It added that despite internal programs and resources aimed at helping branch managers to hire more women, they continue to adhere to outdated hiring practices that don't support women in establishing successful practices, and instead lean toward male-focused metrics for what success looks like.
The white paper posited that branches and branch managers are pivotal to growing and retaining more female financial advisors. But they need help in finding more women, eliminating biases in their branch and providing more personalized support to the women they hire. And none of that can happen without support at the corporate level.
The white paper stated that corporate management must understand what is most needed on the front lines and how to provide the proper training to help branch managers deliver on the corporate mandate of hiring and retaining more female advisors. “They ought to be encouraged to expand their horizons to include all kinds of women—young, second career, older—and, especially, to consider women already working within the industry who are eager to become financial advisors and willing to do the hard work,” the white paper said.
The paper’s authors also pointed out that with more than one-third of advisors expected to retire over the next 10 years, there is an opportunity for female advisors to buy into the industry. Branch managers can help facilitate this by partnering women advisors with a retiring advisor’s practice and/or help them buy the practice.
Women own a greater share of the world's wealth, and Filion and Paradi said now is the time for the financial advisor industry to take advantage of that trend by expanding its base of female advisors.
“Organizations that fail to pay attention and don’t start making changes today are going to lose out to those who do," they said. "The window of opportunity is here now.”