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| Feature |
Wooing Women
Catherine Curan
04/01/2007
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Haslinger found herself suddenly having to navigate the world
of financial advisors when her husband died in the mid-1990s. As in many
affluent families of her generation, Haslinger had left the management of
finances up to her spouse. She did not even sit in on meetings with their
advisor.
After her husband’s death, she began searching for a new team
of professionals, including a financial advisor, estate planning attorney and an
accountant, who better fit her personally. A friend recommended her son, who
worked at a large bank. Haslinger met with him out of courtesy, but had
misgivings about choosing a bank rather than a boutique firm because of what she
perceived to be high levels of turnover at institutions. Her instincts proved
correct when he left the bank a few years later. Instead, she chose to work with
Lydian Wealth Management, a financial services firm based in Rockville, Md. She
liked CEO Steve Lockshin’s personal input and his availability.
Haslinger’s desire for a deeper relationship is common among
female clients, says Kaycee Krysty, president and CEO of Seattle-based
investment firm Laird Norton Tyee. "Men like to hear, ‘What I have for you is a
convertible bond arbitrage with a tax efficiency overlay,’" Krysty says.
"Traditionally, men are not going to ask, but women will, ‘That sounds good, but
what the heck is that?’ They really want to understand what’s behind the
numbers."
The Marketing Message
Like Haslinger, Kathryn Hinsch asked friends for referrals when
she and her husband were preparing to change advisors. Hinsch, founding director
and board president of think tank Women’s Bioethics Project in Seattle, wanted a
full-service firm that would help her and her husband do more than just put
their money into funds and funds of funds. The couple was also thinking about
broader projects, including trusts for their nieces.
Hinsch has clear ideas about the kind of marketing that repels
her. As a member of several nonprofit boards, she often is approached by
financial professionals who have attended a charity function for one of her
organizations. Hinsch views this tactic as a very superficial way to try to make
a connection, and says that she will not trust someone with her finances just
because they happen to meet. Nor was she impressed by a trip to Seattle’s
exclusive, decidedly masculine stomping ground, the Rainier Club, where
financial advisors tried to wow her. Hinsch felt alienated by the setting, as
well as condescended to; if she wanted to spend her time in the Rainier’s
Jacobean-style mansion, she and her husband would just join the club. She is
also put off by soft marketing that ties financial matters to feel-good
pampering such as a spa treatment. To Hinsch, that kind of pairing minimizes
women’s concern about money and economics. "My observation of the financial
services industry and its marketing is that in both trivial and profound ways,
it is missing the boat in how it markets to women," she says.
On the trivial side, Hinsch decries the male-oriented
aspirational advertisements found in many magazines. An older man may relate to
an image of a gray-haired patriarch and his trophy wife, but Hinsch does not.
She also notes a lack of financial services advertisements in women’s magazines
that target highly educated, successful readers.
More pointedly, Hinsch believes that financial services firms
often fail to address the reality of women’s lives today. She points out that
women are likely to be divorced, become second or third wives and to outlive
their spouses or former spouses. These firms often fail to convey an
understanding of the fact that many women view money differently than men. For
example, the concept of legacy continues to serve as a prominent selling point
for financial services firms. But Hinsch believes that many women in their 40s
and 50s, faced with lessening responsibility at home, take this opportunity to
consider what they want to do for the world, rather than what legacy they hope
to leave for their offspring. "Women in my situation, I think of them as women
of means with dreams," Hinsch says. "Just changing the language and how you
approach it . . . really gets down to understanding the psychology of how women
think about their lives and about money."
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