Shaw says her research has consistently found that women—particularly those who’ve married or inherited wealth—have a strong interest in being philanthropic, socially responsible and in giving back to the community. She asked Katz what emergence of impact investing means for advisors regarding how they engage with women.
Katz noted that in her experience women are more goal-oriented and they like to have an impact on things. They also see money as a means to do something.
“When we work with women we need to be mindful of keeping those goals in the [planning] process, such as helping a charity accomplish a particular activity,” Katz said. For example, she mentioned a client who’s a great reader and that one of the activities Katz found for her was putting together mobile book units that travel around the country to places that don’t have libraries.
“This is a delight for her, and her discussions with me are very goal-oriented about how many trucks the project will need and how many books will be on those trucks,” Katz said. “That’s what gets her excited.”
Katz further explained that women don’t necessarily look at money as power. Rather, they view it as a means to an end to accomplish things.
“We don’t spend a lot of time on [performance] reporting because they’re not really interested in short-term portfolio performance,” she said. “They’re interested in the long-term effects and what that’ll mean for their ability to do things in life.”
Relationships Are Paramount
Katz noted the relationship between a woman and her primary financial advisor is paramount, and that it trumps the technical expertise of the advisor. “They realize you can apply what you know to help them, but they very much want to know you’ll be in that trusted relationship,” she said. “It goes both ways for either male or female advisors.”
Grove said that her research on why women switch financial advisors or financial institutions always comes back to the interaction they had with their primary financial professional. “It rarely comes back to the technical expertise or what designations or licenses the advisor holds,” she explained. “A lot of what they’re looking for is a relationship where they feel like they’ve got somebody on their side.
“When we ask female investors about their primary advisory relationship, a lot of them are apathetic about it,” Grove continued. “They’re not overtly dissatisfied or actively looking for another provider, but they’re underwhelmed. And that means they’re susceptible to overture, and they’re open to new ideas and relationships to people who they think can deliver what they need.”