Financial professionals play a key role in helping families navigate their personal finances and reach their goals. But women continue to be underrepresented in the financial services industry even as their economic power rises overall.
According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 32.6% of personal financial advisors are women, a datapoint that has remained relatively flat for a decade. At the same time, women’s financial assets in the U.S. are increasing exponentially, with experts predicting they will control $30 trillion by the end of the decade.
Primerica is working diligently to address this gap. In fact, 59% of Primerica’s life-licensed sales force are women. That leaves it well-positioned to serve as an industry leader, producing a pipeline of women financial professionals who are meeting the needs of the growing female client base.
“Primerica has made it very obvious that it is embracing and supporting women — we feature women in our brochures, we put them on stage, we share stories of how they’re excelling in different parts of the business,” said Frances Avrett, a Senior National Sales Director in Jefferson, Georgia, who joined Primerica in 1981.
“More women feel empowered to take leadership roles because they see other women doing it and think, ‘I can do that too.’ We’ve gradually changed that perception that the financial industry is a man’s world,” she added.
With more women in the workforce today than in previous decades and many increasingly in control of family finances, helping women secure their financial futures is more important than ever.
Overall, 25% of women say they are currently looking for a financial advisor, according to a recent survey from the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA). Most importantly, women are seeking financial professionals who understand their needs and place heavy emphasis on trustworthiness, experience and communications skills, the survey found.
That doesn’t surprise Frances “It’s just very basic human nature: Women relate to women better than they do men,” she said.
Women are also more likely than men to express concerns about their financial security, including retirement and emergency savings as well as medical expenses and long-term care, LIMRA reported. In addition, Primerica’s latest quarterly survey of middle-income Americans found that women are generally slightly less confident than men when it comes to personal finances, with a far more significant gap on investing. Just 40% of women in the survey expressed confidence investing in stocks, bonds or mutual funds, compared with 51% of men.
When Frances started at Primerica 40 years ago, she noticed women already played an outsized role managing family finances. “Even in those days, I very quickly realized that when we would get down to the brass tacks, the man would turn to his wife. It was clear that women were silently behind the scenes managing the family finances,” she said.
Today, with women bringing in a greater share of the household income, their role is more pronounced and out in the open — but there’s still more work to be done.
“With the great transfer of wealth to women underway, we’re going to see more and more need for women to bolster their financial education and start thinking about the bigger picture when it comes to their income, investments and overall personal finances,” she said.
Disclosures:
- Life-licensed Primerica representatives are agents of the Primerica insurance companies: In the U.S. (except in New York), term life insurance products are underwritten by Primerica Life Insurance Company, Executive Offices: Duluth, Georgia. In New York, term life insurance products are underwritten by National Benefit Life Insurance Company, Home Office: Long Island City, New York.
- In the U.S., securities and advisory services are offered by PFS Investments Inc., 1 Primerica Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30099-0001, member FINRA [www.finra.org]. PFS Investments Inc. conducts its advisory business under the name Primerica Advisors. Primerica and PFS Investments Inc. are affiliated companies.
