May 2025
Tune in if you’re interested in the following:
• Why having both male and female financial advisors is important for many clients
• The challenges and cultural shifts for women in finance
• What makes female investors and clients unique
• How we’ve engaged all clients more thoughtfully
Watch previous episodes here:
Ep. 138 An Inside Look at How We Make Investment Decisions
Ep. 137 Long Term Care Insurance: Keep, Cancel, or Replace?
Hello and welcome to THE FINANCIAL COMMUTE. This is a takeover episode because I'm here with my new partner, Patrice Bening, who just became a partner at Morton Wealth about a month ago right?
It has been a month.
I love having you at the partner table.
Thank you so much. It's a great table to be at, and I feel like I am that little girl that looked at, you know, sky rises and thinking like, wow. Like I would never be able to top and to get to this point here in my career. It is pretty special. So thank you.
Well, you make us better and I'm happy to have you as a partner. So exciting, super exciting. So what we thought we would do, kind of in celebration of Patrice becoming a partner, but also in celebration of the evolution of women about women in the industry and financial services and our female investors, we thought we'd do an episode just on how women think about wealth, how we view wealth, how we think about our careers as financial advisors.
And so this will be a fun conversation for us today. Cannot wait. So interesting enough, one highlight I wanted to make is that only 30% of financial advisors are women, which feels a little shocking to me given that pretty much 50% of our clients are women and 50% of our clients are men. And so we have this interesting imbalance that has happened in financial services.
And I saw a survey that was done recently. It's called How Investors Choose. And when asked, do they prefer their advisor to be male or female? About 50% or a little more than 50% actually said they prefer women advisors. But we have so few of them in this industry. So what I'd love to just start with is hearing your background.
Let's talk about your story and how you got into this industry, because I think the demographics were even worse when you started. So would you mind sharing?
Yeah, it's definitely been a journey, and I have to say that I kind of falter in the story for the fact that we don't have more women. There are barriers to entry to becoming an advisor. There are barriers to entry to be, I think, a female investor. There are barriers to stay on both sides. I did not probably start out thinking that I was going to get here because I did not have the right support at the time.
I spent most of my life on the banking side of things, and I think my career was very, I'd say... Let's just say it wasn't a teamwork type of play. As we know, a lot of a lot of us in our industry work very siloed. It's a very transactional, almost business-like. I know we work and we have relationships, but even when I became a client manager in the latter part of my career when I worked at Bank of America, I remember looking around the office and there was one female advisor, and she was really tough.
She was so tough that I was really afraid to approach her. And I was thinking that I felt that in my role of talking to clients about their lives, about their families, it felt natural to fall into be becoming an advisor. I said, this is really not that bad. And yeah, I can I can probably learn about the stocks and bonds and pie charts and asset allocations.
I said, but mostly I said, I just want to talk to people. And but never once did I feel like that. I could talk, that I had the courage to talk to her because she was, she had her she had to build the guardrails around her because she was alone. And she had to build her own business because she had no support either.
But I think coming from that and for me thinking, I don't know if one day I honestly didn't think I paused. I was also a young mother at the time, and I said, I don't think I'll ever be able to make it as an industry because it is. It is too tough to get in. And if I get in, I don't think I have what it takes to stay in.
So yeah, I think full circle coming back to where we are right now, even thinking how I operated back in the day, a lot of, a lot of my clients were really disenchanted with the culture or lack thereof, and a large financial institution. And I used to I remember I used to say to them that, you know, they would say, Patrice, if I if you guys weren't on every corner and if you didn't have all the conveniences, I would not even be here.
And I would say, well, let's change that mindset. I said, let's think that you bank with a Bank of Patrice versus Bank of America, for example. And I think that's really where we bring us as advisors, if we're able to really identify with our clients and create the space for them to be who they are, I think that's most important.
Like what you just described, as you made it a relationship instead of a transaction. And in some ways, the way that the world went 20, 30 years ago as most financial advice or investment management was a transaction, right? You went to your guy who was in a stockbroker and they bought you stocks. And that's how I think the world operated.
And so in many ways, I think it made sense because most men had control of the family finances, and most men were stock brokers. It was the guy that you called it, and that was the way that the world was. But it's transitioned so much in the last, I would say, decade, to the point where you probably were on to something in like those ten, 15 years ago when you were a young mother thinking, oh, what if I make this about the bank?
If Patrice and I make it about a relationship, I make it about understanding the client and their needs, not a transaction over to a person who has the best deal or something like that.
