Private banks offer wealthy clients access to services such as investments, lending, trusts and estate planning. The largest banks are under pressure to attract more assets as government regulations have curbed profits and boutique investment advisers have grabbed market share.
It's not that women have different financial needs than men, it's that some banks are realizing the best way to approach them may be different, said Kate Sayre, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group in New York and co-author of "Women Want More." During previous attempts to attract the business of women, some financial firms' pitches assumed women weren't as sophisticated or knowledgeable, Sayre said.
"For a long time, the industry has done such a poor job," said Sayre. "A lot of women felt that the banker addressed everything to the man and felt they were just an appendage."
Fifty-five percent of women surveyed said they think wealth managers can do a better job of meeting the needs of female clients and 27 percent aren't satisfied with their private banks, according to the BCG report. Many wealth managers overlook women or use superficial strategies to reach them that may end up alienating female clients if the "women-labeled" pitches come across as patronizing, the report said.
"Our industry does not do a great job for women," Sallie Krawcheck, the former head of Bank of America Corp.'s wealth- management division who was ousted in September, said at a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association meeting in New York last month. She declined to comment for this story.
Sasha Galbraith, 52, a former vice president in commercial real estate at Wells Fargo who works at Galbraith Management Consultants, which serves Fortune 200 companies, said she and her husband have used private bankers since 1996 before turning to asset management firm Neuberger Berman Group LLC.
"Until recently, I've been all but ignored during discussions," said Galbraith, who lives in Breckenridge, Colorado, referring to her experiences before Neuberger Berman.
Larraine Segil, who ran the Lared Group for 24 years before it was acquired by consulting firm Vantage Partners, said she worked with four different wealth managers before finding one who was a good fit. Segil, 63, was unhappy with the investment performance by the previous managers and didn't trust some of them to serve her interests rather than theirs, she said.
Segil, who lives in Los Angeles and is on the foundation board of the Committee of 200, a global nonprofit group of women executives, said she's satisfied with her firm now, which she declined to name, because she feels they understand her long- term strategy, concerns and meet regularly with her.
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