The number of women who own large portfolios will only grow as the baby boomer population ages. Over the next decade, more than 7 million entrepreneurs will liquidate their businesses, representing more than $10 trillion in wealth, according to data cited by Elizabeth Bloomer Nesvold, Bloomer’s daughter and a managing director and partner of New York–based Cambridge International Partners, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm specializing in financial services. About half of these business owners will be women—many of whom will hold large amounts of cash for the first time in their lives. Given that men typically die at an earlier age, many more women will be left to manage their family’s wealth after their husbands pass. "The dynamic is changing. Not only are we going to see more women in control, but women live a lot longer," Nesvold says. "There is going to be a need to understand their issues—in the context of executives who have very busy lives and women in transition, let’s say, widows."

Group Dynamics
Focusing on women as a group does not suggest that they need different financial information than men. Prosperous women and the advisors who have built successful relationships with them are leery of sweeping generalizations that overlook the diversity of experience and the knowledge—that many women bring to financial discussions today.

But some common themes are emerging. While women require the same type of in-depth financial data that men do, many women prefer a different kind of communication style. This encompasses all phases of the process, from the marketing pitch to the working relationship. When selecting an advisor, women often emphasize building a long-term partnership; men tend to focus more on new trends in investing that an advisor might introduce. Many men tend to view increasing their wealth as an end in itself, while women often perceive their funds in a broader context—as a means to be independent, care for children or make philanthropic gifts, for example. Lastly, while men and women both want details on portfolio performance, many women go a step further and take an interest in the thought process behind an advisor’s investment choice. "I like a company that provides education," says Sandra Haslinger of Akron, Ohio. "They sit down with you and explain what they’re doing, what it’s all about; they have recommended reading and have someone in the company who writes about the philosophies."

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."

Having crossed off advisors who pitched to her as if she were in the old-boys’ network, along with those who tried a superficial approach, Hinsch drew on her own networking base in Seattle. She met Krysty, then a CPA, in the early 1980s when the two were part of a leadership organization called Business and Professional Women. Krysty went on to head Laird Norton Tyee. Hinsch later contacted the firm, and she and her husband chose to work with Krysty and her team. "I had known Kaycee and her reputation in the community," Hinsch says.

Hinsch’s concept of "women of means with dreams" resonates with Haslinger. She says that managing her financial files and paperwork can be time-consuming, but her successful stewardship of her family’s portfolio allows her to fulfill some dearly held ambitions. Since 2002, she has donated $4 million to create the Haslinger Family Pediatric Palliative Care Center at the Akron Children’s Hospital. Haslinger chose palliative care partly because of her experience as a nursing student working with a terminally ill child. She hopes the program will become a model for hospitals nationwide. She has also funded a permanent gallery at the renovated Akron Art Museum, set to open in July, and made a large gift to the school her children attended. "I’ve been able to make some difference in the community," she says. "Being able to provide end-of-life care for children was kind of like coming full circle."

Information Influx
Marketing materials continue to fill Haslinger’s mailbox, and she has noticed an increase in cold calls. She is happy with her team, however, and ignores the pitches. But more affluent women can expect to be the targets of additional marketing campaigns from financial services firms. Marketers fully realize the compelling demographic trends and are attempting to determine how best to reach this underserved client base. Firms now approach women with soft sells, including financial spas where financial information is combined with pedicures and massages, as well as with workshops and retreats.

Glenmede Trust, a wealth advisory firm, offers a series of financial education seminars for women. The programs began last year in five Eastern cities. Most of the attendees were between 50 and 70 years old, and about one-quarter of them had already faced an event that caused them to come into control of their finances, according to Nina Cohen, managing director of the firm’s philanthropic advisory services. The seminars were born out of a request for financial education from Glenmede’s female clients. This spring, Glenmede, based in Philadelphia, plans to follow up with more-focused sessions for groups of about 20 women. Topics may include setting up a private foundation and raising financially responsible children.

Financial planner Karen Altfest, vice president of L.J. Altfest & Co. in New York, tries a softer pitch, presenting financial education as a means of taking care of oneself. In the past, she had trouble finding enough interested women to attend one financial spa a year, but she now hosts about three events per month.

Other financial advisors take a broader approach to the idea of financial education for prosperous women—and the men who care about them. Lockshin of Lydian Wealth Management has collaborated with educational group Wealthbridge Partners on a new retreat series complete with its own website, wealthandhappiness.com. Lockshin focuses the program on the nonfinancial issues surrounding wealth, such as how to pass family values to children. He plans four retreats this year, in Washington, D.C., Seattle, New York and Palm Beach, for as many as 100 participants per session. "Addressing those issues typically brought up more by a female client than a male client helped drive us to this," Lockshin says.

Catherine Curan is a senior correspondent for Worth.