EP Wealth promotes first women partners

In a bid to become a go-to firm serving women and their families, fast-growing RIA EP Wealth Advisors has promoted its first female partners, three in all.

“Our vision is to have diverse voices at the firm, says Patrick Goshtigian, CEO of EP Wealth, which manages $4 billion in client assets. The promotions, he adds, “illustrate EP Wealth’s commitment to empowering all employees.”

The new partners include the firm’s director of financial planning, Erin Voisin, Regional Director Lynn Ballou and Operations Director Sherryl Ray. They are the only women among the firm’s 15 partners. The firm’s ranks of 31 advisors include seven women.

In its ongoing race to scale, the company has made seven acquisitions since January 2015. A year ago, it took over Donnelly Wealth Management.

“I think we are at a seminal point in our profession,” Ballou says. “We need to work together, particularly with the men in our firms, to proactively build a much larger assemblage of future women advisors.”

As the baby boomer founders of the financial planning profession retire in increasing numbers, she says another crop of all-male advisors won’t be able to effectively serve the next generation of clients.

“Now more than any other time,” Ballou adds, “we must persistently reach out to women who have an interest in some aspect of finance, taxes, law or money management and encourage them to look into financial planning.”

EP Wealth does take interns, she says, affording it one way to provide this support. That’s what persuaded Voisin to join the field.

“I had no idea about financial services,” Voisin says. “I just took an internship that sounded interesting and it led me to a career that I absolutely love. That passion I feel for what I do is what makes me want to get other women involved.”

A nearly equal number of men and women enter the financial services industry annually, according to a 2018 McKinsey report on promoting women in financial services. However, the gender breakdown of the industry’s C-suite is another matter entirely. White males occupy most high-level positions, at 73%, of C-suite jobs, compared with just 18% for women, the study found. The racial divide is also stark: Of that number, 17% are white and just 1% are racial minorities.

RIAs can help improve these rates by adopting family-friendly policies, Voisin thinks.

“There is definitely a fear that being out of the office for so long could highlight that you are replaceable and possibly overlooked for a promotion,” she says. “EP is extremely family focused and so I know, when I leave for the day, that I can focus on my family and that my company will support that.”

Ballou, based in Lafayette, California, founded Ballou Plum Wealth Advisors in 1998. EP Wealth acquired her firm in 2016. Voisin previously worked for Westmount Asset Management and MetLife. Ray was the first employee to join EP Wealth after it was founded in 1999. She and Voisin are based in Torrance, California.

The promotions were not timed to coincide with Women’s History Month last month, the three said, but they called the coincidence opportune.