LPL Examines the 4 Life Stages of Women Investors

To better reach women investors, LPL has developed a proprietary four-step marketing platform.

Before its national conference got underway this week in San Diego, LPL held a pre-conference attended by about 150 of its women advisors to discuss how best to reach women investors using a the WomenInvest platform, which the industry's largest independent B-D released this year for all of its advisors who are looking to reach new women clients.

Looking for more insights on women and investing? Check out the Women Advisors Forum.

"We have many advisor who are choosing to build their practices around women," says Joan Khoury, LPL's chief marketing officer. "When they do this, we are empowering them to have all this turnkey info for their women investors."

Among other things, the new platform includes customizable and compliance-approved marketing materials, best practices materials for working with women investors, original research on behavioral psychology. The resources are free and offered through a web-based marketing gateway exclusive to LPL Financial advisors.

"There is no doubt that women investors represent a tremendous, growing opportunity for advisors," Marissa Fox-Foley, executive vice president of Marketing at LPL Financial, said in a statement. "[W]e are confident that WomenInvest provides LPL Financial advisors with the support they need to more effectively reach out to and serve this important segment of the populatio 

Unique within the broker-dealer industry, WomenInvest aligns its tools and resources around four major life stage segments identified through extensive original research. These life stages, which LPL believes drive the majority of female investors' attitudes and priorities toward money and investing, include:

  • In Relationships, where the emphasis is on enabling advisors to effectively engage with both partners in a marriage or domestic union
  • In Transition, in which the focus is 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, which identifies strategies for advising professional women, including women who are business owners or have inherited significant assets
  • In Retirement, where the emphasis is on enabling the advisor to work closely with women investors in developing financial strategies that support the goals of living longer and better

Khoury says the platform is used not solely by women, but also by male advisors looking to reach out to women investors.
She added that the pre-conference forum for women attracted more attendees than LPL had been expecting.

"We were surprised by both the number of women who came in early and their excitement," she said. "When you go to these events you just get this sense of excitement that women really like to come together and learn and share."

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