What Women Want From Their Financial Advisor
Lacy Garcia
When it comes to the best practices for working with women wealth management clients, what sounds like common sense isn’t always common practice in the industry. So what exactly are women looking for when it comes to their relationship with their advisors?
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Number one is a trusted relationship - She wants to feel a personal connection to you. This connection begins by showing her who you are as a person and why you want to help her, and by asking open-ended questions that demonstrate your genuine interest.
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She wants to know that you care about her values and life goals - She needs to feel confident that her financial plan and investments align with her values and goals. This is achieved by creating a collaborative relationship and practicing active listening.
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She wants support across all life journeys - She seeks guidance, especially during emotional transitions with significant financial implications, such as divorce, widowhood, entrepreneurship, career transitions, family planning, fertility, or adoption.
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She wants modern and streamlined technology - She values digital tools and communications that simplify her life and deliver information in bite-sized formats. She expects you to be able to meet with her virtually and communicate through email or text, as the demands of her career and/or family often make in-office meetings challenging.
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She wants inspiring, actionable, and bite-sized recommendations - She looks for communications that are relevant to her and her family’s daily life and life journeys.
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She wants to know that you care about diversity, equity, and inclusion - She values your commitment to sustainability, and many women want to see people on your team and in your network who look like them and share similar life experiences.
When working with women clients, advice must become equal parts financial guidance and human understanding. You must create a collaborative client relationship centered on trust and a personal connection. It’s about her and her life first – and her finances second.
This requires educating her so she is knowledgeable and able to make better financial and investment decisions – versus throwing jargon and spreadsheets at her and talking down or condescending to her, which can exacerbate her fears and stress and make her feel that you don’t understand or care about her.
This approach will lead her to feel more connected to you, more confident about her financial situation, and overall – empowered instead of underserved or alienated and looking to switch to a new advisor.
Empowered clients make more loyal and profitable clients – who are also apt to make more referrals to their amazing financial advisor! Women clients are more advisor dependent and make on average 11 times more referrals to their financial advisor than men.
If you aren’t doing the simple task of returning a call or proactively making a follow up call to the women clients are you missing a huge, easy opportunity. Call them – it builds rapport, leads to client satisfaction and may even uncover a new challenge you can help with or new assets that are currently being held elsewhere.
We created Willow to help advisors learn how to deliver on this new client engagement model and better attract and grow trusted relationships with women clients.
We do this through the Advisor for Women™ Certificate Program where you receive virtual training and coaching to help you acquire and grow trusted relationships with women clients.
