There is an urgency facing the financial services industry and it has everything to do with women.

For one, there is a lack of female financial advisors. Females represent only 15% to 20% of all advisors, according to Barron’s. But beyond issues of equality, companies are losing out on the enormous wealth that women control, according to a white paper by financial services industry marketers Paulette Filion and Judy Paradi of Toronto-based Strategy Marketing.

Their paper, which is titled "Why there are so few female financial advisors: and what needs to happen to grow the numbers," is based on research and interviews with female financial advisors.

Filion and Paradi state that ignoring women costs the financial industry $700 billion a year. In addition, women are set to control $93 trillion in wealth globally and almost 40% of all wealth in North America by 2023.

Citing research from Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, the white paper noted that over the next 40 years there will be an unsurpassed wealth transfer of more than $59 trillion, and women will inherit 70% of those assets.

More wealth in the hands of women creates an opportunity for the financial community—and for female advisors. According to the white paper, research shows that female financial advisors have the skills to both acquire and foster long-term relationships with female investors.

And a survey of wealthy women in Boston Consulting Group's recent report, “Managing the Next Decade of Women’s Wealth,” found this cohort was 1.7 times more likely to believe that a financial institution had their best interest at heart when their relationship manager was a woman.

Filion and Paradi noted that the female financial advisors they interviewed spoke of the importance of strong relationships in building their practices. “They gave their natural ability to connect with people and build relationships as the number one reason for their success. However, they also told us these skills were dismissed as impractical rather celebrated as strengths among their peers.”

In that vein, the white paper pointed out that existing deep-rooted biases against women advisors causes them to face unique challenges not experienced by their male colleagues. 

“Branch managers who recruit continue to look for people who exhibit ‘typically’ male characteristics: demonstrable confidence and competitiveness with a singular focus on results, usually monetary. But those traits do not align with how women think and behave,” the white paper noted.

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