That wasn't true. And if I think about how our industry has changed, when I came to Morgan, I was blown away by the fact that not only do we have so many women representing this firm, but we have two women in the C-suite level, and you being our chief operating officer and chief marketing officer. And I would say that if we look across the board and I think ever since I've met you, I feel you've been passionate about not just presenting, but representing in our industry as you go to many, many conferences.
And I think the numbers are really not in your favor. So I think from your perspective, how have you, you know, looked at how you approach management and, and what's shifted since you've been in this role.
Oh so much. I remember first becoming the CEO in 2017, and I got invited to a conference down in Dana Point. And the conference was like an executive conference through Pershing, who we don't necessarily even work with. But that was what they were recruiting us, I think at the time. And I walked into the room and I remember wearing this super bright red dress, I have my blond hair.
And I looked around the room and there were a black and blue suits and like, not a woman inside, like, you know, no women at this conference. And it was just for C-suite executives in financial services. And what's shocking to me is I think this statistic is actually the only 15% of executives in financial services are women. So we have to, which is amazing in the C-suite.
But that's not very common across the board. And when you and I travel to other conferences, we hear stories where it's just not as common. And so that's something that I've dedicated part of my career to, is just being a representation of women in leadership. I think that for little girls who want to grow up to hold leadership positions, to become advisors one day, there's an aspect of they have to see it to believe it.
And so one of the components of my role in my job at Morgan is going out to these conferences, speaking on stages, and showing that there's not only space for women to cohere the industry, but in fact, we can be celebrated, we can be successful, we can work with firms like Morgan that are so empowering. And that's been a really important aspect of my career.
Well, I hope you know, you've been an absolute inspiration. You know, for me, as far as my career at Morgan and the support that you've offered for someone like me to even dream about a partnership and to be in the shoes that I am now. And, I think the trailblazing and the visionary that you are and continue to be is something that I think defines us as a firm.
And I have so much faith in us continuing to become successful and keep up with the changing times, really.
I appreciate that so much because I feel like we as women have to continue supporting each other so we can, like, grow as a unit and as a collective whole too.
I actually, though, want to just take a moment to also note that all of our gentlemen here are also amazing advisors. Like, I don't think that this should be a necessarily just a gender discussion.
I feel that we in as a culture, we hire people who are values oriented, who are passionate about making the client experience better, who like, truly love the work that we do together. They love our clients. They're very, bank with Patrice oriented, meaning bank with Chris, bank with Kevin, big with Joe. Like they're oriented towards the relationship versus the transaction.
And that's something that I'm really proud of.
So it's very interesting because I thought about this and I don't know what firm. I think all firms have a mission statement and they have a vision statement. And we have that too. But we go above and beyond and we have core values. And we don't just say we have core values, we really believe and we embody them.
And I recently actually had, dinner with, a friend and also, an accomplished, CPA, and she said she happened to attend one of our events and she when she walked in, you know, I wasn't there at the event. And afterwards she said, Patrice, I've never walked into a wealth management firm and not feel the ego of people, said Morton.
Has like, there's nobody has ego or they're selfish and you guys are like a family. I said, that's not something that you see. And so it's almost like I wanted to be part of this family that you have built. And, I just said it really comes across so naturally. And I think that's really what it is, even for me to, you know, from my first day at Morton, I felt that I belonged.
It's like for people to have to embrace me the way they have. And that's exactly what we do with our clients. I think we bring them into the fold in a way that other firms really focus on. We've got like shiny numbers or, you know, PDFs or PowerPoints to present to you. So I think it's a different vibe altogether, different culture.
It really is a different culture. And that's something that we we work very hard to build and preserve and it's really nice to, to know that's also coming across other lines to, you know, other professionals as well.
I love that story so much. Like, I, I want people to walk into this building and say, oh, it feels different in here. It doesn't feel like I'm going to get sold something. It feels like people who really care about me. So that's amazing that they told me that story.
You know, I felt really good about it, too.
What if we switch gears to the client side of the business? What we're seeing is more and more women, are becoming investors, are in the client meetings with us, are part of the dynamic. And our researcher did find a really interesting stat. We're in 2024, 71% of women were interested in the markets and following the markets. That's up from 40% not that long ago.
So this is becoming a trend that more and more women are getting involved in their financial lives. There's some other statistics I've seen that said, in the next decade, women will be in charge of 60% of the wealth, which is certainly a change from 50 years ago. Can you share with me a little bit about your perspective on this and how you think women investors are thinking about managing money, maybe even a little differently?
I think so, I really believe that women with this inheritance of this great wealth transfer, it's like the next buzzword that I've heard at a couple of conferences now, and it's resonating across our industry. But with this shift of wealth, I believe there's also a shift of power. So as women, we do seek guidance. We do like to be empowered.
