According to Amie Baker, chief executive of Rekab Advice, tapping into a client’s core values and understanding their approach to money was of utmost importance.
Speaking at a recent Netwealth webinar on female investors, she said: “It’s not just about the factfind or the numbers; it’s got to do with maybe even how they have perceived money from their childhood, how they have experienced money, and what’s caused those stresses.”
She pointed to a recent Netwealth report that surveyed over 1,300 Australians and found that half of all women (53%) said they worried about money daily or weekly.
“When we see a client, it’s often that they’re being triggered. They want to be somewhere else; they don’t want to be here.
“It’s about changing patterns, behaviours and beliefs, but first understand what [those are] so we can stop doing the same thing and start doing something different,” Baker said.
Advisers could create a fantastic financial plan, she added, but it would be futile if the client came back for a mid-year review and failed to implement any of the recommended changes.
“It often comes down to sub-conscious self-sabotage or a lack of belief and confidence. We’ve got to get to the bottom of that and help the client and get them more engaged in the process, get them to see what’s possible for them.”
This approach could help reduce some of the barriers to women seeking advice, agreed fellow panelist Molly Benjamin, founder of the Ladies Finance Club.
“[Finance] is very jargony. It’s like, WTF is an ETF? There just seems to be acronym after acronym,” she said.
“But it’s also about confidence. When women go to seek advice, it’s like they’re being spoken to in a language they don’t understand. And if they go with a partner, it’s not the woman being talked to, it’s the male, and we hear this time and time again.
“It’s like this club we’re often excluded from.”
Previous research by behavioural finance firm Capital Preferences had found there was a trend of advisers neglecting the female partner when assessing couples’ finances. The firm found around 20% of advisers only risk profiled one member of the couple and 53% profiled them jointly.
Failing to consider one member of the couple’s risk could subsequently feed into “flight risk” where the ignored individual felt uncomfortable with the adviser and the way their assets were being invested.
Ellie Fordham, a financial adviser at Verse Wealth, elaborated that her practice took time early in client relationships to dig into core values.
They found keywords like freedom, stability, and security came up frequently for both male and female clients.
“Going through that process is really insightful. Of course, it depends on how much the client wants to open up, but I think it’s a great framework for us to start the process in terms of understanding what education we need to provide — more importantly for women, giving them the confidence to make great decisions because that’s our role as advisers,” she said.
