Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 275: Women, Wealth and Future of Financial Planning with Cary Carbonaro, CFP®

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 4 • Episode 275

Share episode

What happens when financial advisors ignore half their potential clients?
They miss out on a trillion-dollar opportunity.

This compelling conversation with Cary Carbonaro, CFP® and author of Women and Wealth, explores how the financial services industry has consistently overlooked women—and what needs to change. As Cary puts it, “Financial services is the least sympathetic to women, but the one that has the most to gain if they get it right.”

We explore why 70–80% of women leave their financial advisors after the death of a spouse (hint: it’s not because they want to), and how common industry missteps—like unconscious bias, excessive jargon, and dismissing women’s priorities—push female clients away. Cary also unpacks key emotional and financial concerns, including the “bag lady fear” that affects over 50% of women regardless of net worth, and why values-based financial planning matters more than ever.

By 2030, women are expected to control two-thirds of the nation’s wealth—an estimated $30 trillion—driven by increased longevity, entrepreneurship, “gray divorce,” and rising numbers of female breadwinners. This shift presents a massive opportunity for advisors who are willing to evolve.

Whether you're a woman taking charge of your finances, someone who wants to support the women in your life, or a financial professional aiming to create a more inclusive practice, this conversation offers powerful insights into why empathy, education, and intentionality lead to stronger financial outcomes for all.

Key Themes:

  • How the industry has failed women—and how it can do better
  • The emotional drivers behind women’s financial decisions
  • Why women often switch advisors after major life events
  • The trillion-dollar wealth transfer and what it means for the future
  • Creating financial plans that prioritize purpose, not just performance

Connect with Cary Carbonaro
Website: https://carycarbonaro.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carycarbonarocfp/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ccarbonaro
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carycarbonaro/ https://x.com/CaryCarbonaro

The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. And I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. Just a quick note before we dive in.

Speaker 1:

The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are my own and those of my guests, and they don't necessarily represent those of any organizations that I'm affiliated with. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at pearlplancom. Now let's get started. Hi everybody, we're in for a treat today.

Speaker 1:

I am joined by recently published author although it's not her first book and also fellow financial advisor, keri Carbonaro. She's going to be talking about her book, which is all about women and wealth, as well as the lessons we've learned. We're going to share with you the lessons we've learned about how our profession of financial advice does and doesn't get women, and what we need to do to change it. Carrie is an award-winning certified financial planner with over 25 years of experience. She's the managing wealth advisor and women in wealth ambassador at Ashton Thomas, where she leads a multimillion dollar financial planning practice focusing on empowering women. Carrie is the bestselling author of the Money Queen's Guide and the newly released book Women and Wealth a playbook to empower clients and unlock their fortune, which offers actionable strategies for better serving women in financial services.

Speaker 1:

Carrie was just holding up the book. Congratulations on the the narratives. Congratulations that it's out in the world in print. And we need so much more of this because I don't know what the like name of the you know when you have a panel of all men and it's like a mantle I don't know that's exactly it.

Speaker 1:

it's a mantle. Yeah, the mantles for books are like every time you read, like the best books for financial advisors or the best books on money. It's like 20 books by men and then we'll throw in one by a girl and or women. I should say so we need to be writing more, we need to be out there more and we need to be talking about what we see, and you've done just that, carrie. Thanks for joining us and congratulations oh, you're so welcome.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, this. This was a passion project, for sure it was. It took a very, very long time when, when you read it, it's a very thick, heavy book at 400 pages and unfortunately it took. It took three years of my life, so it was a very, very laborious process. And then going through the publishing cycle and three rounds of edits, and then going through the publishing cycle and three rounds of edits, which took another year, so it's been four years in the making to bring this to fruition. So it's very exciting.

Speaker 1:

It's actually, like I say, it's harder than having a child because it's three times the amount or four times the amount of time, Because when you get to nine months, you're not just like well, this is happening, whether I like it or not. You still got to keep pushing Right, Right, Exactly. Well, why did you feel so inspired and you know like? Why did you feel like you had to get this book done?

