The new online platform, called WomenInvest, includes compliance-approved, customizable marketing materials for working with women investors. The independent broker-dealer is betting that grouping women by life events, not their ages, is the better way to reach them.
Cam Neri, a managing partner at Retirement Capital Strategies, an independent hybrid planning firm, agrees with the approach. “I had a woman client who got a divorce at 78. I have women clients who made conscious decisions to stay single,” Neri says.
There are four life stages, according to LPL, that make the most sense for marketing services to women investors.
‘In relationships’ enables advisors to effectively engage with both partners in a marriage or domestic union; ‘in transition’ focuses on providing support to women investors during a time of significant life change, such as a career transition, divorce or death of a spouse; ‘in business’ identifies strategies for advising professional women, including women who are business owners or have inherited significant assets; and ‘in retirement’ helps the advisor work closely with women investors in developing financial strategies that support the goals of living longer and better.
Marissa Fox-Foley
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“We don’t always follow the chronological order one would assume we have in our lives,” Neri says. “This really allows me and other advisors to look at what target market might we be able to serve.”
The entire Web-based platform is available free of charge to affiliated advisors and representatives, who can sign onto the platform via http://www.lplmarketing.com/.
LPL built the platform using original research that it undertook with industry partners, including behavioral psychologist Denise P. Federer, founder and principal of Federer Performance Management Group, an executive coaching firm, says Marissa Fox-Foley, executive vice president of marketing at LPL Financial. The tools include Webinars, workbooks, graphics and data to help advisors communicate to women effectively.
“Women were over seven times more likely to respond to and seek peace of mind, as opposed to wealth accumulation,” Fox-Foley says, citing some of the platform’s underpinning research. She added that women increasingly want to be engaged and included in discussions about their finances.
SourceMedia, the publisher of Financial Planning, has its own professional network for women: the Women Advisors Forum. The next forum is set for April 26 at the Metropolitan Club in New York. For more information, visit http://www.financial-planning.com/conferences/wafny/.
Donna Mitchell writes for Financial Planning.
