Don’t miss out on a big opportunity to grow your advisory practice by ensuring that you appeal to women.
In their recent article, “American Women and a $30 Trillion Opportunity for the Wealth Management Industry,” Financial-Planning.com encourages financial advisors to find more ways to appeal to women as their share of wealth grows.
Women are adding $5 trillion in global wealth every year, according to Boston Consulting Group, which completed their research study “Managing the Next Decade of Women’s Wealth” in April 2020. Controlling around a third of the world’s wealth, women’s total assets could represent between $81 trillion and $93 trillion by 2023.
Here in America, the Pew Research Center found that even though the gender pay gap still hovers at women earning around 82 cents for each dollar earned by a male counterpart, 29% of wives earn the same amount as their partners in marriage, and in 16% of marriages, women are the primary breadwinners.
But despite earning differences, wealth is a different matter. According to McKinsey & Company, in the U.S., women are the largest beneficiaries of the current transfer of wealth, living an average of five years longer than men. Women control a third of total U.S. household financial assets—more than $10 trillion—and by 2030, women are projected to control most of the $30 trillion in financial assets that baby boomers will possess.
These dynamics need to be addressed, according to Merrill, formerly Merrill Lynch. The company recently commissioned a study which found that while financial advisors have made improvements to removing gender bias in their consultation meetings, they still tend to focus their attention on the male when meeting with a couple 60% of the time.
Providing great service to female clients starts at the beginning. As a financial advisor, when you are doing your initial consultation, you may find that women have different financial goals than men do. For instance, they may want to retire earlier, or have money to support adult children, or care for a sick or aging family member. If they are younger, they may want more held in liquid assets to cover periods of childbearing.
Like everyone else, women want to be listened to and heard. Make sure you ask women directly what their personal financial goals are. Make sure your financial advice and recommendations hone in on both women’s and men’s goals equally to set yourself up for the biggest opportunity for success as an advisor now and in the future.
Sources:
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/managing-next-decade-women-wealth
https://www.morganstanley.com/articles/female-invest-women-and-wealth
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/
https://www.ml.com/articles/improving-financial-advisor-experience-women.html
https://kimelmanbaird.com/insights/what-women-want-and-need-when-financial-planning
A natural coach and leader with 20 years in the industry, Jim uses his vast experience to deliver the most successful strategies to our advisors.
