Many women are unhappy with the service they get from wealth managers — and in some cases their attitude, a global study by Boston Consulting Group found.
Women do not want a wealth manager with a condescending tone; what they do want is a wealth manager that will give them the tools they need to make smart decisions.
"Clients are results-oriented, whether men or women," Maris Ogg, president and founding principal of Tower Bridge Advisors in West Conshohocken, Pa., said in a telephone interview.
"The key is just paying attention," Ogg said.
The study's findings were released July 21 in a white paper. The paper said that nearly one-fourth of the 500 women surveyed early this year think wealth managers could significantly improve how they serve women.
In the study, more than 70 interviews were conducted with private banking specialists and wealthy women around the world.
The amount of women-controlled wealth rose 16% last year, to $20.2 trillion, the study found.
Boston Consulting Group said it expects that the amount of wealth controlled by women will grow 8% a year on average through 2014. The average was 7% from 2005-9.
"Women are earning more and the majority of women outlive their spouses and end up controlling the family wealth at some point in their lives," Dune Thorne, managing director at Silver Bridge Advisors, said in a telephone interview.
"The women we work with are so well educated and they don't want to be talked down to," she continued. "They don't want concepts and strategies dumbed down. They want really good, smart, thoughtful advice, but they want it to communicated in a way that is not demeaning and that is really partnering with them and helping them to understand and be part of the decision-making process."
