About
Our Values
about us
Our Values
At Stephan Independent Advisory, we strongly believe that a life well lived incorporates more than just accumulating financial wealth.
We acknowledge the importance of financial wealth, but endeavor to empower others to understand the connection between meaning and money.
Like so many of us in Australia, we have the privilege of not having to worry about money, clean drinking water, food, shelter, and education.
We recognise that we have the means and the opportunity to empower and support others, and we believe it’s our social responsibility to do so. This is why we decided to work with Cufa.
Working with Cufa
Cufa is an international development agency committed to alleviating poverty and creating sustainable results across the Asia Pacific.
Cufa’s mission is to facilitate the development of economic capacity through education, employment and enterprise opportunities to create value and self-reliance.
Cufa are champions of the old adage, ‘teach a person a fish, and they will eat for a lifetime’.
Financial literacy, which we often take for granted, helps people to self-determine and self-sustain, through education and empowerment.
We wanted to work with Cufa because their ethos resonates with us as a family. The background of the Stephan family is in academia. Our father, Magdy, was an advocate and an educator for the next generation of financial planners. He came from a migrant background and believed that education was an important and beneficial tool to improve lives and empower people.
In mid 2023, we had the privilege of traveling over to Papua New Guinea to teach a short financial literacy program to the students of the Boroko Primary School.
Cufa employs teachers to go to schools and teach subjects that aren’t part of the usual curriculum – things like financial literacy. They go into schools to teach these important life skills to the children, but also to teach the teacher how to run these programs in the schools themselves.
Teaching money literacy concepts to the young people of PNG is incredibly important. We wholeheartedly believe in the ‘teach a person to fish’ ethos. By empowering these young people through education, we are planting the seed that can blossom with employment and opportunity.
We are excited to continue to work with Cufa to bridge the gaps in education, employment, and opportunity. The link between what financial advisors do for a living and what Cufa advocates for is clear.
Read more about our trip to Papua New Guinea with CUFA to deliver a financial literacy program here!
If you feel like you’d like to learn more and get involved, read our article about working with CUFA on the It’s Never About Money website.
