Peg Downey, who helms Money Plans in Silver Spring, Md., with partner Denise Leish, must already be doing something right. About 75% of her clients are women. Downey believes that even though women seemingly need more education, it might be because they admit they need it while their male counterparts do not. "This may sound like a stereotype, but the women who come in really try to do the right thing. They maximize their 401(k)s, but they're nervous and insecure about their overall investment plan. It's probably no different than a man feels, but women are just more comfortable owning it," Downey says.
She starts her retirement planning by looking at assets and what a client's investment will generate in retirement. "It's a quick way to say, 'Here's where you'll be. Will you be comfortable with that amount of income? If not, here are the options we should start looking at.'"
All of these statistics about women and investing are general, and we have to remember that everyone has a different level of sophistication and expectations about investment advice. In Downey's neck of the woods several miles outside Washington, D.C., (my neck of the woods as well) there are a lot of high-level, professional women. They are generally highly educated and have great expertise, but only in their area of interest, not investments. Which makes them appreciative of a good advisor's services.
In Briaud's practice, she tells me that it's "the women who nudge the men to get things done and come see an advisor. It's not uncommon for us to work mainly with the woman in a couple. We find that it's often the woman who is managing the money or saying this is causing stress, let's do something about it. We just don't see relationships where men make all the decisions."
Briaud says her clients are never overly conservative. "If they understand what we're doing, they're willing to take the risk," she says.
Blayney says that the women investors she's worked with do tend to be more risk averse, but they are also much better advice takers. "They explicitly trust their advisors. Once you have that trust, they're willing to take your recommendations. Where as men seem driven more from a competitive point of view."
So what if there is a woman can't afford advisory services, even those priced at $1,500? Blayney hopes to find an answer for her too. "I hope this is a good, profitable business model, because I want to give people the best advice possible and create a career track for women planners. But if I can really get this thing working, I would like to be able to offer the services for women who are not able to pay, so there could be a nonprofit spin-off where women could support other women."
*Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Allianz Life Insurance Company report, "Women, Money and Power," 2007 and 2008 studies