How to champion women in wealth-building conversations

Dr Nicole Simpson, founder of Harvest Wealth Financial, spotted a glaring gap in the wealth management market – a gap she’s spent her career trying to fill.

“As a woman in the industry, we were not really speaking to the needs of other women,” she says. “After 33 years of experience, I noticed almost immediately in my first decade of planning that women were not really considered in a conversation. Women are the basic managers in an average household - even if the male is the primary wage earner. When you look at the family dynamic, the decision making comes from what's possible because the woman was creating the budget.”

Simpson, who will be speaking at InvestmentNews’ upcoming Women Advisor Summit on May 23 in Chicago, believes that despite traditionally managing the household finances, women seemed to be excluded from wealth-based conversations. As such, bringing women into that fold became super important to Simpson – helping clients navigate their own finances and understand their unique plans and personal wealth building strategies. And, as a 9/11 survivor, Simpson understands that for some small, triggers can lead to financial stresses.

“I saw the connectivity between emotional patterns of behavioral spending and how a family could be stabilized financially,” she explains. “It was an experience journey -understanding the components of comprehensive planning and [understanding] if this applies to financial planning overall.”

For details on the agenda, venue and how to register, click on this link.

Simpson began to realize if she could allow a woman to connect emotionally to the decisions that they were making financially, then there was something they could build.

“And sometimes that got emotional,” she adds. “Working through [issues] took time in dealing with how a person got there, traumatically speaking. Maybe they weren’t earning enough money, living from paycheck to paycheck and one small, unexpected, catastrophic event can cause a woman to spiral. Then she's worried about family dynamics, how are they going to survive? And that trauma becomes real. My goal was always to help them see that there is a way to plan for these inevitable and unavoidable things that would happen in life.”

This process begins on a very personal level with the clients Simpson helps. She starts with asking individuals about their engagement with money – how are they connected to their wealth?

“These questions really provoke conversation,” says Simpson. “I may ask a simple question such as are you an emotional spender? Or how do you respond financially when you're going through something emotionally?”

Simpson's strategy emphasizes the importance of lifestyle and decision-making processes before diving into financial data. This approach allows her to identify potential vulnerabilities and pitfalls early on, setting the stage for a financial plan that is both realistic and responsive to the client's life.

"I give space to deal with their lifestyles, their decision-making,” she says. “And I invite them to look at the last statement… so that they can see if something is rising up for them. It's jarring for them – but they can see the shifting behavior that will take place when we start to create some level of infrastructure financially.”

At the core of Simpson’s approach to wealth management is a belief in compassionate resilience – something she developed herself after an encounter with an aspiring entrepreneur in the 90s.

“I met her in 1996 – when she was forced to give up her [dreams] to care for her aging parents. When you're getting cut down in the prime of your life and having the responsibility of taking care of elders, you're always worried about your own financial wellbeing. The acceptance of where she was standing at that time became critical. I had the opportunity to guide her, along with her parents, to understand the emotional rollercoaster that she was on and what they were asking of her. We built out a comprehensive plan with the parents who were committed to affording her a lifetime gift so that she could independently invest and not be so heavily reliant upon them.”

Tragically, the client's father passed away within a year of starting their relationship, leaving her an inheritance that, thanks to Simpson's foresight and planning, bolstered her financial standing. Over the next 15 years, as she cared for her mother, life threw more curveballs her way—a divorce and a forced move among them. Yet, the foundation Simpson helped her build enabled her to weather these storms.

“She had created a level of acceptance of what her primary responsibility was,” adds Simpson. “And she was able to build a business around that primary responsibility.”

Throughout her career, it’s this commitment to helping women take control of their financial futures that’s defined everything Simpson stands for. But her desire to accelerate real diversity change doesn’t begin and end with her clientele – she wants to see more female advisors dominate the sector too.

“I’m a little biased, but I think women financial planners are much better,” Simpson says. “I think it’s because we understand the impact of how emotions are connected to money. It's more popularized now within the last five to seven years - people are starting to talk about how people are impacted in the wealth management community, However, I believe that women bring that organically to the conversation.”

This ability doesn't just enrich the dialogue; it equips clients—women, in particular—to better prepare for their future, their families, and the unforeseeable twists life might throw their way. And for Simpson, this emphasis on emotional variables alongside financial strategies is a game-changer.

“When I'm training someone new, I always tell them to share their story, share their experience - if not yours personally as it relates to comprehensive planning, then make sure that you're sharing stories with permission. Stories that are relatable - because when other people see that there are comparable circumstances they're going through, and that it's possible to become financially free, then they trust you even more because they know that you know how they feel.”

Want to learn more on managing the behavioral side of financial planning? Join Simpson and other industry leaders at Investment News’ upcoming Women Advisor Summit – book your tickets, and check out the agenda, here.