Andrea Williams, CLU®, CFP®, Wealth Management Advisor, is the first African-American
woman in Northwestern Mutual's 160-year-old history to be awarded one of the company's top
honors, Forum membership. She has also been locally recognized by Northwestern Mutual –
Chicago as Financial Advisor of the Year. In 2019 she was honored by the American College of
Financial Services as Millennial Financial Professional of the Year.
Williams, a native Chicagoan, began financial planning with Northwestern Mutual 2008. She
had received a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Economics Summa Cum Laude from
Dominican University which was funded by a Full Academic Scholarship from the Ida Brechtel
Foundation. After working in accounting and as a financial analyst at the William Wrigley Jr.
Company, she decided to change her focus from corporate finance to “the individual’s bottom
line”. Once deciding that her life’s work would be serve people and their finances, she began
her Financial Planning Practice focusing on underserved communities. Pioneering the Minority
and Female business community, she has been recognized for ranking in the top 2% of the
industry. She has been featured in Forbes, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Rolling Out, Black
Enterprise and she was named to the Ariel Investments 'Top 40 under 40 Game Changers' for
her noted trailblazing and niche clientele.
In addition to running her national practice, she is a sought-after speaker for Northwestern
Mutual’s Speaker’s Bureau, STEM and Financial symposiums in addition to Healthcare
Conferences nationally and internationally. She primarily works worth with physicians,
dentists, business owners, professionals in leadership positions and individual who “operate in
their own genius”.