When the Women of Insurance Move Into Financial Planning

Does discrimination against women exist in the insurance and financial services industry?

As a female in the long-term care insurance industry, I have personally found that the answer is no. However, in the financial planning arena, the answer is a definite yes.

I recently attended the “Excell Represent” conference hosted by Carson Group. This annual event focuses on helping women understand the barriers and share better ways to empower and elevate them.

What are some of the challenges that women face?

Carson’s “2023 State of Women in Wealth Management Report” summarizes the situation:

The Negative News

• Women make up around 23.7% of the CFP professionals. No real progress has been made in gender diversity for the past decade.
• The “old boys club,” “bro” culture, gender biases, stereotypes and unchecked bad behavior are still prominent.
• Approximately 70% of women change advisors within a year of losing their partners.

The Positive News

• Many executive women prefer working with female advisors. The reason: It’s the ability to connect on a deeper level and understand the distinct challenges that women often face.
• 92% of male and female advisors agree that the underrepresentation of female advisors is a problem that should be taken seriously by industry organizations.

Other Sessions

The conference also presented a number of excellent speakers on a variety of topics.

Here are two that I found especially helpful.

“The Power of No”

Presenter: Sheryl Hickerson, the CEO and founder of Females and Finance

You need to learn to say no so you can focus on the activities that grow your business.

It will provide you with the time to say yes to what matters most.

A suggestion on how to say no is re-framing the request: “I would like to say yes, but…” That way, you’re saying no to the request, not to the person.

“Bringing Personality and Authenticity To Your Marketing”

Presenters, from the Carson Group: Minna Burns, senior vice president, consumer marketing, and Samantha Allen, senior vice president, digital marketing

Consider using these strategies:

• Create an email strategy. By giving away content for free, when you do reach out to the prospects they are more aware of you.
• Use Facebook and Linkedin. Facebook groups are a great place to start. LinkedIn works well for targeting business professionals since important details such as job titles, professional designations and years in business are all built into the user profiles.
• Use Instagram for younger targets or if you have a visual story to tell.
• Consider podcasting and livestream-broadcasting to repurpose content from events and to increase reach.
• Create a client referral strategy and center-of-influence strategy.
• Look at the analytics of what worked last year. Where did your clients come from? How many clients did you close?
• Identify your marketing goals and your marketing budget.

Last, but definitely not least: In an exchange of emails with the speakers, I asked about a suggestion for developing my own 2024 marketing goals.

Their response: “The Annual Reflections Guide”:

1. What went exceptionally well this year? What were your successes?
2. What were you most proud of this year?
3. What were some of your biggest challenges this year?
4. How did you show up as a leader this year?
5. What must you or your business improve, develop or change to make more progress faster?
6. What opportunities can you see that you haven’t pursued?
7. What, if anything, is holding you and your team back right now from performing and executing at your highest level? What must happen to eliminate this obstacle?
8. What did you learn about yourself this year?
9. What did you learn about your business this year?
10. Knowing what you know now, if you could go back and give yourself advice at the beginning of the year, what would it be?
11. What lessons learned do you want to carry forward with you this year and beyond?
12. Were there any major shifts in your values, mission or vision this year? What caused those?

Personal note: Long-term care is one area in the financial services arena where women have broken the glass ceiling. And I’m very proud to reveal that I’m a co-founder of a group of the top 20 women in the LTC industry.

We have been meeting twice a year for 23 years. (The first meeting was at my house, and my husband did the cooking.)

Margie Barrie, an agent with ACSIA Partners, has been writing the LTCI Insider column since 2000. She is the author of two books and a frequent conference speaker.

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The Fearless Girl, at Excell Represent. Credit: Carson Group