Speaker 2:

So such a great question and it's interesting because so my first book, which was written over a decade ago, so really really really long time between my first book and my second book, like an enormous amount of time between it, like a lot of business and life packed in between right, a lot, a lot of reasons why 10 years between the two, but so the first book.

Speaker 2:

when I wrote the first book, I felt compelled to write the first book because I had just gone through a terrible divorce and just gotten out of an abusive marriage, and so coming out of that was so incredibly overwhelming that I had to write it down and say how can I help women not go through the same situation that I just went through and how can I help them prevent that from happening? So that was my impetus for the first book. And then it's so interesting because I didn't even realize this till recently what happened with the second book and so the second book. I went through another terrible period of my lifetime where my company was sold to Goldman Sachs and I was at a very, very dark period of my life where I had almost given up on my career. I almost walked away. I had to have the most incredible resilience to get through what I went through.

Speaker 2:

And when I got out on the other side, I said I have to write a book. I have to share what happened to me. I have to share my experience of working in wealth management and what happened to me as a woman. And then, by the way. I want to also change the profession and make it more female friendly for people who are in the industry. Women bring more women into the industry and keep women in the industry and then also just make it friendly for the clients. So what's so interesting is when you look at the research in the book, which you know it's. It's packed with research and there was a Harvard Business Review study from 2009 that says financial services is the least sympathetic to women, but the one that has the most to gain if they get it right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's a huge business business case for treating women well, in our business.

Speaker 2:

It's incredible. It's a trillion dollar opportunity. Like I always say, like this has nothing to do with DE&I. This is like I never say that word, I never talk about that. This is a business case, it's a business opportunity. What other industry would you say? Here's a trillion dollar opportunity on a silver platter and then nobody wants it.

Speaker 1:

Nobody's taking it, it's true, and I mean it makes it, dare I say, a little bit easier for someone like you or me who is growth oriented, really focused on marketing, really focused on communicating with people, getting the good message out, whether we work with people or not.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Because so many people feel excluded and unwelcome in the doors that they're actually being invited into. The people on the other side just don't realize that they are are acting in a manner that doesn't feel invited to women and different people.

Speaker 2:

Right. So that's actually the main reason I wrote the book. I wrote the book so that that doesn't happen. What I would love to, I mean and of course this is a big, hairy, audacious goal but I would love for this book to literally change it, change the experience for women, like all throughout the industry. You know, starting from you know the guys who were, you know, in their sixties that don't know what they don't know. Or you know the guys starting out in their twenties that also don't know what they don't know.

Speaker 2:

I want, you know, I want to change it for everybody. I want all the women to walk in the door and feel welcomed and supported and spoken to and heard and seen and, you know, have a great experience. And there's another article that came out that's actually research. That's not in the book because it came out after the book was published. Actually, it came out February of this year and the book was finished August of last year. So it's not in the book, but it was a Cerulli study. It's not in the book, but it was a Cerulli study and it said that firms that get it right with women are going to be positioned for decades to come.

Speaker 2:

It's true Silver platter, silver platter.

Speaker 1:

Here you go, I think, also just anecdotally, from experience, and I'll let you get back to the facts because I know our listeners are driving their kids in the car pool or, you know, heading for a long weekend or on the treadmill. They are those clients that our profession is missing out on or misrepresent. You know, like not communicating appropriately but, anecdotally, you know, I have a. Currently all of our full-time employees are females. Anecdotally, you know, I have a. Currently all of our full-time employees are females, although we're we'll be, I'm sure, happy to welcome some men to the employee roster over the years.

Speaker 1:

But people in our profession assume, oh, you're building a company just for women and actually there's many men who enjoy working with us. There's many people who are in a heterosexual relationship who say my wife doesn't feel welcome working with our advisor. I typically make, you know, like, schedule the financial appointments, but I want to work with someone who would be welcoming to both of us and it doesn't self-select out from advice for men as well. But what are some of the, as you researched, what are some of the ways that, just as a generic profession or industry, we turn people off, especially women, from feeling welcome?

