Women’s numbers and voices

An interesting thing happened when we started crunching the numbers from our 2008 Annual Dollars & Sense Survey. That survey, which delved deeply into client life stages, found a large percentage of older women clients (people who were widowed or had experienced late-life divorce) had chosen female advisors.

Those numbers were corroborated by comments from participants in the roundtable discussion that accompanies that study. Many spoke of the shock many widows felt when coming face-to-face with the man who had been advising their late husbands. The women frequently found it difficult to connect with those advisors, and so sought someone of the same gender with whom to forge a new advisor-client relationship. Those anecdotes were expanded upon at our now annual women’s conferences in 2009 and 2010 in Toronto and Montreal — and we’ll shed more light on the subject at our first-ever Investing in You conference in Vancouver.

Still, those numbers and anecdotes didn’t tell the whole story. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, we thought, to create a specific study that focuses on the attitudes and choices of both women clients and women financial advisors? Well, we’ve done just that, and the numbers not only bear out the anecdotes, they build upon them. To add perspective, we conducted a special roundtable made up of some top women advisors. These women provided a lively discussion on what it means to be a female advisor helping female clients navigate the world of finance and financial planning.

And for the opportunity to conduct this — our first-ever benchmark survey on women clients and advisors, we extend a warm thank you to our sponsor, Franklin Templeton Investments Corp.

SHEILA MUNCH and GLENDA BAKER joined us from Assante Financial. Partners in a financial planning business in Durham region, Ontario, Munch and Baker also have specialized training in divorce financial planning and the collaborative process, and help clients and their lawyers navigate through and beyond a divorce.

BEV MOIR is a senior wealth advisor and financial planner at Scotia McLeod with over 16 years of financial experience. Prior to becoming a wealth advisor, Moir worked for many years in health care. She sits on the Scotiabank Wealth Management Committee for the Advancement of People and is a member of Women in Capital Markets.

An investment advisor with Macquarie Private Wealth since January, LISA POLONOSKI has been in the business for five years now. She is also involved with various committees and groups associated with the City of Kitchener to promote both economic and social vitality in the city.

FRANCESCA MAIOLO is an investment advisor with the Maiolo Wealth Advisory Group within Richardson GMP. Maiolo provides personalized and professional advice in all areas of wealth management for high-net-worth clients.

Also a participant in the discussion was JENNIFER BALL, senior vice president, marketing, Franklin Templeton Investments Corp.

From the results of the survey, it would indeed appear women advisors have an edge in the industry with respect to both female and male clients.

For starters, there aren’t as many of them.

“I think we have a great advantage being a minority,” says Sheila Munch, a senior financial planning advisor at Assante Financial Management. ]

“I believe women feel more comfortable talking to us about their hopes and dreams. They can be a bit more open with their emotions—and money is at the root of a lot of emotions.”

Likewise, she says many men choose women advisors because it allows them to be less macho.

“If they’re with a male advisor, they may feel reluctant to say they have fears. With a woman, they may feel they can let down their guards.”

But Fran Maiolo, an investment advisor at Richardson GMP, isn’t sure if these sorts of generalizations should be made.

“I don’t know that it’s a man or a woman thing,” she says. “Having been in the industry for as long as I have, I’ve seen we, as women, certainly have an opportunity, because maybe we’re less intimidating. But I also think some women are intimidated by a successful woman. I’ve lost clients because the woman has not been able to relate to me.”

Maybe you can’t capture the entire market, but Jennifer Ball, head of Franklin Templeton’s marketing group, says there are plenty of advisors out there who’ve recognized women, in many instances, need a relationship with their advisor that goes beyond just the financial advice.

“Women tend to be alone at some point in their lives more than men,” she says.

“They live longer, they tend to take breaks from the workforce; some women have never had a role in their family finances before [and] then suddenly find themselves alone and don’t know what to do.

“There are definitely some specific needs that women are having that the advisors we work with would like some help in reaching.”