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Winning with Women Advisors

By Saadiah Freeman

A wholesaler at a large mutual fund company recently told me that he much preferred working with female advisors than with male advisors. When I asked why, he explained that he believed female advisors were less arrogant, more loyal, and more interested in building long-term partnerships with mutual fund companies. While these statements are by no means negative - and may, indeed, have been true for this wholesaler's clients - asset management firms need to be sure that unconscious gender biases are not damaging their business efforts.

In fact, kasina's December 2010 FA Vision survey suggests that female advisors' criteria for selecting investments, comparing fund companies, and evaluating wholesalers are almost identical to those of their male colleagues. Women, comprising approximately 20% of the over 3,000 advisors surveyed, ranked "ethical, trustworthy and consistent" as their top 3 brand values for mutual fund companies - but so did men. Both male and female advisors listed risk/volatility, fit with other investments and performance as their top 3 investment selection criteria, with "wholesaler's opinion" a distant last for both groups. Similarly, when evaluating wholesalers, product knowledge and availability were prized most highly by male and female advisors, with both groups relegating "personal connection with wholesaler" close to the bottom of the list.

The only discernible differences were that women advisors believed it was less important that a firm be "Dedicated to Advisors", and regarded their relationship with a wholesaler as less important to their investment selection process, than their male counterparts - statistics that are not consistent with the theory that women are more loyal and relationship-focused. This underlines the importance for mutual fund companies of ensuring that they are not being influenced by unsubstantiated, gender-based assumptions. Some steps firms can take to avoid this pitfall include:

• Making sure training for all client-facing professionals includes strategies for overcoming unconscious biases. Although the best wholesalers already take the time to understand their advisors' individual needs and preferences irrespective of their gender, it is important to adopt this approach firm-wide.
• Review imagery used on the firm's Web site and in its marketing materials. Are women featured at all? If so, is the imagery a realistic representation of modern women's lives? Patronizing, overly traditional, or stereotypical pictures of women are unlikely to endear a firm to female financial professionals.
• Focus on delivering the brand attributes, product quality and sales experience all advisors, both male and female, value most. Firms can maximize their ability to succeed with female advisors by ensuring the wholesalers who call on them are knowledgeable, responsive - and don't make assumptions about their priorities based on the simple fact that they are women.