They loved their daughters. They kissed their foreheads, sang lullabies, dreamed of bright futures. And then... they were gone.

What do Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel all have in common?

Yes, they’re princesses.

Yes, they’re icons.

But more importantly?

Every single one of them was left vulnerable after their mother died with no estate plan.

We’ve watched the silent consequences unfold in nearly every classic Disney story:

Cinderella’s mother dies, and her daughter becomes a servant in her own home.

Belle’s mother vanishes from the story entirely, leaving Belle’s father—brilliant but unstable—to raise her alone.

Snow White’s mother died, and her husband remarried a jealous witch (probably 20 years younger).

We love the fairy tales.

We remember the magic.

But tucked beneath the sparkle and songs are stories of women who loved deeply... and still left their daughters vulnerable.

These mothers didn’t fail because they lacked love.

They failed because they lacked a plan.

In today’s world, that kind of silence leads to custody battles, delayed life insurance payouts, frozen bank accounts, and overwhelmed families. Love isn’t enough. Documentation is love executed.

That’s where I come in.

Why Listen to Me?

As a licensed insurance agent and financial coach for women, I specialize in helping modern-day Disney moms avoid tragic plot twists. You know, like…

• Sending your daughter into protective custody with no guardianship paperwork (Aurora, they did you dirty)
  

• Trusting your man not to remarry a gold digger (Ella, girl, you deserved better)
  

• Or leaving a grief-stricken sea king to solo parent seven teenage daughters? (That’s not a plan—it’s a shipwreck.)

I’ve watched families lose everything because they thought skipping life insurance or waiting to “pay off debt first” before starting an Emergency Fund was a good idea.

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.

As a financial advisor, I’ve seen families torn apart… simply because a parent didn’t have a plan.

One missing legal document. One bad decision. A lifetime of love and trust—gone.

I share these stories because you, as a mom, have the power to do things differently. You can protect your business, your family, and your legacy—without the legal battles, stress, or financial ruin.

But this article isn’t just about tragic Disney moms. It’s about real, tested strategies that I personally use and recommend to my clients. Including my Fear to Fierce Financial Formula:

• Profit – Making sure you pay yourself first and prioritize revenue streams.

• Prepare – Ensuring you are ready for disaster preparedness and unexpected expenses.

• Eliminate – Paying off debt and building strong credit to create financial freedom.

• Protect – Safeguarding your assets and ensuring your financial security.

• Grow – Building long-term wealth and creating passive income streams.

This week, we're diving into Step 4: PROTECT, using real strategies I recommend to my clients to build estate plans that actually work. And we’re doing it by showing you how I would’ve protected the beloved daughters of unprepared Disney moms.

Because your daughter shouldn’t need a fairy godmother—or a magic wand—to survive without you.

She needs a plan.

With every episode of Fierce Feminine Finance, I like to empower you with a POWERFUL free resource that goes with the episode which you can implement right away to create some of the same results, if not better, in your business.

This week, since we are talking about ways to protect your legacy, I want to invite you to my Ultimate Guide To Financially Bulletproof Your Family for Female Entrepreneurs to help you implement the strategies I talk about here...and a few extra I didn't mention!

After going through this free guide you will be able to identify the missing pieces in your family's financial strategy. So you can start taking steps right away to secure your future!

You can download it right away by clicking here or on the photo above 👆

This is NOT financial advice. It's my strategy based on my own financial situation and experience, and is not the advice I would give to every client. If you'd like the support of a financial advisor to work out your own plan, click here to connect with my team.

Snow White’s Mom: Biggest Mistake? Letting A Minor Inherit Her Kingdom Outright with No Trust, No Regency, and No Safeguards in Place.

Let’s call a spade a spade: Snow White’s mom died without a will, a trust, or even a scroll tucked under a pillow.

She left behind a baby and a man who hopped quickly into a toxic relationship with a gold digger. Talk about leaving your estate plan to a hope and a prayer!

Unfortunately, the “let’s just hope for the best” approach handed Snow White’s future to a power-hungry stepmother with a flair for dramatic lighting and a deep resentment of her daughter’s facial symmetry.

And Snow White?

As a minor, she couldn’t inherit, which left the witch running the whole royal estate, all because there was no trust and no appointed regent.

Real Consequences (That Your Child Absolutely Doesn’t Deserve)

Here’s what went wrong:

• Trusting the king not to remarry a witch = disaster
  

• No trust = the stepmother gets full financial control (once she offs her husband)
  

• No regent or trustee = no adult legally required to act in Snow’s best interest
  

• No life insurance = nothing liquid to care for Snow once she escapes outside the palace walls
  

That’s why her daughter ends up living with seven strange men who let her do all the cooking. Honestly, it’s giving probate court energy.

What an Estate Plan Would Have Fixed

Here’s how an estate planning expert could have helped this mom avoid royal-level disaster:

✅ Revocable Living Trust
Instead of leaving the “kingdom” directly to your child (or your “grief-stricken” husband who remarries a witch before you’re even interred), you work with an estate attorney to place your assets—home, business, retirement funds, insurance payout—into a trust. This lets you choose who manages it (trustee) and how the money is used over time.

✅ Appoint a Financial Guardian or Regent
Not just any guardian, someone with legal fiduciary responsibility to manage your child’s estate until they’re of age. No random evil stepwitches allowed.

✅ Set Age-Based Distribution Rules
Spoiler: most kids shouldn’t receive six figures at 18. You can stagger payouts—like 10% at 21, 40% at 30, etc.—so your child doesn’t blow their inheritance on poisoned apples or marry a smooth-talker after one kiss (at sixteen!).

✅ Life Insurance
Because ruling a kingdom isn’t cheap—and neither are glass slippers, enchanted tutors, or dragon-slaying princes. A well-funded life insurance policy keeps your child cared for without selling the castle or marrying some rich kid.

Click Here To Connect with My Team About Creating Your Estate Plan.

Real-World Mom Takeaway?

Estate planning = ownership clarity.

So if you’re leaving behind property, assets, or even just a favorite heirloom, make sure your daughter has a legal claim, not just sentimental attachment.

Your daughter shouldn’t have to shack up with seven weird men just to get away from the mess you left her.

Cinderella’s Mom: Biggest Mistake? Estate Planning That Skipped Ella and Went Straight to the Stepkids

If you’re thinking: “I trust my husband! He’d NEVER let my daughter be used a child labor in her own home.”

You’re probably right.  

But Ella’s mom thought so too… yet here we are: glass slipper in one hand, trauma in the other.

She didn’t just forget to plan for herself—she forgot to plan for what happens if she dies and then her husband does, too. Because blended families, second marriages, and step-siblings get real messy without clear legal guardrails.

And here’s the kicker: if her husband’s will defaulted to a “per stirpes” clause, guess what? 

His legal heirs could’ve been his new wife and her kids—not Cinderella. Which means she has no recourse!

(But they don’t explain that in the Disney version, do they? #whyareweallleftsodarnfinanciallyilliterate) 

Real Consequences (That Your Child Absolutely Doesn’t Deserve)

Here’s what happens when mom doesn’t plan ahead:

• No trust = no control. The stepmother legally inherited the home, the assets, and the power.
  

• No asset carve-outs = Cinderella’s maternal inheritance was shared—or outright claimed—by unrelated step-siblings.
  

• No backup plan if Dad dies second = Cinderella becomes legally dependent on someone who never saw her as family.
  

In real life, this looks like biological kids being disinherited without anyone breaking a single law.

What an Estate Plan Would Have Fixed

A good estate planning pro in that moment would have done something like this:

✅ Revocable Living Trust
Ensures that your assets go to your children, not just “your spouse and their heirs.” A trust lets you leave something to your partner without leaving everything through them.

✅ Separate Property Instructions or Trust Carve-Outs
Specifies that certain property—like your house, investments, or business—go directly to your child, not lumped into the marital estate.

✅ Custom Beneficiary Designations
On life insurance, retirement accounts, and bank accounts. Because if you don’t name your child (or trustee), the default beneficiary might be your spouse—or your ex!

