Women financial advisors are continuing efforts to boost their numbers in an industry in which they're still in the minority.

The number of women in the field is inching up, but slowly, according to women mentors at AIG Advisor Group and the CFA Institute. The CFA Institute is sponsoring the Women in Investment Management Conference Tuesday and Wednesday in San Antonio, Texas.

While the financial services industry has grown exponentially over the last two decades, men have continued to dominate the profession.

A Morningstar report released Monday says women constitute about one fourth of the advisors in the growing financial services profession. However the number of women in some specialty fields such as money management remains exceedingly small, says Morningstar.

Only 9 percent of U.S. open-end fund managers are women. Women exclusively run only 2 percent of assets under management in the $12.6 trillion U.S. open-end mutual fund universe, says Morningstar.

“It is important that the proportion of male and female advisors reflect the makeup of the population,” says Rita Robbins, founder of Affiliated Advisors Inc. in Rochester, Mich., and an OSJ. The firm is affiliated with Royal Alliance Associates and a member of the AIG Advisor Group network of broker-dealers.

AIG Advisor Group has initiated the Women Forward program to encourage mentoring, training and networking among women in the financial field.

“I’m not suggesting women are the only competent financial professionals, but relating to others is the strong suit women have,” Robbins says. “Women advisors are more aware of what other women don’t know about finances, so they don’t concentrate on just asset allocation; they talk about what the client’s concerns are. The independent broker-dealer space is finally starting to value the skill sets women bring to the table.”

Heather O’Neill, president and founder of Michigan Financial Advisors, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., an affiliate of FSC Securities and a member of the AIG Advisor Group, agrees.

“Women don’t just talk about the numbers. They want clients to tell them what is important about their money and what they want the money to accomplish,” says O’Neill. “Women are more comfortable and confident speaking of goals and what the client is trying to accomplish financially.”

In the same vein, Tiana Ronstadt founded Power Women Investing in Tucson, Ariz., which is affiliated with Woodbury Financial and part of the AIG Advisor Group, to have a firm she could mold and promote herself.

“My father was a wonderful man, but when he died he left a financial mess for my mother. Partially because of that, I knew I wanted to find a place where I can help educate women. Women advisors relating to female clients can bring out more of a conversation” rather than just making a presentation about assets, says Ronstadt.

All three women are involved with the AIG Women Forward program, which pairs women advisors with less experienced women who are already in the field or those who would like to join it.

“A lot of women do not know they can do this job and balance it with the rest of their lives,” says O’Neill. Mentors also show other women “this is a job about helping families reach their goals.”

The effort to bring more women into the financial field “is important because women make fabulous advisors,” says Robbins.

“We just need to do a better job as an industry of communicating what we do as advisors,” adds O’Neill.

The CFA Institute is hoping to help open that door to communication through its women’s conference in San Antonio. Bringing more women into the field is part of the need to bring more diversity of all kinds into financial planning, says Margaret Franklin, president of Marret Private Wealth Inc. in Toronto.

Franklin and Leah Bennett, co-chief investment officer at South Texas Money Management in San Antonio, are organizers of the CFA conference.

“Having different views at the boardroom table when decisions are made is important,” says Bennett. “You don’t want everyone to agree. Investors have a better outcome if there is diversity in financial planning.”

Franklin adds, “The nature of who we are serving has changed dramatically over the last 20 years” as women come into control of more wealth, which makes it important for women to make up a sizeable portion of the advisors and financial leaders.

“This is not just a women’s issue, it is an issue of inclusiveness of all types of people. How can we understand the client base if we do not have different players at the table?” she asks.