Lauren Ward Expertise: Estate Planning, Retirement Planning, Investing, Credit Cards Education: Georgetown University Location: Richmond, Virginia Highlights Lauren Ward writes about the complexities of estate planning for The Balance. Personal finance expert with more than a decade of experience covering financial topics for audiences of all demographics.Serves as a ghost writer for wealth management and tax advisory firms.Content contributor for multiple fintech startups and investment platforms in both the B2C and B2B spaces. Experience Lauren Ward is a finance writer with over 10 years of experience researching and writing about personal finance topics, including estate planning, investing, real estate, and more. She has written hundreds of articles for clients and ghostwritten three e-books in the financial services sector. Lauren's work has appeared in publications like Time, MSN News, This Old House, HerMoney, and many other online publications. She also writes about digital marketing strategies for financial institutions, including topics such as social media and search engine optimization.Prior to becoming a freelance writer, Lauren worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and began her career in nonprofit fundraising. Education Lauren earned a Bachelor's Degree in Japanese Language from Georgetown University. She also spent a year studying abroad at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. About The Balance The Balance, a Dotdash Meredith brand, makes money easy to understand. We give people tools they need to not only make smart financial decisions but also prepare for the experiences they will have along the way. Our team of expert writers and editors have extensive qualifications in the topics they cover, and many of them have MBAs, PhDs, CFPs, and other advanced degrees and professional certifications. We require our writers to use primary sources in their articles, which are also approved by our Financial Review Board and fact-checked. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy.