Banking & wealth
From retail banking to wealth advice and senior leadership at Bank of Ireland, including work with some of the bank’s most valued female clients.
About · Founder
Meet Karena Duane — expertise without the distance.
CFP®, QFA, MBA. More than 25 years inside Irish financial services — and one clear conviction about why women deserve something different.
Independent by designNo products sold.No commission earned.Just clarity.
Why I built this
I knew how the system worked. Then life made it personal.
For most of my career, money was something I helped other people understand.
I had spent more than 25 years working in Irish financial services. I knew the language, the rules and the questions to ask. But knowing how finance works does not mean every decision in your own life feels easy.
Maternity leave changed how I thought about income, independence and the financial impact of stepping away from work. Later, an unexpected period of sick leave made security feel much less abstract.
The numbers were familiar. The feelings were not.
Those experiences showed me the difference between being financially informed and actually feeling financially confident. They also made me think about the many women making life-changing decisions without ever having had the Irish financial system properly explained to them.
Most women do not need another person telling them to budget better or start a pension.
They need clear answers. They need space to ask questions without feeling judged. And they need financial information that reflects the reality of their lives — including maternity leave, caring responsibilities, career changes, illness, relationships and the many unexpected turns life can take.
That is where Money, Just For Her began.
Not from the idea that women need to be fixed, but from the belief that they deserve financial education designed around the lives they actually lead.
You should not need a career in finance to feel confident about your own money.
My working life
Built inside Irish finance. Designed for real life.
My career has spanned retail banking, wealth advice, financial planning, leadership, teaching and public education.
Across all those roles, I kept seeing the same gap. Financial guidance often begins with products, figures and assumptions. It rarely begins with the person sitting across the table — or with what is happening in her life.
Technical expertise
Member of The Pensions Authority Technical Expert Panel. QFA Pensions Module Owner & Content Creator at IOB, contributing to pensions education, assessment and CPD. See IOB speaker profile ↗
Education & wellbeing
Corporate financial wellbeing delivered with Spectrum Life and Laya Healthcare, alongside ongoing workshop and programme design.
A public voice
National radio commentary on Newstalk, keynote speaking at Women in Agriculture and regular contributions to women-and-money conversations.
Women’s financial lives are rarely straight lines. Careers pause. Families change. People become carers. Relationships begin and end. Health changes. Priorities shift.
These are not interruptions to a financial plan. They are the plan.
Money, Just For Her brings together both sides of my experience: the technical knowledge gained from more than 25 years inside Irish financial services, and the personal understanding that life does not always follow the neat path the system expects.
I created it to make money feel clearer, more relevant and more connected to real life.
No jargon. No judgement. No product agenda.
Just honest, Ireland-specific financial education to help you understand where you are — and decide what comes next.
Credentials
The qualifications matter. So does being human.
Every session brings technical depth, Irish context and the freedom to focus on your questions rather than a product sale.
- Certified Financial Planner (CFP®)
- Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA)
- MBA — Trinity College Dublin
- 25+ years in Irish financial services
- Senior Provincial Manager — Bank of Ireland
- Wealth Adviser — Bank of Ireland
- Technical Expert Panel — Pensions Authority
- Founder — Money, Just For Her
- Pensions Coordinator — Institute of Bankers
- Corporate programme facilitator
- Keynote and panel speaker
- National media contributor
Selected work
Read the ideas. See the conversations.
Published writing and professional speaking on money, work and the decisions people face.
Conference speaking · IOB · June 2025
Wealth Management Conference
Karena’s speaker profile and a link to her session recording, hosted by IOB. Access to the recording may require an IOB login.
View the event and recording linkArticle · LinkedIn · March 2026
The Female Finance Factor
Karena’s commentary on the gender wealth gap in Ireland and the working lives behind the numbers.
Read the published articleWorkplace commentary
Financial wellbeing or financial sales?
The questions employers can ask about who provides financial education and where the employee conversation leads.
Read the articleMoney and behaviour
Why knowing what to do is not always enough
Understanding the gap between intending to act on money and finding a way to begin.
Read the articleMedia & speaking
Using my voice.
I contribute to conversations about money, work and real life through radio, articles, conferences and workplace sessions. My specialist focus is women’s financial lives, alongside financial wellbeing topics that matter to wider audiences.
Get in touchAvailable for
- Media commentary — radio, print and podcast
- Keynote speaking — conferences, events and summits
- Corporate workshops and panel appearances
- Expert contributions on pensions and women’s finance
Begin
Let’s have that conversation.
A 20-minute discovery call is where everything starts. No pressure, no pitch — just a proper conversation.