And it is great to see that we are becoming better at investing. But there's this thing about our confidence gap and our, there's, there's confidence gap and there's competence. And I think people mistake those two. But we still don't have we lack the confidence to really feel, to take things all the way to the end. We are extremely competent, but it's just kind of like where do we find the resources, where are the relationships that we need to surround ourselves with to truly make it impactful?
Also, when we inherit wealth, we inherit businesses. As it stands right now, even though I'd say I looked, at some numbers. And when it comes to decision making, it's 5050 in a household and with it with a couple. But what's interesting is that even though the woman controls the spending aspect of it, the the budgeting, the, you know, all the bills the male partner handles the investing in long term planning.
Interesting. So it's funny how like if we have if we have a bigger say, almost in how the money is being spent, why would we not be involved in how the money is being invested? So that's something that I think we can definitely feel to we would look to find better ways to get involved. I would say personally, even if I were to think back to my 30-year-old self and I was, you know, in the financial services industry and I will absolutely be humble and say that I knew 1% of what I knew now, but I thought I knew 100% of everything.
I was never engaged by either person, either by an advisor or by people that were above me, even from my career perspective or from an investing perspective. And I think as women, if we don't, if we're not engaged, we're not going to participate. So I think that resonates when, you know, if I go to, a party and I'm quite passionate about making sure that I let people know that I want to change the narrative when it comes to the investing landscape for women, because our industry fails us.
And I still get the whole thing about, well, Jack has a spreadsheet, so I'm fine. And I'll say, well, do you know what's on the spreadsheet? Well, the passwords for the online accounts are on the spreadsheet. And I suppose you and Jack have time that you dedicate to talk about this. So I think that's becoming you know I think more rare I hope.
Yeah. But in, in the grand scheme of things for us there's, we are business owners. We are a lot of us even are the breadwinners for our families. We are now going to inherit a lot of wealth. So I think we're going to be able to make decisions and we're going to even impact, I think, the broader economic landscape of of this country, because if we're going to control two thirds of the US wealth in the next 5 to 10 years, that's going to look a little bit different than it is now.
Yeah, that's a big statistic, right? That's a big change. And you know what I love. What about what you shared is like you're really not trying to promote like one or the other of partners managing all the money. You're trying to promote good communication habits, good collaboration. Oftentimes, I find that sometimes people shy away from meetings with us, male or female, because they don't want to be intimidated.
They feel a little scared of what we're talking about. They're feeling like, oh, if I go and have a meeting with them, well, I feel not smart in the meeting. Right. And that's a hurdle that we want to get over. We want anyone to ask any question of us because the knowledge is power. And I think that's incredibly important.
I agree, I always say, let's not become ostriches.
I feel that your relationship as an advisor, because you wear so many hats, I don't know how you do it all. And you, you have the opportunity to work with some really unique and interesting women. How do you really look to. How do you feel that women should be best served?
That's a good question. I think that, the women I work with and about 70% of my clients are single women or women who are the head of their household. So that's just interesting. So I get to work with a lot of different women, ages 40 to 80, and there's a few truths that I know about working with female investors.
One is that the environment needs to be safe. It needs to be safe for them to ask questions. They need to feel like there's some level of safety and risk management in their investments. It needs to be a safe place to share information outside of just investing, including like values, discussions and conversations. I think that a lot of the clients I work with need to feel seen or want to feel seen.
They don't want me to just make a recommendation because Morton thinks it's the best investment they want me to make a recommendation because it's the investment, best investment for them. And I would say a lot of the couples that I work with and a lot of the men I work with actually agree with that as well, like making investment decisions that are not just what Morton likes, but rather what is the right decision for them.
I think is very important. And the last one is honesty and transparency, which I think all investors really want that the piece that I feel, if you were to ask a few of my clients their perspective on working together, they would say they like is I'm also not afraid to give them alternative perspectives. And it's not about, telling somebody they're wrong.
It's not being demeaning. It's not shutting somebody down, which I think is a fear a lot of people have is like, oh, I don't want to say something wrong to my financial advisor. They'll shut me down. I don't want to say something and then feel stupid later. That was a dumb idea. That's not what I'm talking about.
What I'm talking about is honest collaboration, really walking through the implications of decisions, the pros and cons that not every decision gets five gold stars. Sometimes they're like a three-gold star decision, and you have to accept that you lose a little to gain more than you lose if you are going to make these types of decisions. And so I think that it's really important that people feel like it's a safe environment, that they feel seen as a human first.