✅ Contingency Planning for Dual Deaths
If both parents die, you need named guardians, trustees, and funding instructions in place. Otherwise, Cinderella’s attic might look like a luxury suite compared to what the court comes up with.

Real-World Mom Takeaway?

It’s not about trust, it’s about timing. If you die first, you still need to protect your kids from what could come next. 

Your child shouldn’t have to marry into wealth just to escape neglect. Give her what Cinderella never had: a plan with her name on it.

Ariel’s Mom. Biggest Mistake? Not Realizing Grief + Power = Parenting with a Trident

Queen Athena and King Trident were deeply in love.

They had seven daughters.

And when she passed unexpectedly she left behind grief—and a husband who was suddenly solo parenting seven teenage girls with no co-guardian, no trustee, and no idea what to do with his emotions… other than overreact, overrule, and over-parent.

Triton didn’t mean to be overbearing. He clearly loved his daughters.

But with no support while he was grieving, and the burden of an entire kingdom on his shoulders, instead of thoughtful leadership, we got curfews, surveillance, and magical sanctions. 

And Ariel? 

She ran straight into the arms of a man she barely knew, signed a sketchy magical contract, and gave up her literal voice to escape.

Real Consequences (That Your Child Absolutely Doesn’t Deserve)

• No support for the surviving parent = With a life insurance payout in place, Triton could have taken time away from the throne—or brought in help to manage the kingdom—rather than clamping down on his daughters with rules and rage.
  
  (Not to mention: the trauma-driven, fear-based parenting)
  

• No backup advisor or guardian = no one to challenge or balance his grief-fueled decisions
  

• No plan for Ariel’s future = no pathway for independence (even though she clearly had a knack for retail)
  

• No life insurance = Seven teenagers with no mother? That’s a household in emotional crisis. A life insurance policy could’ve covered grief counseling, a mentor, or even a maternal figure who wasn’t a singing fish.
  

This wasn’t just a “teen rebellion” situation—it was a failure of leadership created by a lack of planning.

What an Estate Plan Would Have Fixed

✅ Testamentary Trust with Parental Instructions
Allows Queen Athena to outline for her beloved husband what values she wants upheld—from education and independence to boundaries and beliefs.

✅ Named Co-Guardian or Trustee
Designating a trusted co-decision-maker to support Triton could’ve brought balance, logic, and a maternal figure for the girls.

✅ Parenting Letter of Intent
Not legally binding, but incredibly valuable. A written document that communicates what matters most—spiritual beliefs, emotional needs, cultural values, and parenting philosophies. (And, presumably, “don’t use royal authority to micromanage your daughter's social life.”)

✅ Life Insurance
So Triton could take time off from ruling to actually grieve. And so the girls didn’t feel the pressure to carry emotional or financial weight too soon.

Real-World Mom Takeaway?

Your partner might survive you, but that doesn’t mean he’ll know what to do next.

Queen Athena didn’t mean to leave Triton floundering. But she did.

You can make a different choice—a plan that supports your co-parent and protects your daughter from danger. Because your child shouldn’t have to trade her voice to a sea witch just to feel understood.

Final Thoughts

The Disney princesses we grew up with didn’t end up in danger because of magic, they ended up there because their mothers didn’t leave a plan.

No will.
No trust.
No guardian.
No instructions.
No life insurance. 

And their daughters paid the price.

Only after everything went wrong was magic needed! To save them from the consequences. 

Whether your kingdom is a castle, a condo, or a cozy two-bedroom with a lot of love—your child deserves protection. 

Because in the real world, financial advisors & estate attorneys are the real fairy godmothers.

Yet every day, we see “Go Fund Me” posts on social media, or headline news, about little girls left in situations far worse than anything Disney ever dared to animate.

So let’s rewrite the story.

Let’s do what the Disney mothers didn’t.

✨ Your challenge this week: Pick ONE of these strategies and take action. Start making a list of questions to ask estate planning experts, gather up any paperwork you already have and review it, and book an appointment with my team.

If this article helped you, DM me on Instagram (@FierceFeminineFinance) and let me know your biggest takeaway!