Get to know 2020 MDRT President Regina Bedoya, ChFC, CLU

In 2006, a client came to see Regina Bedoya, ChFC, CLU, so distraught about the breakdown of her marriage that she had thoughts of ending her life. For the first four meetings, the client was determined to blame her soon-to-be ex-husband for her overwhelming grief.

Yet with the support of Bedoya, a 26-year MDRT member from Juno Beach, Florida, and 2020 MDRT President, the client (who had never worked before) not only got a job within a year but thrived in her role and eventually remarried.

“What was amazing to me was the strength of her spirit going from a place of feeling completely hopeless. All we need sometimes is to be held by someone who cares, and we get up and face the world again,” Bedoya said. “I often think about her as one of my heroes because I saw her probably in her worst moment, and now it’s a happy ending.”

This is far from the only time Bedoya has helped a client recover from the unanticipated. With two other staff members and 350 clients spread among Florida and Georgia, her practice focuses largely on what she calls “women in transition.” That often pertains to divorce (though sometimes it’s the loss of a spouse or moving toward retirement) and needing help to regroup and achieve financial peace of mind during a trying emotional time.

This was not the plan. When Bedoya, who was born in Michigan and raised in Paraguay, started in the business, she focused on building wealth and helping clients prepare for retirement. It was only after she experienced her own divorce in 2001 that she realized people going through what she went through needed an advocate who could provide both financial and emotional support.

“Initially it was like, ‘Maybe I should be doing this.’ You have a thought, and it goes away,” Bedoya recalled. “Then it became more of a loud whisper, and eventually a strong urge. ‘You need to be doing this. This is what you’re here for.’

“The more I did it, the stronger I got. And the happier I became as I realized what happens to you doesn’t have to define you, and at the same time it can be a trigger to something better.”

Read more in the Round the Table cover story “Successful transitions” or watch her in the “Incoming President’s address.”

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