U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2016 put the percentage of women slightly ahead of men, 51 to 49 percent. But the numbers certainly don’t break down like that in the working world.
From recording studio engineers to Capitol Hill, some fields are overwhelming male — and not necessarily for the better. The male makeup of Congress? Better than 80 percent. The latest congressional approval rating? Just 21 percent, according to a June Gallup poll.
The gender ratio doesn’t improve much when you look at financial planners. As of 2016, the website Financial Advisor cites not-so-great statistics: The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 35.5 percent of advisors as female, but that tally shrinks to 14 percent when you include the heads of brokerages. And if the men are doing such a bang-up job, consider this: 55 percent of women between 25 and 34 prefer working with female financial advisors, while 70 percent will leave their financial professional within a year of being widowed.
Clearly something in the financial advisory realm is broken, though how to fix it isn’t exactly clear. In some ways, it’s the investment equivalent of a cocky husband assuring his wife he can plug that leaky pipe with a wad of toilet paper and half a roll of soggy duct tape.
[See: 11 Great Investing Tips for Women.]
In fact, the financial industry numbers may be as skewed as election exit polls. Consider the ground-level view as shared by veteran financial advisor Loreen Gilbert, president of WealthWise Financial Services in Irvine, California.
“In the 30 years I’ve been in the business I’ve seen the stats remain the same — it is one female advisor to nine male advisors,” she says. “Unfortunately, statistics tell us that the industry is still not attracting many females and I think a concerted effort is needed to educate female college students that there’s a great opportunity in the industry.”
To say “great” might be putting it mildly.
“Female financial advisors are able to demonstrate that they care more easily than their male counterparts,” says Gilbert, who also serves on the executive board of National Association of Women Business Owners. “It doesn’t mean that the male advisor doesn’t care, but they don’t often show it as freely. Also, women do tend to listen better than men — and that listening does communicate caring.”
“I don’t believe that the gender of the advisor is important, but rather having the capability to be aware and understand how best to communicate to both women and men,” says Marilyn Timbers, an advisor with Voya Financial Advisors and based in Stamford, Connecticut. “Women want to relate money to how it will help their children and family. So female financial advisors can often teach in a style that works best for women: demonstrating not telling, giving more not less information, offering time to process or react, and relating finances to a woman’s emotional life.”
Michelle Brownstein, director of private client services at Personal Capital in San Carlos, California, says the approach for female financial advisors tends to be more collaborative. “Many investors prefer this joint approach to the more forceful one you can see with a male advisor,” she says.
[See: 10 Skills the Best Investors Have.]
Brownstein does stress that a good number of male investment professionals favor collaboration as well. That noted, “In my experience, many clients have had a bad experience with a broker or an advisor in the past. Since the finance industry is still very male-dominated, a female advisor can be a refreshing change.”
And for some women entering the financial products field, change can take on a much more personal meaning. For Susan Kaplan, the founder and president of Kaplan Financial Services in Newton, Massachusetts, that meant the slow-but-sure transformation from eager employee to intrepid investment advisor.
“After my job in insurance and working for someone else, I took 10 years off to be home with my kids,” Kaplan says. “During that time, I went back to school to get an MBA and a certified financial planner designation. When I re-entered the workforce, I started my own business in financial services. Doing it on my own was a risk, but I made sure it was an educated risk.”
Ah, but what do the men have to say? Turns out more than a few think the ladies have some excellent points.
“I have personally observed several hundred advisor models,” says Patrick Sweeny, principal and co-founder at Symmetry Partners, a turnkey asset management provider in Glastonbury, Connecticut. And? “I find that, per capita, women are more vociferous advocates, more protective and more personally involved in clients’ lives than their male counterparts.”
Meanwhile, those in the executive search field believe that a cultural paradigm shift may be exerting a positive influence on gender balance among professionals who offer financial planning.
“Traditionally, a financial advisor built their client base over many years of business development,” says Hunter Judson Jr., director of the wealth management search practice of The Judson Group in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “As a result, those who entered the profession later or took time off from their careers to care for family were at a disadvantage.”
But industry-wide evolution, in part driven by both institutional firm and team-based approaches, leads Judson to observe, “We see that disadvantage lessening. Our clients regularly stress the need for gender and racial diversity on their teams and the demand for women advisors is high in the wealth management industry as a whole.”
“I think now is a great time for women to get into financial services,” says Cheryl Nash, president of investment services at Fiserv and based in Warren, New Jersey. “There is focus on diversity and inclusion in most firms; and it is an important issue that is being discussed.” She adds, though, that visionary male leaders can play a mentoring role as opposed to generations past.
[See: 7 ETFs for a Solid Portfolio Defense.]
“Personally, most of my trusted partners throughout my career have been men, who’ve helped me with overcoming obstacles or challenges working in a male-dominated field,” Nash says.
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Female Financial Advisors Find Their Way originally appeared on usnews.com
