Closing the gap: New network sees potential in client care circles

A married couple is on the brink of divorce, partly due to profound disagreements about saving and spending priorities.

Who is best positioned to help: a marriage counselor or a financial planner?

The counselor can’t help them reconcile warring approaches to retirement planning. The planner can’t address ingrained communication dysfunctions.

What they really need is a team: a suite of professionals who can choreograph a comprehensive approach, each working from their own strengths.

Collaboration between complementary professionals — not just referrals, but ongoing collaboration — is a missing link for many clients. In the midst of daunting circumstances, they’re expected to patch advice from various professionals together into a comprehensive plan.

Who helps them piece it together? Chances are, it’s the women professionals in the clients’ informal coalition because women tend to be more attuned to relational housekeeping. The 2021 McKinsey/LeanIn report documented the daily reality of many women in management: They are 61% more likely to monitor the well-being of those they work with; 42% more likely to help colleagues balance their workloads; and 21% more likely to coach colleagues through work-life conflicts.

These skills can be monetized, if a new mode of networking gains traction.

Vanessa N. Martinez, a financial adviser, and her sister, Patricia M. Villarreal, a clinical psychologist, have launched a new form of women’s network informed by their own collaborations on behalf of clients.

Their Em-Powered Network doesn’t re-create traditional women’s business networks, which typically focus on converting connections to clients. Instead, they see practice growth potential in the intersections of financial advisory, counseling, law and other closely affiliated professions.

Martinez hit on the idea in the midst of discussing practice dilemmas with her sister. “She was like my business therapist, and when I realized this worked for me, I realized it could work for everyone,” she said. The network launched in September with 30 charter members. Meetings are both virtual and onsite in Chicago, where Martinez is based.

It’s the connections among adjacent professions that hold the potential for each member of the network, Martinez believes.

She’s on to something. It’s relatively easy for a client to swap one adviser for another. For evidence, look no further than one of the most loathed client retention trends: the tendency of new widows to trade in their longtime advisers for a new model who, they believe, is better aligned with their individual priorities. But if a couple is equitably engaged by several collaborating professionals, it’s a lot harder to explain to the rest why one was replaced, never mind replacing them all. There’s no way better to persuade clients to buy into their future together.

People need this kind of help, according to research from, of all places, The Knot, the wedding planning website.

Couples tend to divide up financial responsibilities according to which partner believes they're more capable, which means both that men take on investing and planning and that women disengage from those tasks. (Women tend to position themselves as more capable at career management.) Only 29% of couples approach financial responsibilities as a joint effort, grounded in shared interests.

Advisers love to preach to couples about the wisdom of sharing financial responsibilities. Now they have a way to practice it.