Mary McGann tried to build a female client base when she started as a financial planner 20 years ago, but her efforts faltered in an era when fewer women controlled the family finances and fewer still worked as advisors. Even today, the Michigan planner says, many of her older women clients are referred by men. But McGann also sees the future of the profession. Her daughter has joined her in business, inspired by her mother's love of her work. And younger women now seek out the duo's services on their own.



Women make up more than a quarter of practicing physicians in the United States  and more than half of all attorneys in private practice. By some measures, however, less than 20% of financial planners are female. While overt discrimination is less common today, some say women planners still face more barriers in establishing themselves than do men. And the perception of planning as a math-heavy profession deters some women from entering it in the first place.

Yet the tide may have begun to turn. This year, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) began holding special roundtable discussions on women in planning at each of its four annual regional conferences. Once the organization collects feedback from the sessions, members plan to implement initiatives to support women in the industry, such as establishing a mentoring program, says former NAPFA chair Peggy Cabaniss. Students and teachers at university financial planning programs report at least an equal number of women and men in their classes. Formal and informal networks provide support for women in the industry who take an active role in their own development. Women planners will start talking shop when they get together, McGann notes, while men discuss sports: "I play golf too, but this is more important for me."

McGann was one of 120 female advisors who attended the 12th Annual Raymond James Women's Symposium in Florida in September. The event provides professional development and networking opportunities for the firm's women advisors. Women make up 12% of the advisors in Raymond James & Associates, the employee channel, and 15% of the advisors in Raymond James Financial Services, the independent channel.

A December 2005 diversity study commissioned by the Securities Industry Association found that 19% of retail brokers were women, up from 16% in 2003. NAPFA's membership, which is limited to fee-only advisors, is about 26% female right now.

"The numbers of women have been slowly rising, but not nearly as fast as we'd like," says Chet Helck, president of Raymond James Financial. The most significant reason behind this lag, he says, is tradition: "The industry's history is dominated by men." Raymond James hasn't set any numerical goals for swelling the ranks of its female advisors, says Karen Schultz, the new director of the firm's Women's Network. Yet Raymond James officials made repeated pleas to the attendees at last month's conference to refer to them women who might be interested in joining the firm.

TOUGH TIMES GETTING STARTED

Helck and others say women have a harder time getting established in the industry than men. Building a client base is a challenge for either gender; but women tend to take the inevitable early rejections to heart more than men, Helck says. Also, the demanding hours of the first few years are often hard on women with families, who shoulder more responsibilities at home. Both new and established planners at the Raymond James conference said they routinely work 12-hour days.

"It's really difficult to keep a personal life," says Linette Dobbins, who co-manages McGee Financial, in Portland, Ore., with her mother, Judith McGee. With $3 million in annual revenue, their practice is among Raymond James' top producers; the two women work hard to build on their professional success and to simultaneously maintain their own personal relationships.

Once they get past the initial hurdles, women planners enjoy the same success as men, industry participants say. "It's a great career for women once you're past the three-year mark—you can get a lot of flexibility," says Marilyn Littlejohn, a longtime manager of a Raymond James & Associates branch in St. Petersburg, Florida. The nine female branch managers at RJA represent less than 10% of the total, Littlejohn says; many of the nine took the job within the past year. Littlejohn helps nurture the next generation of women leaders by inviting potential branch manager candidates to branch manager meetings.

She also gives women planners tips for becoming more successful, such as projecting confidence. "We women have a tendency not to fake it if we are talking to someone and we don't know the answers—that comes across as tentative," she says.

MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION

Those who say the history of financial planning belongs to men must not overlook the pioneering women who have made their mark on the industry. Mary Ann Greenwood opened up her own RIA firm, Greenwood & Associates, in 1982 in Fayetteville, Ark. She says women must take responsibility for their own success.

"You must be able to operate in a male-dominated market as an equal, and if you don't have the mindset for that you can't be successful," says Greenwood, who is affiliated with Schwab Institutional. "You have to be willing to compete. Competence wins." Greenwood was a student in the first portfolio management class held at the University of Arkansas in 1971. Now she mentors male and female students in the current classes who go on to practice all over the country.

Role models of either gender play a key role in encouraging women to enter and remain in the financial planning industry. "You've got to grow young women," McGee says. She trains many of her employees—both male and female—from the bottom up, starting them in administrative positions and helping them to move up through the ranks. Women in particular respond well to this nurturing approach, the advisor notes.

You need to lavish resources on training young women, even if they go on to become your competition, McGee believes. She says she benefited from a good male mentor when she started out 31 years ago. New Jersey planner Steffanie Tyska, 25, says her male boss is a wonderful mentor who encouraged her to attend the Raymond James women's conference.

Tyska represents the new face of the industry. Planning was a natural career fit for her: "I always grew up liking numbers," says Tyska, who majored in finance at Rowan University in New Jersey, where her classes held an equal number of men and women.

Deena Katz, an associate professor at Texas Tech University, says there are more women than men in her personal financial planning classes. More and more women are entering the profession as it shifts toward a more holistic counseling model, notes Katz, who is also president of Evensky & Katz, a wealth management firm in Coral Gables, Fla.

Each year, the students are placed in internships, and many firms are now requesting female students as interns. The main skill that planning requires is an ability to synthesize complex information in a way that anyone can understand, says Katz, a 27-year industry veteran who remains optimistic about the future of women in the financial planning industry: "Going forward, we're going to break the glass ceiling."