Speaker 2:

So such a good question and there's so many, so many answers to that, so I'll just, I'll just scratch the surface for that. So what happens? One thing is unconscious or implicit bias is ingrained in us from you know socialization from the time you're little to you know, growing up to what you are right now. So that is where you literally don't know what you don't know, and it's already it's it's happening. Where you literally don't know what you don't know and it's already it's it's happening. So there is an implicit bias quiz that harvard um puts out, which you can go in and take it and see are you automatically making assumptions? And um, and and it's interesting because there's all different ways you could be making it about um, race, gender, socioeconomic status, like there's it's not just one thing, it's a million different things that you just you know, maybe you were raised this way and you know, you don't know that this way exists and so it's simple things like that. But it's very powerful because it is a big turnoff to a lot of women who, you know, are sitting at a couple you know two couples sitting with a financial planner and I'm just going to take a liberty with this discussion and say that a male financial advisor is not making eye contact with the woman and just making eye contact with the man and the man is nodding and she is zoning out and nodding interested, and he is talking in jargon and he is speaking a different language. And you know, our industry is very male language because it was created by men for men and that's okay, because that's the way it was. You know, that's who the client was.

Speaker 2:

But that's my point is the future client is changing. It's already changing and it will continue to change. So guess what? You have a new client. You have new language. What? You have a new client? You have new language. You have new processes. You have new everything. Everything should be different to accommodate this new, this new female client.

Speaker 2:

So the female client doesn't resonate with beating the S&P 500. She doesn't care, she wants. I've never in my entire career had a woman say to me I need to beat the S&P 500. Never once in my entire, you know, 25 year career I've had them say to me I'm worried about running out of money, I'm worried about being a bag lady and homeless. You know the bag lady fear is real. More than 50% of women have it. It's a real thing, even if it's irrational depending on how much money you have. I happen to have it, I know. So I can talk about this fear. You know addressing that fear.

Speaker 2:

You know things that keep women up at night are related to life events and life struggles, and you know they have no time and they're raising children and they have. You know they have jobs plus raising children and taking care of the house and everything else that falls on a woman. So you know, and then you have all the strikes against women in general pay, wage gap, the wealth gap which, by the way, is a million dollars over a woman's lifetime for out of the workforce, caregiving for children, having children and caregiving for parents Million dollars right there. Then you know women spend over 250,000 more in retirement on healthcare. Then we've got retire with two thirds less low social security we have. Women have and I hate this one, but it's true, unfortunately we have a confidence, um, and I hate this one, but it's true, unfortunately we have a confidence gap. Women have the confidence gap, uh, which is, you know, that whole women will apply for a job if they have 10 out of 10 or 12 out of 10 vacations.

Speaker 2:

Right, exactly, they have to have more than what's listed. Um, and a man will apply with two or three out of the 10. So I mean, that's a real thing. That's been around a long time, you know. And then women, you know, invest less. They feel more comfortable with cash. We have to get them over that hump and, you know, because they feel the loss more because they have so much, you know, their nest egg is so precious to them because it took them so much to get it, that it's harder for them to, you know, lose money. And again, we know that the losing money is only a short-term thing. If you zone out to 10 years, you know there's never going to be a period in time where, in a balanced portfolio, a woman's going to lose money Like it doesn't. It's not going to happen, not on my watch, unless they're in, and not on your watch unless they're in a single stock that goes bankrupt or a Ponzi scheme, none of which is happening with a, with a CFP professional not happening.

Speaker 1:

You know not happening.

Speaker 2:

So it's just it's there's so many like so much emotion also around the money for women, you know, and for me when I get hired from. When a client hires me, it's usually during a terrible time in her life a divorce, a death, a disability, a job loss. It's always something terribly negative and I always say I wish a woman would come to me when the sun is shining rather than when it's raining. And she always comes to me when it's raining and it's okay because I have we have empathy, I'm going to get her through this. I used to call it trauma bonding, but now I call it resilience bonding. Oh, I love it.

Speaker 2:

Which is when you get them through the most difficult period of their life and they come out stronger on the other side and you are with them and you are the reason that they come out on the other side. They will be with you for the rest of their lives. You are going to be resilience bonded, and it's totally positive, rather than trauma bonding, which is a negative word, Even though it's pretty much very similar. It's just a matter of the wording, but it is similar and trauma bonding is a negative meaning, like you're trying to like, twist their arm or do something like you know, in a negative way, and that's not at all what we do.

