“You have to meet the investor where - and how - they want to be met.”
Women are becoming a formidable force in wealth management, as leaders, investors and as advisors. Massive wealth is expected to shift into the hands of US women over the next couple of years, representing an estimated $30 trillion opportunity by 2030, according to McKinsey.
While the opportunity is clear, utilizing the tools to effectively seize it will define an advisor’s bottom-line advantage. Financial advisors must leverage technology to deliver personalized experiences that resonate with female investors. With women shouldering more and more responsibilities, a key component will be effective financial advising.
Digital tools that facilitate two-way communication, self-service access to accounts and planning resources, and opportunities for community learning have proven effective at engaging female investors. These tools not only enhance the client experience but also streamline the operations of female advisors, allowing them to focus more on client relationships and less on administrative tasks.
To gain insight into what tools have proven most effective and why, Institutional Investor sat down with Amy DeTolla, Wealth M&A Transformation Leader, and Jennifer Valdez, President of the Americas at intelliflo. Both leaders have decades of experience in the financial industry and successfully advising financial advisors with clients of varied demographics.
Institutional Investor: What are some examples of how technology has enabled advisors of all kinds, and women advisors specifically as well, to spend more time with clients?
Amy DeTolla:
The wealth industry has seen a significant transformation due to technology advancements. These changes have streamlined operations, allowing advisors to dedicate more time to engage with their clients, which enhances outcomes and strengthens relationships. In an industry where trust and personalized advice are paramount, technology enables advisors to better understand and address client needs. However, technology isn’t enough; a holistic approach that aligns people, processes, and platforms around a common vision is essential to transform the advisory experience improve outcomes for clients.
It doesn’t matter if you are a male or female advisor; technology is the great equalizer and has no gender bias. The right tools combined with a great team will create great outcomes for everyone.
Jennifer Valdez: The digital world moves fast, so it’s crucial to meet investors where – and how – they want to be met. My relationship with my advisor is about having access to information that is very clear and being able to quickly understand my total financial picture, not just investment performance. Advisors, male or female, can only provide that personalized advice if they have the right technology.
II: What is specific and important to engaging with women investors?
AD: Whether you’re a woman advisor or a woman client, it’s vital to know you have someone on your side. It’s about building trust and confidence and finding new ways to engage because we’re busy – very busy – playing multiple roles in our professional and personal lives, and the stakes are always high. So, it’s important for advisors to consider the barriers women must overcome to get to where they want to go and find new ways to engage with them.
JV: I agree with Amy that the relationship between advisor and client is especially crucial as it often involves helping clients manage through serious life changes. The right tools support these relationships, enabling advisors to provide holistic wealth planning that truly makes a difference in clients’ lives. Women are very good at building communities and relationships, which is essential for effective financial advising.
II: What are some of the tools that can make a compelling difference in the flexibility of engagement?
JV: At intelliflo, our technology solutions help advisors deliver on the promise of personalized advice. Specifically, our intelliflo redblack solution enables advisors to efficiently rebalance and trade portfolios at scale while still being able to tailor the portfolio to the specific needs and wants of their clients.
AD: When we talk about engagement we don’t always think of a trading/rebalancing system but, if advisors want to achieve more personalized engagement, they must find time and efficiencies in their business. One of those efficiencies can be achieved by streamlining the investment process. Trading and rebalancing tools can help advisors maintain client portfolios in line with their target allocations and risk profiles, without the need for manual intervention. Electronic trading platforms can enable advisors to execute trades quickly and efficiently, across multiple clients, households, accounts, custodians and asset classes. Advanced order management systems can help advisors optimize trade execution and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Without technology these processes require people and time. If you are looking to transform your business and increase client engagement, the best way to do that by is leveraging technology, optimizing processes and empowering people.
II: Operationally, how does this work? What are some of the day-to-day processes that can be optimized through technology?
JV: The ability to rebalance and trade efficiently at scale essentially takes time, so advisors can leverage technology to free up their workloads to perform other high-value tasks, like engaging with clients.
AD: A well-executed wealth technology platform can streamline the entire advice process. As discussed, optimizing the investments process is a good place to start but there are numerous other areas of the business that can be optimized through technology. Another obvious example is business development and marketing. A well-integrated and optimized CRM can help advisors manage client interactions, track prospects and automate follow-up tasks and reminders. Email marketing, AI content generation and social media management tools can help advisors reach out to prospects and clients with targeted, personalized communications and thought leadership content. Website analytics and lead generation tools can help advisors track visitor behavior, identify potential clients, and optimize their online presence for maximum impact.
II: Surprisingly, technology has aided in the humanization of financial advice by allowing advisors to spend more time with their clients. How have some of these tools helped the firms you work with?
AD: The digitalization of wealth management is making it easier for more investors to access financial advice. Technology has been instrumental in helping wealth firms humanize financial advice by enabling advisors to spend more quality time with clients, provide more personalized and comprehensive guidance, and build stronger, more enduring relationships. As technology continues to evolve and become more sophisticated, it will likely play an even greater role in transforming the wealth management industry and elevating the client experience.
II: How have you helped guide advisors to grow their firm?
JV: Outsourcing is a key trend. Depending on the size of your firm, it may be very difficult to onboard and staff all the specialties you need in your organization. We have clients that run intelliflo redblack themselves and directly manage all the trading, and we have others that outsource all of it to us and we run it as an outsourced service. Outsourcing gives firms the opportunity to immediately scale without hiring additional talent, enabling advisors to focus on client relationships. We’ve asked advisors “What would you have done differently in your early growth stages?” and many of them said that finding a partner and other experts to team up with should’ve been a larger priority and that they regret not doing so sooner.
AD: If you want to take your business and turn it into an enterprise, you can’t keep doing the same things and expect transformational change and growth. Wealth firm leaders often try to solve growth and efficiency gaps by buying new technology but replicating existing processes and output and then find themselves being frustrated and having to hire people to fill the gaps. Technology is advancing at a rapid pace and it’s very difficult to ensure your team is optimizing it for growth. One of the best avenues to consider is outsourcing, fractional leadership, consultants and leveraging technology to get the scalability, reliability, and personalization you need to grow.
II: Are there specific investment objectives women are more interested in pursuing, or perhaps, a difference in their approaches? What is different about the way women invest that would then ultimately lead to a difference in how their portfolios are managed?
JV: The potential of women in wealth is massive, but to tap into it, advisors must understand how women think about wealth and lifestyle. Advisors have an opportunity to engage with women dynamically by meeting their expectations for information and interaction. A strong advisor-client relationship is key to success. The more engaged an investor is with their advisor, the more likely they are to stay with their advisor. So, by embracing technology and understanding the unique needs of female investors, financial advisors can unlock the full potential of the $30 trillion women’s wealth management market. This isn’t just about financial growth; it’s about creating lasting, meaningful relationships that empower women to achieve their financial goals and live their best lives. The future of wealth management is bright, and women are at the forefront, driving innovation and change.
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