Widows Not Likely to Fire Advisor After All: Russell

She suggested ways advisors can help improve their female clients’ level of understanding. “It’s the small things,” she said. “Constantly bringing in education to the meetings, sending them articles — especially the younger generation is very apt to read things on social media — advisors can establish that personal connection, and all these things go a long way.”

Advisors could also require that both partners be at client meetings, Howard suggested, although even if they don’t, she encourages women to go to every meeting with the couple’s advisor. “For women, it’s about owning their perspective and bringing it to each and every meeting. That will help the education part naturally, just because you’re exposed to it more often.”

Because they’re so likely to be the one making day-to-day financial decisions in their household, women are frequently called the “CFO” of their family. However, Howard said a more useful handle would be “CIO.”

“Women make a lot of budget decisions, day-to-day planning and saving decisions and tend to pass off the investing decisions. I think that’s an area where advisors can jump in and help them build confidence that women can be the CIO of their household. That’s a soft way to help empower a lot of women; to say, ‘You already make decisions here and you’re really good at making budget decisions. Let’s talk about how that translates into investing. We can identify the goals and help you make a plan to get there. You can do exactly what you’ve been doing [with budgeting] over here in the investing world.’”

Russell asked what factors were most important in an advisor and found similar percentages of Gen X and silent generation women agreed active listening was the most important skill an advisor could have. Eighty-six percent of Gen X women and 87% from the silent generation said active listening skills were necessary to build a lasting relationship.

Effective recommendations that meet their concerns, providing explanations that meet their level of understanding and explaining how decisions may play out in the future were the biggest drivers of satisfaction among Gen X women. Silent generation women were more interested in personal service and a connection that extends beyond the business.

Interestingly, only 27% of Gen X women and 36% of silent generation women said their advisors knew everything about their financial goals and concerns.

“There has been a change since the global financial crisis from the advisor’s perspective. Clients required a lot of attention and interaction and in turn advisors responded,” Howard said. Part of the reason so many women said they would stay with their advisor is simply that their relationship has gotten stronger over the last five years, she added.

Russell asked female investors to describe how much support an advisor could provide in certain situations. Both generations agreed that an advisor’s support was more valuable if their partner died than when either part of the couple retired. Interestingly, half of silent generation women said an advisor would be no help at all in preparing to send children to school. Just 9% of Gen X women were so dismissive of an advisor’s help in the area.