What’s a Juge Girl? More people are about to find out.
“Juge Girls” is a concept developed by Melody Juge (rhymes with “huge,”) an investment advisor representative with CoreCap Investments Inc. and founder and managing director of Life Income Management, a firm focused on creating retirement income for people over 50.
The Juge Girls concept is a social network of women that aims to empower women to take greater control of their finances. The network, Juge says, is composed of strong, independent women whose needs aren’t being met by the male-dominated financial advisory profession.
Juge maintains that financial advisors––and the financial services industry in general––don’t “get” women. “The industry has done millions of dollars of research, and it’s not working,” she says.
Hence, she believes, the need for Juge Girls. Juge started the concept a number of years ago as an informal social network of like-minded women ages 50 and older who have “survived with grace.” “Juge Girls are sassy, savvy and smart, and they do not want to be talked down to or patronized by a young, male financial advisor,” Juge says. “I am a Juge Girl, so I ‘get it.’ I can relate to these women and what they need.”
Some of her clients are Juge Girls, and some Juge Girls are women who came to the group through friends or business contacts. They sometimes get together via conference calls to share ideas and to be motivated by Juge to better handle their money and, in some cases, to take charge of their lives.
Juge stresses that she doesn’t provide actual financial advice to the Juge Girls who aren’t her clients. Regarding the group as a whole, her goal is to provide ideas and inspiration to empower them to be better equipped to handle financial matters.
Juge has been in the financial services industry for three decades as a financial and investment advisor. She currently writes a retirement advice column for MarketWatch and speaks on financial topics around the country as a member of the National Speakers Association. She lives in western North Carolina but serves clients in a number of states.
She’s now ready to take Juge Girls to a broader audience. A Web site was slated to launch in late November, along with a marketing campaign to promote the concept. Juge will blog on the site, and have outside experts write articles on various topics. The site will also have an educational component to discuss how industry representatives can better work with woman clients.
Juge cites the following statistics: 74% of women don’t have a financial advisor, and out of the 26% who do, 67% don’t like their advisor. And she says four out of five widows change advisors the first year after their husband’s death.
“At this age, you have a high divorce rate, couples who are cohabitating without marriage, second marriages and widows, as well as women who have always been alone,” Juge says. “You have a lot of women who do not understand money. I want to help them understand and make sure my girls are taken care of.”
Amy Hammer of Greenville, N.C., has been a dedicated Juge Girl since she heard Juge speak at a seminar in 2007. She and her husband became clients, and Juge helped them establish their own business.
“She has taken the angst out of money for me,” Hammer says. “My goal was to reach a comfort level and she’s done that for me.”