Speaker 1:

That's amazing. I think that it's true. So many times you start working with people because of a transition and in so many cases, those transitions are extraordinarily disruptive, even when they're positive. Transitions like an inheritance.

Speaker 1:

But if you're sitting in your car listening and having wanted to go through the process of financial planning and it's not that rainy day there's no time like the present, because you can really be impactful, you can make yourself safer for the future, but you can also capitalize on opportunities that may not be there on that rainy day. So I always encourage people to be, you know, incremental and get started.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. There's absolutely no timeline today Like that's it.

Speaker 1:

We've listed off all the things, all the knocks we have against us. You know that we're. When you're a sandwich generation, the sandwich is often the female. When you're a sandwich generation, the sandwich is often the female.

Speaker 2:

Um, you know, we are living longer with oftentimes less resources. I didn't even put that in there and you're right and I and that is another one of the things is the longevity, so not so we could be actually women. We could be retired for longer than we worked. And when I tell people that they're like what? And I'm like, think about it, how many years did you work? And then, if you're living to a hundred or past a hundred, you could potentially be retired for longer than you worked.

Speaker 1:

Yep, Absolutely. And also, though, women are really emerging as power brokers we are.

Speaker 1:

we now have the concept of the female breadwinner or oftentimes I work with double breadwinner families where both partners are career oriented and making powerful decisions in the workplace. They have extraordinary human capital and yet we were raised with a tool set that may not have equipped us to make more complex financial and investment decisions, even though we have all of that capability. You know genetically and as a decision maker. We haven't been told that this is something that we can do. So what are your? What did your research show about these types?

Speaker 2:

of people. Oh, it's so interesting. I'll tell you exactly a story just from the other day from a client of mine who's a I work with almost exclusively um breadwinning women like that's, like that's my main demographic um because they say you mirror your clients and that's what I am.

Speaker 2:

So it's what I, what I attract and I had a one of my very high wage earner. Women say to me Carrie, just because I know how to make it doesn't mean I know what to do with it. I thought that was perfect. I'm like that's exactly right. Nobody like, just because you're great at your job and you know how to make money doesn't mean you know what to do with it. And that's where we come in, because we're going to tell you exactly what to do with it, how to do it, how to protect yourself, where to put it where, so you can sleep at night and all everything else to make sure that all your ducks are in a row and how they're working together.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you can manage multiple priorities. I think that is one of the things that a financial planner can bring to the table is that you have a lot of options when you're successful, but knowing, should I focus on the kids' school or my retirement first, or paying off this debt, et cetera, et cetera. It becomes complicated if you don't just have one decision to make or kind of one stream of consciousness to focus on Right or what I was going to say all of the above to that answer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1:

Often it's like yes and and we show how you can avoid blind spots by addressing more things, but it's also can be very overwhelming when you're trying to figure that out on your own, and I feel like society gives you know. There's a lot of really great DIYers out there who love personal finance as a hobby or investing as a hobby, who tell everybody else who don't necessarily consider it a hobby that their hobby needs to be the avocation of the other people and so paying for services is not inappropriate when it comes to investment in financial decisions.

Speaker 2:

Right, and here we are. We're, you know, 50 year old profession, so you know we're relatively new.

Speaker 2:

And the reason that we are a relatively new profession is because, you know, back in the day, everybody had pensions and social security and that was supposed profession is because you know, back in the day, everybody had pensions and social security and that was supposed to cover everything you know. And then in the 70s it's interesting like if you look at a chart I don't have this chart in my book, but it looks like this and it's the downfall of pensions and the rise of CFPs and it literally goes like this. So it's as people were responsible as pensions pulled out of the marketplace and people were now responsible for managing their own money with individual retirement accounts or 401ks or whatever. That's when we came into play and that's when you know, we became a profession. But that's also to answer your question about the research on breadwinners, on female breadwinners. What's very interesting on that is the whole great wealth transfer which is coming. You know, by 2030, women will control two-thirds of the nation's wealth which as it stands today how does that happen?

