There’s a sobering fact I like to share with my financial professional partners to emphasize the importance of better connecting with their clients who are women. The fact: Many of their female clients will leave them soon after their husband dies.

This is based on industry research that puts the chances of a recent widow switching financial professionals as high as seven out of 10. I long assumed this jarring stat applied mainly to the men who make up about 70% of our industry—that women meshed naturally with their female clients and could teach their male colleagues to do the same.

But it turns out even many women in our field fall short when working with their own gender. I learned this from one of my fellow presenters at Financial Advisor’s annual Invest in Women conference in June, who cited eye-tracking technology that shows female professionals — like their male counterparts—focus more on the male when meeting heterosexual couples. In fact, financial professionals, regardless of gender, focus on the male 60% of the time.

“Women are intuitive,” explained Roberta Eckert, vice president of the Nationwide Retirement Institute, at the conference in Atlanta. “They pick up on that immediately. That’s why 70% of women will change advisors within one year of her husband’s death.”

Addressing The ‘Women’s Market’ Is A $10 Trillion Opportunity
Learning what experts like Eckert have to say is important to me because I’ve been passionate about helping women achieve their financial freedom since I started my career with Jackson as a wholesaler over 25 years ago. The “women’s market” has been an industry buzz term the whole time, yet it often seems scant progress has been made addressing the many challenges women face in retirement planning. We need to change this.

Although women live longer than men on average and typically have more retirement years to fund, we are less likely to receive employer-sponsored retirement benefits and half of us have no personal retirement savings in our later years. A 65-year old woman also will spend $22,000 more on healthcare in retirement, on average, than men. Amid these and many other unique financial challenges, only 15% of women have a written retirement strategy and just 42% have any retirement strategy at all.

At the same time, women’s growing financial clout may be the most important demographic trend impacting financial services. In the United States, we control more than $10 trillion in assets—and this is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Financial professionals who don’t customize their planning approach and engage authentically with female clients are not only missing key opportunities to grow their business, but preventing more women from securing the financial freedom they deserve.

Sonny—A Financial Professional Ahead Of His Time
I often share a personal story about a financial professional named Sonny Boudreaux to show what connecting with female clients can look like. Sonny approached my mom in 1973 to discuss the importance of life insurance and disability income. I was a little girl at the time and my mom—who earned just $32,000 a year as a neurological nurse—was in the process of divorcing my dad. Keep in mind, women like my mom in the 70s couldn’t even obtain a credit card without their husband’s signature.

Sonny understood the challenges my mother faced as a single parent and called on her occasionally. He was passionate about helping others and understood the important role insurance could play in financial planning. He gave my mom all the time she needed to consider what was a major financial decision for her and she eventually purchased both insurance options. Then, just five months later, at the age of 46, my mom suffered a massive stroke.

I’m thankful for Sonny every day because without him, my mom’s and my own life would look vastly different. We are proof the insurance was worth every penny. I credit Sonny with helping ignite my passion for women’s investing issues and demonstrating how one dedicated financial professional can make an enormous impact in the lives of clients. Incidentally, my mom is doing great and we are fortunate to have recently celebrated her 75th birthday.

Let’s Unleash The Investment Power Women Hold
I was grateful for the opportunity to record a video of my story about Sonny recently for a new platform Jackson has launched solely to help financial professionals—both men and women— better understand and address women’s needs in retirement planning. Called Investing In You, it’s one of many excellent resources available today to help ensure more women can look to retirement with confidence instead of the fear of running out of money.

Women are typically savvy investors who outperform men in the markets, even with the cards stacked against them, and 90% of women are responsible for managing assets at some point in their life. As Sonny did with my mom, we just need to earn their business. If we do, our female clients won’t have a reason to seek another financial professional if they outlive their spouse. 

Unfortunately, gender-related realities continue to shape women’s lives all the way into retirement. By taking the time to understand and counteract some of the unique financial challenges women face and fully engaging them in client discussions, we can help level the playing field and unleash the investment power they hold.

Kristen Billows is regional vice president for Jackson National Life Distributors LLC, the marketing and distribution business of Jackson.