Strip away the jargon for female clients
Male financial planners must steer away from technical language laced with jargon and begin conversations around personal growth and emotions to cater to female clients.
Such is the opinion of financial planner and director of Epona Financial Guidance, Lisa Duggan, who said planners must let go of industry terms to communicate with female clients.
"As planners, people tell clients, ‘oh we recommend we reboot your transition-to-retirement strategy'. What the hell does that mean?" Duggan asked.
"What's the point in talking about price-to-earnings ratios and acronyms and all those sorts of things? I know we've got a lot of compliance and regulation around it, but as an industry, we need to find another way to explain it."
Male financial planners who successfully catered to female clients recognised their needs were different and showed them due respect and deference, she said.
Financial planning requirements for female clients could include reproductive issues such as funding IVF procedures and hysterectomies, and planners have got to be able to conduct these conversations.
"I did a speech at an industry conference and I mentioned that I had two months off work and we were upfront with our female clients and said I was having a hysterectomy," Duggan said.
"After my speech, a male planner came up to me and said, ‘oh I'm really interested in your approach but Lisa, can you tell me what a hysterectomy is?'"
Duggan, therefore, wants to see more female planners but said many tended to conform to the male-dominated industry to progress.
"We need to acknowledge we are different and do it our own way and continue to hold on to those points of differentiation so we do get that different lens," she said.
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
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