leo freeman never imagined he’d end up as a financial advisor. As a young musician fresh out of college, he was determined to make it as a professional trumpet player rather than take a soulless corporate job. However, the reality of needing health insurance and a steady income eventually led leo to a position as an executive assistant at an investment advisory firm. What he discovered there laid the groundwork for an unexpected career pivot that aligned his values with his work.
When leo realized that the financial services industry largely serves to concentrate wealth, he felt deeply unsettled. The system seemed fundamentally unjust, yet he found himself participating in it. A turning point came when he connected with advisors Rachel and Maya, who centered social justice in their practice. In exploring a socially responsible approach to financial planning, leo discovered he could leverage his position of access to help redistribute wealth and resources.
With this realization came another reckoning. leo enjoyed privileges others did not due to his masculine, white-passing identity. He’d built quick rapport with wealthy clients through golf and other exclusive activities men bond over. While this nepotistic boost felt validating initially, further analysis revealed it stemmed from oppressive cultural norms. Still, rather than abandon financial planning altogether, leo committed to using his privilege consciously in service of economic justice.
As leo pursued this path, guidance from colleague Iris Brilliant was invaluable for overcoming what he calls his class rage. Iris helped him separate individuals born into wealth from the systems enabling hoarding. With compassion, they could collaborate to shift money toward social good. This experience highlighted for leo the importance of community for avoiding reactionary responses. Liberation requires collective understanding.
Likewise, leo emphasizes that financial advisors must band together when overwhelmed by the intensity of values-aligned money work. Finding people with the bandwidth to hold space for processing socially complex client situations has been crucial for him. No one can tackle systemic injustice alone. As much as the savior archetype permeates Western culture, true change relies on ordinary people collectively building new societal norms.
The road from musician to financial advisor was unexpected, yet leo now channels creative passion into building economic alternatives. For fellow advisors seeking a workplace aligned with their social conscience, spaces like Rad Planners model active hope. Together, the financial services industry can transform from a tool of oppression into a vehicle for justice.
leo is a thinker and a tinkerer with a musician’s brain and an activist’s heart. for the past eight years, leo has worked inside of the financial services industrial complex as an advisor (learning the master’s tools), then as a social justice financial advisor with adasina social capital (wielding the master’s tools in service of social justice movements), and most recently as the director of fund development with seed commons (building new tools to channel non-extractive capital to community). You can learn more about Leo’s work at Capital J Collective.
A passionate advocate for intersectional justice, leo brings a systems approach to his work with philanthropic orgs, institutional and individual investors and financial advisors. leo is a founding member and inaugural steering crew member of the radical planners community, a co-creator of capital J collective, a co-director of (re)define, and a member of the transformative25 committee.
leo is not big on academia, but he does hold a few degrees from csu sacramento in jazz performance and pedagogy. he is an accredited investment fiduciary analyst and holds a series 65 license.
leo lives in berkeley with their dog, friend. leo is an anticapitalist, abolitionist, vegan, feminist, activist, non-zionist, anarcho-utopianist who reads a ton of queer theory and liberation lit and is focused on building and deepening community relationships and dreaming the world to come.
You can listen to our full conversation here: https://youtu.be/iPdXq7wDDM4