Financial Advisors and Female Client Retention : Preliminary research to uncover bias in private wealth management

In the last ten years, financial advisors in the United States have had difficulties with retaining their female clients. The problem advisors have is that the financial industry has historically been made up of males, and their clients have historically been males as well. This makes it harder for female clients to connect with their advisors in a male-based industry. The author explores the research question about why financial advisors have a problem to retain their female clients. Her hypothesis questions if financial advisors have a problem with female client retention because they have an unintentional bias towards them and therefore choose to focus on male clients instead of females. The hypothesis is answered through four interviews; three advisors, and one author. Previous literature gathered from articles, reports, studies, etc. are compared to the interview results. The hypothesis is incorrect. The results show that the advisors interviewed do not have bias against their female clients. However, these results cannot be generalized to all advisors. Further research should be done for one single private wealth management firm, instead of interviewing advisors from different firms. Many advisors from one firm should be interviewed in order to gather a definitive answer to the hypothesis