How to interact effectively with female clients

On a recent episode of BT’s HerAdvice podcast, financial adviser and owner of Lush Wealth, Christine Lusher, said patience, good communication, and transparency can help advisers interact effectively with female clients.

According to the Productivity Commission, the intergenerational wealth transfer over the next 25 years is likely to see $3.5 trillion dollars in assets change hands, with much of it going to women.

As these women potentially come into large amounts of assets in the coming years, Lusher shared the need for patience when onboarding a female client.

“Women are not going to instantly trust you; trust needs to be earned and developed over time,” Lusher said.

“That would be the first part of when you’re onboarding clients, just not doing the hard sell and really taking it a little bit slowly.

“Women can be very scared about making the wrong decision with their money. I think everyone can be [scared of] putting their trust in the wrong person.”

Expanding on the need to be transparent, Lusher said that starting financial advice can feel like a “bit of a leap of faith” for clients.

“Don’t expect somebody to sign up to what might seem like a hardcore contract, ongoing service agreement instantly,” Lusher said.

“If you put pressure on people to feel like they need to sign up for these long-term contracts instantly, it’s going to be very scary.

“As advisers, we know that ongoing service agreements can be terminated by clients at any time but making sure that the client knows this puts the power of the relationship in their hands.”

Touching on the importance of good communication, Lusher added that advisers need to make sure they don’t overwhelm the client with unnecessarily detailed information.

“Sometimes you listen to advisers talking about how they present the investment performance and how they talk about investments and the performance of their clients’ portfolios to a client in an interview, and it seems to be very in-depth,” Lusher said.

“And you often think, well, a client doesn’t quite want or need that much depth of information.

“If we’re worrying a client about strategic asset allocation every quarter, it’s not providing any value or improving your relationships.

“So, I think we need to work out; are you talking about that because it interests you, or is it beneficial to the client?”

Lusher also noted the importance of being mindful of how and with whom advisers are communicating when consulting with a couple.

“If there’s a man and a woman, making sure that you involve both parties equally in the conversation is obviously very important as well,” Lusher said.