Private Banking

Targeted marketing schemes are all the rage in the wealth management business, and banks have been segmenting their client base mostly by profession.

Now private banks are beginning to devise campaigns to reach women. Like mutual fund companies and brokerages, banks are beginning to notice that demographic factors like high divorce rates have forced women to manage their own money.

BankAmerica Corp., for instance, is planning a special private banking unit dubbed the Women's Banking Initiative. And both the Delaware Group and Merrill Lynch & Co. have launched direct marketing campaigns stuffed with literature intended to appeal to women.

But Carol A. Pepper, a Credit Suisse private banker, said she takes a different approach. Though Ms. Pepper doesn't refuse to reach women in the usual ways - such as speaking at women investor clubs - she maintains that the key to serving women is to shower them with individualized attention.

"In private banking, 90% of the business is generated through referrals. If you treat women well, you get referred other women," said Ms. Pepper, a senior manager in New York. "And then they bring in their husbands."

Many women have complained that financial advisers have never given them enough attention. Anecdotes are abundant about bankers and brokers who address male clients while ignoring their wives.

As a result, many wealthy women are now trying to educate themselves. That has given rise to groups like Resourceful Women, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that holds seminars on topics ranging from the financial markets to picking a lawyer.

For private bankers, paying more attention to women investors could be well worth it. In 1995, women were the primary decision makers in 15.7% of households with annual incomes of at least $100,000 or net investable assets of at least $500,000, according to Payment Systems Inc., a Tampa- based research firm. That's up from 10.8% in 1992.

"Women came into the investment game later," Ms. Pepper said, "and they came into it with a vengeance."

It's not only well-to-do women who need education, Ms. Pepper said. She recently spoke about modern portfolio theory - which is well-ingrained on Wall Street - to a group of women investors and their husbands in Cincinnati.

"Afterward, some of the husbands came up to me and said, 'This is the first time I've understood what those words mean,' and thanked me," Ms. Pepper said.

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