Do HNW women prefer to work with male or female advisors?

A follow‑up to my previous blog, “What Women Want.”

A hot debate. Do HNW women prefer to work with male or female advisors?

I kicked off my blog a couple of weeks ago on, "What women want from their financial advisors," and the wide-open opportunity for you to make women a target market in your practice. Even though I mentioned at the top of the blog, “for both female and male advisors,” one reader reached out and asked, “I have a dozen of HNW women clients who have been with me for years. Are you saying that male advisors cannot serve women clients just as well as female advisors?”

Absolutely not! In fact, the jury is still out on whether women clients prefer women advisors.  According to research from MIT AgeLab in conjunction with Hartford Funds (1), “The data on this point are inconclusive.”

Whether a female or male advisor, the two top attributes women want from their advisors are personalization and empathy (2). They also want comprehensive financial planning. If those are missing from your relationships with your married women clients, they may likely find another advisor when their partner dies. StrategyMarketing quoted that 70% of women leave their financial advisor when their husbands die. (3)

Last Wednesday we kicked off the first Momentum Showcase©, a 30-minute conversation that highlights a vetted speaker and/or proven marketing strategy. Our first speaker was Jayne Ellegard. Jayne is the Founder and Coach of Ellegant Wealth, a unique company that provides financial education for women. A couple of the statistics Jayne shared in her presentation, “Eight out of ten women will end up on their financialjourney alone – whether they never marry, are divorced or widowed and the average age of widowhood in the United States is 59. Meaning at some point,most women will need to step up and take responsibility for their financial situation.” As an advisor/planner, building a relationship with your female clients is incredibly powerful.

Focus on your current women clients and give them what they want and need so they’ll stick around and tell all their family and friends about you. This is time worth spent as women provide 26 referrals over the lifetime of the relationship versus men who provide 11.

Getting started. My previous blog contains very detailed information and plan on how to grow with HNW women clients. Another option is to have a one-time focus group/advisory board of your best women clients, COIs and prospects. I have helped dozens of wealth advisors implement advisory boards and have found that when they’re done right, they can provide a significant amount of introductions. My Momentum Advisory Board e‑book (coming soon) outlines everything you need to know and do in order to create an advisory board that will help you grow your business. Here are the five minimum requirements you need to get results:

‍Five requirements for an Advisory Board that gets results:

1. Define what you want out of the advisory board - a certain number of introductions, opportunity to meet again, etc.
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2. Just as important, define why someone would want to spend their valuable time on participating - networking is the number one reason.
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3. Spend time on determining the six to eight women you want on the advisory board. It should include your best women clients, COIs and prospects. Make certain you consider the chemistry of the women you are selecting so that it’s a great networking and comfortable experience for sharing information.
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4. When inviting potential advisory board members, ask them for a one‑time meeting. That makes the commitment much less time consuming and much more attractive. At the end of the meeting, send a survey to see if they would bewilling to meet again and when (six months, quarterly, etc.). If you’ve provided value to them during the meeting, they will most certainly want to meet at a minimum of every six months.
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5. Have a follow-up plan well ahead of the advisory board meeting date.

Learning directly from women via an advisory board will enhance your empathy in working with existing women clients and begin to inspire introductions. Reach out if you would like to learn more. My best for success! Paula

(1)  The rise of the female financial adviser, InvestmentNews 08/08/2018, Joni Youngwirth

(2)  Should You Have a Male or a Female FinancialAdvisor? USNews Money 07/30/2018, Coryanne Hicks, Contributor

(3)  Why Women leave their financial advisors and howto prevent it. StrategyMarketing.ca, Judy Paradi andPaulette Filion

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