Speaker 1:

just explain to this. That's what that's what.

Speaker 2:

That's where I'm going. So that's 30 trillion dollars, which is the same as the gd, the United States, to put that in perspective, right? And so everyone's like, well, how is that happening? And so it's, it's a, it's a convergence of a bunch of different things happening at once. So one is the fact that our longevity because we are living outliving our spouses and our parents, living outliving our spouses and our parents um, we're getting inheritance from and inheritance from parents and inheritance from um spouses outliving spouses. So that's one of the things. Second thing is that, um, women are starting businesses faster than men right now, so the entrepreneur is happening. Then we also have gray divorce. So, which is older people you know, the fastest growing segment is over 50 years old getting divorced and then getting money transferred through that. And then my favorite out of all of them is that female breadwinners females will finally be a majority breadwinner in the United States by 2030, for the first time ever in history.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's my favorite stat. I love that. I mean we're getting educated and we're using those educational resources to capitalize.

Speaker 1:

When I look around my small town, there's so many small business owners who are female and a lot of times that's out of necessity because you hit career roadblocks and you say, you know, if it doesn't work out there, I'll do it myself are so many success stories to focus on and I hope that our profession is able to match those success stories by a willingness to be flexible, to be more modern, because really you're telling the story of the modern economy and unfortunately, our profession was built over the last 50 years, 30 years, but it was built and it was built on a structure that makes the practitioners less open to change, because it all starts with well, here's all the laws you need to follow and they don't make you sound very relatable.

Speaker 1:

And you know, then it's like and I've always done it this way, and I found all my clients on the golf course and their wives may or may not be invited to the meeting because we meet over drinks after our our round of golf. So there's so many opportunities for a more modern, fresh approach. Um, just like I know both of us are doing in our practices.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, and it's interesting because another thing I so there's another stat that I have a whole chapter on in the book, which is why women leave their advisors.

Speaker 2:

And so I so this one's really interesting. So the stat is that 70 to 90% so we can average it out at 80% of of women when their spouse dies. Who were met, who are men, leave that advisor. Who were men, leave that advisor. Wow. So, and that that number has not changed for decades. So as long as they've been measuring it, it has not changed.

Speaker 2:

So it's funny because when I talk to men about that stat, they say, well, I'm not doing anything wrong. And I'm like, well, somebody is, because it keeps happening and guess what, me and you are the ones who they're going to. So I'm happy with that stat, like, if it stays the same, we're just going to get more clients for us. So, cause they're coming to us and they're leaving men who are ignoring them or not serving them or not speaking to them or not communicating with them or not speaking their language or not bringing them into the conversation or talking over their heads, or you know all the, all the different things that they don't even maybe realize that they're doing, that they're doing.

Speaker 2:

So I also have a quiz in the book which is um, how female friendly is your practice? And it's actually not my quiz. I borrowed it from a friend and I gave her all the credit in the book, um and so, but it's a 20 question quiz and you can see, okay, there's things I'm doing that I had no idea that I wasn't doing, like having a separate meeting with, with the with at it from a woman's perspective, like with a gender lens, or if you don't understand where she's coming from, ask a woman, maybe she can tell you where she's coming from. So I mean, there's there's just so many things related to that whole topic that if men start to practice what's in the book, they're going to get it right.

Speaker 1:

I want that for everyone, because we don't have the capacity to serve everyone. Neither of us do, although we are, I know, both rooting for the success of women in our profession. But we really need that. It's, it's a blue ocean where if we can service more and serve, and service more people in a way that they need to be served, then that is better outcomes for American households, that is better outcomes for business practitioners. You know it's win, win, win and that's why I say that all the time I literally say win, win, win all the time.

