Don't market to women, serve them, Krawcheck tells advisers

Women are on the way to being the majority of U.S. millionaires and they represent the advisory industry's biggest business opportunity, former Bank of America Merrill Lynch executive Sallie Krawcheck told advisers Friday at the Raymond James Women's Conference in St. Petersburg, Fla. "Think about not marketing to women — which is what everybody is doing, everyone has a brochure — but serving them and really looking at what they want overall," she said. "By doing that we can all do good and all do well." Advisers should be thinking about how best to serve women, who she said worry more than men about losing their money. Specifically, advisers should focus on risk management and a goals-based approach to planning. Career help also should be part of the advice equation because everyone's biggest asset is their own future earnings, she told about 300 female advisers at the conference. Women earn 77 cents for every $1 a man earns for the same job, and retire with two-thirds of a man's sum. That difference, especially invested for 30 years, is significant. She tells women to "ask for the money," and thinks advisers should be telling their female clients the same. "She is the best investment she can make," Ms. Krawcheck said. The industry as a whole needs to move in a new direction, anyway, in order to serve younger generations of clients, who share many investor characteristics with women, she said. Polls show that Millennials also seek to make an impact with their investments and want to achieve personal goals with their money, not beat certain market indexes. "If we don't dig in deeply and provide what [women and Millennials] are looking for, we're going to be dinosaurs," Ms. Krawcheck said. (More insight: The business case for investing in women) She also pointed out that most of women's wealth is not managed today, despite the fact that women represent 45% of millionaires. Sybil Verch, a Raymond James adviser and its regional manager for Western Canada, agreed that women represent a "golden opportunity," but pointed out that not all women are the same. "Women are not a niche market, but if we are aware of some of the similarities and embrace them, we can make a difference," said Ms. Verch, whose practice focuses on wealthy female CEOs. Ms. Krawcheck owns the Ellevate Network (formerly 85 Broads), which recently introduced the Pax Elevate Global Women's Index Fund, which invests in 400 companies that have recognizable gender diversity among their top leaders.