Female 401k Advisors Wanted (And Badly Needed)

Will 401k female advisors answer the call?
Will 401k female advisors answer the call?

(From Issue 4, 2016) 

What’s it gonna take? By now the stats are depressingly familiar — 401k advisors are overwhelmingly male and well into paunchy middle age, with 43 percent older than 55 and the rest not far behind, according to research bigwig Cerulli Associates.

A repository of prospective professionals over half the U.S. general population (women, obviously) await, and yet the industry is slow to respond. Female advisors account for only 14 percent of the total, although there are glimmers of hope—28 percent of new advisors are women.

“Look around a room and there is one female and one person under the age of 30,” says Alicia Malcolm, a 401(k) advisor in New York. “Both are usually me.”

The low numbers of female 401k advisors should be a cause of shame, and concern. It naturally leads to a discussion of remedies and, fortunately, an organization as well as a conference are doing just that. Both are dedicated to mentoring, educating and supporting women who are either in, or entering, the 401k space, and look to give them the best possible shot at a challenging and lucrative career path.

Women in Pensions Network (WiPN), with the tagline “Connections that Count,” launched as a 501(c)6 non-profit in 2009 and now has “more than 1,700 members from all across the retirement industry,” says current president Amy Glynn, who is also executive vice president with Global Retirement Partners Advisor Alliance (GRPAA).

“Financial services mirrors other industries,” she says. “We all know the statistics: a woman earns 77 cents to a man’s dollar and representation of women at director and C-suite levels has stalled at 17 percent.”

For anyone who might think the disparity is a “women’s issue” think again. It’s statistically proven that diverse business models are more profitable than non-diverse models, and successful 401k companies are aligning their people with their client demographics, Glynn notes.

“A personal mission and priority of mine is starting a productive conversation between men and women and learning how to work together to move the needle,” she says. “Left as is, nothing would or has changed in 20 years; change requires movement and teamwork.”

In addition to a president, vice president and treasurer (pretty much boilerplate at any advocacy group), WiPN has positions that focus on more actionable topics like mentoring and program development. Many (but not all) of the same WiPN women are similarly involved with NAPA Connect, a conference that held its inaugural meeting in Boston in June as an offshoot of the National Association of Plan Advisors.

Pulling double (triple?) duty, Glynn was conference co-chair along with Hightower’s Jania Stout. Its executive committee reads like a who’s who of the 401k advisors, including Lisa Kottler, senior vice president at NFP (and a 401(K) Specialist contributor) and Marcy Supovitz, principal of Boulay Donnelly & Supovitz Consulting Group.

“It was an astounding success,” Supovitz matter-of-factly states. We’ll do it again in 2017. Topics focus on leadership, negotiation, and presentation skills. There is an unbelievable camaraderie that comes out of it. I got to know people so well that I would not hesitate to pick up the phone and give them a call. Women left inspired.”

Thank goodness for that, because both the organization and the conference are sorely needed.

“It’s 2016, and financial advice is still male-dominated,” says WiPN member Barbara Delaney, founder and principal of New York-based Stone Street Advisors Group. “It’s even more so in 401k advice than in the rest of financial services overall.”

The reasons are many, and she offers her take, noting that women aren’t often found, or supported, in positions that are client-facing.

“I think women are harder on each other than men are on women,” she says. “And women are not necessarily more thoughtful than men, but they are more likely to consider different angles of a situation or issue.”

Not that Delaney’s allowing any excuses, and sees the recent implementation and controversy surrounding the DOL’s fiduciary rule as an opportunity for female gains.

“Fiduciary is changing our world in many ways,” she argues. “Women who know what they’re doing need to step up.”

Delaney does just that. She’s an embodiment of the success female 401k advisors can achieve; she and her team won the 2016 NAPA 401k Advisor Leadership Award in April. The firm also has a majority female staff (although not exclusively; there’s one male employee).

The opportunities are clearly there, she notes, it’s now a question of getting the word out. So how, exactly, does the word get out?

“I would suggest we start younger,” Supovitz says. “We have to be better about reaching women in college, but I would go younger than that—Girls’ Club and even Girl Scouts. Obviously, the more female advisors there are, the more the word gets out. There are a lot of women in this industry who get excited to mentor other women and to share their experiences and success.”

Brooke Austin, assistant vice-president of business consulting with GRPAA, readily agrees.

“I recently graduated and was working for a large financial services company, mainly doing IRA rollovers,” she notes. “It was extremely male-dominated. I was the only female on the team and not only that, I was the youngest team member. It was intimidating.”

She points to those who came before her for helping her deal.

“I’m glad for people like Barbara Delaney. They get me motivated.”

With the topic at hand, it has to be asked—is part of the problem with a lack of female representation straight-up sexism?

“I don’t think it’s sexism,” says WiPN member Kristina Keck, vice president of retirement plans with Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. “It’s more complicated than that.”

She instead believes it comes down to “a lot of moving parts in the 401(k) industry, so it takes a certain level of confidence and requires a degree of fearlessness.

“At the end of the day it’s a sales role, and it’s easier for men to be pushier than women. It’s the whole lean-in story. My father used to say, ‘When you raise kick [butt], independent, self-thinking girls, the problem is you get kick [butt], independent self-thinking women.’ He said it with a smile, but that’s what happened, and it’s helped.”

She echoes Supovitz and Austin in noting that people rarely (if ever) think of becoming a 401(k) advisor in college; they always seem to fall into it.

“I feel like it’s a missed opportunity and more education specific to the 401(k) profession is needed,” she concludes. “It wasn’t really until the last decade that anyone was able to even get a degree in financial planning, so we need more college internship programs with support and training. It’s about building confidence. Again, if you ‘raise them that way, then you get them that way.’”

John Sullivan
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With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.

1 comment
  1. Great article and, because I work closely with advisors and consultants, I see this first hand. However, I believe the industry has a greater need to hire diverse candidates, not necessarily by gender. I cannot think of one consultant or advisor that is black. There are a few Asian consultants. And the largest growing ethnic population, Latinos, have almost zero consultants operating in the retirement plan consulting space. This industry has been a key driver in improving retirement plans. I hope they can better reflect the participants and plan sponsors that they are helping.

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