It's a relationship, and then that there's a level of honesty because it doesn't make sense for us as advisors to just fluff feathers and to tell people what they want to hear. It makes much more sense for us to be really truthful and transparent. At least that's my perspective.
That's always I mean, listening to your stories whenever you showcase the value that when you work with your female clients. It is really empowering to me because I feel like you're a really good detective and then you're really you're a good therapist as well. And then you bring everything else underneath the advisor umbrella and you give some, you know, incredible advice.
But it's really empowering to us.
So I appreciate that very much. I think that there's an aspect of this role that it has to be part detective, part therapist. I know I don't... I think it's best how we best serve our clients. And I know you feel this way, too, which you've done a lot of research, conferences, and studies oriented towards, like, how do I become an advisor who can serve all of the aspects of my client's well-being versus just the financial aspect?
It really has? I think it's it's interesting when I think about even women as investors, I think about myself, I think about the mistakes that I've made. And it really I think women bring this unique discipline, long term approach to investing. We are definitely more patient. I think even when I think about turmoil, though, we are very fortunate to have access to investments that are not correlated to the market.
So we are the good news bearer really in a downturn versus... But I think women don't just want a financial plan, they really want an advisor who's really going to be there to hear them, to respect their values, to be kind of like the sounding board for the decisions they make to say, you know, is this decision good or bad?
And they want somebody they can partner with in strategy and support. And honestly, even when we think about if you're, inheriting wealth or if you're creating wealth, at the end of the day, both have the same question am I doing this right?
And for me to be able to create that space and, you know, if it's through community, if it's, you know, with the one on ones, I think that's really where we can step in as advisors to be able to meet our, our clients where they're at because who I was at 30 is not who I am right now in my, you know, late 40s.
It's definitely not who I was in my 20s. So I think if I worked with somebody, they would have to really mold their conversation and understand the stages of my life, how my goals have changed, who I am as not just a professional, but also as a mother, as a, you know, wife and person who enjoys life. So I think that's really so there's so many facets of our just investors, period that we need to consider if we really want to.
We want to be effective.
And I love what you just said about the advice changes through your milestones, advice changes based on what decisions you make in life. What good advice for one person is not necessarily good advice for another, which is why Google advice is terrible. Because I feel like it just tells you whatever, like financial gurus have said.
But does that mean that it's the right decision for you? Like, I don't necessarily think that's true. I think you have to really understand the human in order to give them good advice. And that's one of my favorite parts about working together, is I feel like both you and I approach all of our work in that way, and I think that that's the ethos of this organization.
Right? Any advisor that you work with it more in, it's going to put values above strategy and then help, like design a strategy that leads to values and something I'm really proud of about our company. Sam. Right himself. Okay. So we're going to play a new game that we haven't played on the financial commute. We have the other, podcast, YouTube Couch Conversations, where we play a game called this or that at the end.
But on THE FINANCIAL COMMUTE, we're going to do it a little differently. We're going to play optimist or pessimist. All right. This is a new game. So, one question for you. And you have to answer optimist or pessimist. And then one question for me. So my question for you is do you think that women will close the wealth gap in the next 25 years?
Okay. My question for you is, do you believe that the next generation of girls will be better off than their mothers?
100%. But I, I want to say that that's not just a conversation for financial services or finance in general. It's I think it's across the board. One of my hobbies is that I love, love, love, love watching women's soccer. And I've loved watching the evolution of women's soccer and how we're seeing so much higher attendance at the games.
We're seeing them televised. We're seeing better social media strategy interviews. You get to actually get to know these women. We're seeing things like shocking fact, until three years ago, they were never testing soccer cleats on women, only men were being tested for soccer cleats. And women's ACL injuries are like significantly higher than men's. And I think to myself, how come nobody tested the clips?
Even in England 50 years ago, it was illegal to play soccer as a woman or as a child. And now you're seeing like, I was watching the Arsenal game over the weekend and there was 46,000 fans in the stadium. And that's that's very different. So I think we're seeing kind of women and men get to a place of like equality and respect much faster than I ever remember.
And I feel very optimistic that this is the way, this is the way the world is going. And we can all mutually work together, use our strengths in different ways, and respect one another. And that makes me very joyful and happy and into that.
Well, that was very fun. Thank you so much. And thank you for tuning in.
Congratulate Patrice when you see her around the office as the newest partner of Morton Wealth. And we will see you next time.
Information presented herein is for educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the speakers are as of the date of the recording and are subject to change. You should consult with your attorney, finance professional or accountant before implementing any transactions and/or strategies concerning your finances.
