Complaints that there are not enough women in financial planning are frequent, but some firms are doing something about it.

Among those hiring female advisors, promoting women to leadership positions and focusing on women clients are Advisor Group, Coldstream, Prospera and AmeriFlex.

According to recent census data, about 31% of financial advisors are women, But this estimation varies depending on who is doing the data gathering and what the definitions are that control the data. Other estimates set the percentage at much lower levels. According to Zippia, a jobs research and resource firm, the percentage of women financial advisors has hovered between 26% and 28% for a decade and closed out 2021 at 27.8%, even as more firms are adding diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Women are actually the majority of the population at about 51%. Financial leaders throughout the industry admit the disparity is a problem. Women will soon control a majority of the wealth in the world, and many female investors prefer to work with women advisors, researcherss say. Several female financial executives spoke with Financial Advisor magazine to mark International Women’s Day on March 8.

Advisor Group, a network of independent wealth management firms headquartered in Phoenix is among the firms that are concentrating resources on female professionals and clients.

A need exists to have specialized recruiting and educational programs to help women transition into the industry, Kristen Kimmell, Advisor Group’s executive vice president of business development, and Erinn Ford, executive vice president of advisor engagement at Advisor Group, said in an interview.

Why aren’t there more women in the profession?

“That is an important question,” Ford said. “It is often estimated that the percentage of women advisors is as low as 18%. If the industry numbers are going to change, it will take a commitment to action from the leadership teams at firms. Advisor group has a Women’s Advisory Board, which was designed to help women advisors grow their businesses.”

Advisory Group this year held it most successful Women’s Forum earlier this month, which attracted more than 350 female advisors in person and an additional 900 who attended virtually, she said. The conference was built around a vision of a future for the wealth management industry where women lead and flourish, Advisor Group said. Officially known as W Forum, the conference included networking opportunities, workshops and interactive sessions that explored growth topics ranging from business strategies to practice management solutions to leadership best practices.

W Forum is the centerpiece of Advisor Group's Women Forward, an initiative that promotes success for women across the firm and beyond. As of 2022, 50% of the firm's people leaders were women.

Advisor Group also has launched a phone app for women advisors to brainstorm with each other about best practices for attracting and retaining female advisors and clients, and for them to exchange information on the challenges they have faced.

“This time presents a tremendous opportunity for women. During the pandemic many women stepped away from their professions and now some are coming back into the workforce as financial advisors,” Kimmell said. “Women have the skills to be more empathetic than many of their male counterparts. But, as an industry, we have a ways to go in attracting female professionals. We are not satisfied with the results we have achieved so far. Industrywide, women advisors have not told their stories well.”

Women need to have role models to show what is possible, Ford said. “If you can see it, you can be it. This is a tremendous profession for women because it gives them to flexibility in hours and the earning potential that other professions lack,” Ford added.

Networking And Mentoring
Coldstream, an employee-owned independent RIA based in Washington State, has launched Women in Wealth, a networking and mentoring program that fosters advisory talent within the firm. The goal is to ensure that more women will be ready to lead the firm. Coldstream is working with their internal teams and clients to develop the network, presentations and mentorship partners, Anne Marie Stonich, chief wealth officer and a member of the board of directors with Coldstream Wealth Management, said in an interview.

Coldstream’s Women in Wealth was designed to build community, develop leaders and retain women within the firm and the industry through mentorships. The program engages the firm’s clients as resources to further develop Coldstream’s talent. Coldstream has 12 women wealth managers, which is 49% of the wealth managers; 66 women employees, or 52% of the staff; seven female members, or half, of the leadership team; and 2,046 women clients, which is nearly 54%. The firm created committees for five niche advisory groups, including one for women, which is the largest group.

“The women’s advisory group started out by wanting to talk about our women clients, but we decided to turn our thoughts inward to look at ourselves first,” Stonich said in an interview. “We wanted to create a culture that would support women internally, as well as train all advisors to serve the unique needs of female clients.”

Coldstream has a mentoring program that has been operational for about a year, which includes male and female mentors for women in the firm, which also has a separate diversity, equity and inclusion group. The firm also hosts women’s networking events, as well as events that enable women advisors to meet with a woman who has been on the board of directors at Coldstream for many years, who shares her experiences with the group. The firm has advisors write blogs on women, including one on how women in the public can choose an advisor.

“Going forward we are looking to the marketing and communication aspects” of attracting women clients, Stonich said. “Some of these kinds of efforts were being made in the past, but there is a new energy about them today. It is driven by a desire to support the unique needs of women advisors and clients, which in turn leads to even more inclusivity.”

'Stuck In A Rut'
At Prospera Financial Services, an independent broker-dealer and boutique wealth management firm supporting a network of independent advisors, Tarah Williams was named president in October 2022.  In this role, Williams leads the day-to-day operations and works with the existing leadership team to help the firm achieve its ambitious strategic growth objectives. The promotion stirred emotions in Williams, as well as in other advisors and clients.

“It felt great to have accomplished what I did and to have Prospera accomplish it in an industry that is built for men. One women in her 30s said my appointment gave her confidence that she will be heard and will be supported in this business,” Williams said in an interview. “A lot of male colleagues also were proud of me and the firm.”

Over the years, “it took a brave group of men to promote women” to leadership positions, Williams said. “Why has it taken so long? That’s a good question. Sometimes an industry gets stuck in a rut. It takes time to change an industry and a lot of hard work on the part of female advisors to advance. I succeeded in part because I had a very understanding boss who understood that as a single mother I sometimes had to bring my son to work or that I had to finish work at home at night because of other commitments.

“As a women, you have to make yourself indispensable in order to succeed,” she added. “I am proud to be with a firm that has a female leader. I feel like I have a voice.   “Women do not realize the impact they can have on other women, and I did not realize how impactful my being named president would be to other women.”

Prospera has a Women’s Council and mentorship program for women advisors. Half of the senior leadership team is women, and 17%, or 27, of the advisors: a percentage Prospera is trying to increase.

Other types of financial firms also are trying to change the landscape by including women. AmeriFlex is a rapidly growing, advisor-owned hybrid RIA that supports women transitioning into the business. The firm's SuccessionFlex program is designed to mitigate some of the risk and uncertainty around succession planning for financial advisors planning to retire within five years.

Hannah Buschbom, chief transitional wealth planner, has worked with female advisors who are joining the firm, and ones who are retiring

Women leaving financial firms “have worked hard at serving the kinds of clients they wanted to serve and they do not want to leave them in a pinch. They want someone to take over who will treat the clients like she treated them. The female financial advisors want the person taking over to continue the hard work they have put into serving their clients.”

“Many female advisors nearing retirement came into this profession when they were the only women in a room of 40 advisors. It has changed some, but not drastically—not enough,” Buschbom said. “This used to be a sales profession. Now, what we hear from those entering the profession is that they want to make more of a difference in people’s lives.”

AmeriFlex has committees set up to develop actionable plans for drawing women into the financial profession. Some of the activity slowed during the pandemic, but it has been imbued with renewed energy now, she said. “We are interested in what women can bring to the table,” she said. “What we are seeing is that financial planning is often missing the softer side when women are missing from the profession.”