Speaker 2:

And then another thing that's fantastic for women, which is another amazing thing about women and for women and related to our profession, is that women are more philanthropic than men which is another, creating win-win-wins, where if you, if you know, you're talking to the woman about putting um charitable gift annuities or charitable remainder trusts and like all these amazing things, where you're making the world a better place and you're and you're giving them tax savings and and they're getting, you know, all this great benefit from it, it's and it's just, it's amazing and women love that stuff and also women love values-based investing too. So that's another, that's another whole subject where you know, if have you ever asked your women clients Cause I hear a lot, oh, nobody ever asked me about that and I said do you ask your women clients? Would they like to tie their values to their portfolio and see what they say? I don't think there was one woman on the planet that would say tell me more or who would say no right off the bat, like I think everybody would be like what does that mean? Sure, explain it to me, you know.

Speaker 2:

And then we talk about. You know what we exclude, what we include. You know anything that's going to be impactful to them that they can feel like they're part of this, this is part of you. This money is an extension of you.

Speaker 1:

It's so true. I think that, yeah, that philanthropy really makes a difference. Being with an advisor that asks about philanthropy, being with an advisor that asks what's meaningful or important to you, whether it's building or purchasing your second home, or teaching the golden rule to your grandchildren, which was one of my favorite goals that one of my clients had once.

Speaker 1:

You know, financial planning is, if done right, is about possibilities. It's not about wealth. We're all. We're both accountable for dollars and cents and performance on a statement. It is about so much more than that, and if we can teach more people to have that perspective, then it again, the world will be a better place. The impact will be measurable.

Speaker 2:

Exactly Well, and I believe that, with this great shift that's coming and this upcoming wealth transfer, I do believe the world is going to change. If women are controlling the nation's wealth, I mean, it's going to be a super exciting time to be alive. And it's interesting because, with my bad experience that I had, where I almost gave up, I said I can't give up. I have to be here for this great wealth transfer. I've been talking about this for over a decade. I have got to be here to experience it. So I am waiting with open arms as it happens and it unfolds around us over the next five years.

Speaker 1:

Well, congratulations on the book. Five years Well, congratulations on the book. I hope for our listeners and audience they hear that, even though this book was written with the intent of educating a broader financial advisor population to know how to position their business and get those great results for the clients, because of it that there is so much information packed in there for people who want to be more knowledgeable about money and themselves especially our audience who are mainly women that it is worth a download or a borrow at the library. Carrie, can you tell us where people can find the book and then also where they can follow you?

Speaker 2:

Sure, absolutely. So. You can get the book at Amazon Barnes Noble Porchlight anywhere, like a lot of independent bookstores too. I don't want to stop the independence, but Amazon world, so I'm really easy to find. So my website is karicarbonarocom. Facebook I'm Kari Carbonaro. Linkedin I'm Kari Carbonaro. Instagram I'm Kari Carbonaro and I think that that's it. But those are the main places you can find me.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Well, I would be remiss since we were talking about philanthropy right at the end if I didn't mention that we both volunteer for an organization near and dear to both of our hearts that is working to improve access to financial advice, but also careers and financial advice for women. It's called the Women's Leadership Alliance, and Carrie put it in her book and also is a new board member and I'm a committee member for the organization, also is a new board member and I'm a committee member for the organization, but we're we're working hard, and so are our friends, to make this profession better for all of us.

Speaker 2:

Well, and also speaking of that, so we didn't even talk about that stat either but so it's pretty much an 80, 20 rule. So it's 80% men, 20% women, and we really want to increase that to be 50-50, because that's where we are with the population and we should nearer the population. So I mean, I would love and we unfortunately have not really moved that much in the past two decades, I think. We went from 20 to 22 or 20 to 23. So we have moved a tiny, tiny, tiny bit, but not enough.

Speaker 1:

Not enough at all. And if you have kids that are loving their econ classes or personal finance projects, if you're considering career transitions, if you just love this stuff, we could use you in this profession. There's both. You know a lot of advisors are at, or past, retirement age, and then also there is this gap in terms of participants as female professionals. So we're trying to close that gap. But if you're curious, please reach out to a female CFP or the Women's Leadership Alliance. Yes, or either of us, yes, absolutely Well, keri, thank you so much. It's so good to meet you. I've wanted to meet you for a while and I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

It was so nice to have be on with you. Thank you so much, Melissa.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to pearlplancom and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Melissa Joy, CFP

Co-host