centers on the transformative potential of early investment, particularly through Roth IRAs. "One of the best financial gifts we can give to ourselves and or our children is starting a Roth IRA for them," she explained. The key requirement is IRS reportable income, which can come from traditional employment or even entrepreneurial activities.
The advantage is profound. "A Roth IRA contribution gets invested and grows tax free forever," Valega emphasized. "We don't get a tax break today, we're going to get it on the back end because we don't owe taxes on it." This differs fundamentally from traditional retirement accounts where the tax benefit comes upfront but taxes are owed on withdrawals.
Valega established Roth IRAs for all four of her daughters as soon as they began earning reportable income. The strategy began to resonate when, during a family dinner, one daughter threatened her sister: "Be careful, or I may take you off as beneficiary." Valega's reaction? "Yes, this is working. So it's a great way to introduce sort of long term investing and savings and complex terms like beneficiary."
While investment strategy captures most people's attention, Valega argues that risk management deserves equal focus. "The investing piece of anybody's financial plan is always the easiest piece of the pie," she observed. "I can have a $20 million account invested in all sorts of things, but if I don't have the right risk management and something happens, I have an accident, and I hit a hand surgeon, and now he can't earn the $20 million over his lifetime, you're going to be on the hook. And there goes that portfolio."
Among her strongest recommendations is private disability income insurance, particularly for high-earning professionals. She shared a cautionary tale of a family friend who served as CEO of a well-known kitchen gadget company. When he decided to leave corporate management for creative work, COVID struck, followed by a stroke that left him with no income. "It has changed the trajectory of his family," Valega said. "If he had had private disability income insurance, he would have had up to 80 percent of his prior pre-tax salary paid out to him until 65 or 67 depending on the plan."
The lesson is clear: corporate disability coverage alone is insufficient. "The earlier you purchase a disability insurance, if you are a breadwinner, the better off, the better you can sleep at night," she advised.
For business owners, Valega highlighted a specific concern regarding Social Security planning. "You want to make sure that your W2 wages are accounted for in your Social Security earnings history," she stressed, noting that CPAs focused on tax optimization may inadvertently minimize wages to a point that harms future Social Security benefits.
Valega describes herself as a "tax nerd," and her dual expertise in wealth management and tax planning sets her apart. "I got tired of telling my clients go ask your CPA, and I wanted to be able to incorporate all of those decisions for them," she explained. Her philosophy draws on industry specialist Ed Slott's wisdom: "Always pay taxes at the lowest rates, even if that means paying taxes before they are required."
This counterintuitive approach becomes clear when examining historical tax rates. Current top federal rates stand at 37 percent, but recent history shows rates approaching 40 percent just a decade ago, and reaching 50 percent in the 1980s.
Understanding marginal tax brackets is essential for strategic planning. Valega demonstrated that while a client's marginal tax rate might be 24 percent, not all income faces that rate. This structure creates opportunities for tax gain harvesting, since long-term capital gains are taxed at lower rates than ordinary income.
For clients with substantial retirement savings, Valega often recommends Roth conversions to manage future tax liability. "I might be working with Catherine and Charles to do some Roth conversions," she said. "Or I might say, you know what, let's make some of your contributions Roth instead of pre-tax."
A particularly timely development affects catch-up contributions for those over 50 earning more than $150,000. "The government is mandating that those contributions go in as Roth, meaning you're not going to get any tax break now on them," Valega explained. While this represents the first time the government has mandated Roth contributions, she views it positively: "It is still great for you moving forward, quite honestly, because what happens is, I want my clients to have tax diversification in retirement."
Valega takes a firm stance on college financing, particularly in light of new federal loan limits taking effect in July 2026. Previously, students could borrow essentially unlimited amounts for undergraduate and graduate education. The new caps limit total direct unsubsidized loans to $200,000 for professional degrees like medical school, which often exceeds $300,000 in total costs.
For college savings, she recommends 529 plans, noting their superior long-term advantages. This approach aligns with her broader philosophy of building wealth through consistent, tax-advantaged contributions over time.
Throughout the masterclass, Valega wove in practical analogies that made complex concepts accessible. She compared financial planning to tending a garden: "You need to be patient and keep watering."
For entrepreneurs specifically, Valega offered pointed advice about business structure. Despite social media pressure to convert LLCs to S CORP status for tax savings, she recommends waiting until income reaches at least $600,000. "If we reduce our W2 wages so low, it's only our W2 wages that get counted for Social Security income earnings history," she explained.
She also emphasized the importance of emergency savings before aggressive investing. "I tend to say 12 to 18 months of expenses saved in a conservative investment," she advised, describing this as "no thank you money" that provides freedom to decline undesirable clients or job offers during business downturns.
For those seeking professional guidance, Valega offered clear criteria for evaluating advisors. "Interview several, ask about credentials," she recommended, specifically highlighting the Certified Financial Planner designation. She also suggested checking backgrounds through FINRA's BrokerCheck system and asking direct questions about compensation and communication schedules.
Valega concluded the masterclass by offering to serve as an accountability partner for participants ready to take action on their financial goals. "If there is one thing that resonates with you and you are going to take action on it, I am happy to be your accountability partner," she said.
Her message resonates particularly for women navigating executive roles and entrepreneurship. The path to financial confidence requires not just knowledge but action, not just planning but accountability. By understanding the interplay of investment strategy, risk management, tax planning, and long-term wealth transfer, executive women can truly become the CFOs of their own lives, building legacy wealth that extends across generations.
