Women and Financial Advisors

After women divorce or become widowed, they tend to stop using advisors. AdvisorOne speculates this is because women can tell when an advisor is really listening to them, and usually need more education and validation than men to make financial decisions.

Eileen O’Connor is vice president of wealth management at McLean Asset Management in Virginia.  O’Connor shares some ways that advisors can keep their high net-worth women clients. First she says it is  beneficial to ask emotional questions.  Since an increasingly significant portion of the nation’s wealth is going to daughters, and 80% of women do not feel understood, a softer approach and emotional inquiries could be a good way to make those clients feel more understood.

Women are also starting to control more investable assets and only 5% of ultrahigh-net-worth clients do not use an advisor.  Within the category of high net worth women, there are four different groups, with varying needs:

• Married Women: Many of these women are concerned about health challenges, death of a spouse and divorce. 
• Working Women: 86% of women in this group were concerned that their earning power would erode or become obsolete.  Over 90% said that they would like to work with a fiduciary, but they usually use a broker instead because they do not have time to find an advisor who is the best match.
• Sandwich Generation: This is the generation providing for aging parents and children.  Caring for others is their largest concern, and many of these women are likely to drop out of the workforce to provide care to others.
• Retired Women: These women are primarily concerned about a decline in the economy and overpaying for major assets.

See Joyce Hanson, What Do Wealthy Women Want?, AdvisorOne, June 27, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.