Recently, RIA in a Box attended the Women Adviser Summit, hosted by InvestmentNews, in New York City. The event featured speakers and attendees from various parts of the investment advice industry, with independent advisers – RIA firms and their individual adviser representatives – strongly represented.
Many women advisers in attendance commented on how rare it was to not be one of the only women in the room at a professional conference in the industry. Statistics confirm this perception: women represent 30% of all financial advisory professionals and only 23% of certified financial planners.
Though the percentage of women in financial advisory has not seen an uptick in recent years, there is reason to believe this might (and, as argued by many speakers, should) change in the future. As the industry as a whole shifts away from product sales and a focus on investment performance to instead a relationship-based advisory built upon trust and a holistic understanding of client needs, women are poised to thrive.
Catherine Kaputa, a branding expert, spoke about an expressed preference for women advisers on the part of both female and male clients. Female advisers were perceived as able to “listen better” and to make clients “feel more comfortable”. Woman adviser panelists also mentioned experiencing this particular advantage when working with clients. Gathering information by listening and asking questions is one of the main responsibilities of a financial adviser or planner, and it is an area in which women tend to (or at least are perceived to) excel. Whether or not these stereotypes accurately describe a particular female adviser, accommodating client preferences may be an argument for expanding gender diversity in the financial advice industry.
The role of RIA technology in the modern adviser’s practice was not a focus of the meeting, but when it was mentioned, it was clear that support technology is changing the advisory landscape. One panelist called her CRM system a “game changer” and another mentioned Hurricane Sandy as a wake-up call for the necessity of documentation and adequate back-up planning. RIA in a Box’s MyRIACompliance® software can help meet some of these needs, providing file storage and organization as well as documentation of compliance task history and completion.
Overall the Summit provided an interesting mix of speakers and panelists on topics relevant particularly to the female adviser, but generally to anyone in the industry focused on meeting the needs of clients in the best ways possible. Though inertia suggests that changes in the gender balance of the financial advisory industry will be slow, women who focus on serving clients seem poised to succeed.