“Diversity in the retirement plan industry is not just important, it’s vital,” says Pat Wenzel, Managing Director and Senior Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Houston.
Advisors deal with different kinds of people, Wenzel noted in a Sept. 9 workshop session at the 2020 NAPA Cyber Summit—clients, colleagues at the office, plan participants—so advisory teams need to be diverse as well. “It’s not just about the color of your skin or where you’re from,” she said, “it’s about dealing with different personalities, ideas, opinions, thought structure and backgrounds—you name it.”
A diverse team can be a differentiator as well, Wenzel believes. For example, in a finals presentation, “if your team doesn’t look like your main competitors, whoever you’re presenting to might remember you more. So it’s important to have a diverse group in front of clients.”
Moderator Kelli Davis, VP of Retirement Plan Consulting at CSI Advisory Services in Indianapolis, noted the changes she’s seen in the makeup of investment committees. “It’s not all just white men at the table anymore,” she said. “So just as our clients have become more diverse, our industry needs to find way to get there as well.”
A diverse team is also a differentiator when it comes to dealing with plan participants, Wenzel believes. Just as advisors deal with all kinds of clients, they also deal with all kinds of participants, whether in terms of language skills or relatability. “It’s nice to have different people on your team dealing with different types of clients—it all comes down to communication and relatability,” she noted.
At Carmel, Indiana-based Shepherd Financial Services, according to co-speaker Leah Hill, the firm’s Director of Retirement Plan Services, one-on-one financial consulting and education at the participant level emphasizes a diverse team of male and female advisors. “That works really well for our participants because they have options on who they want to meet with,” she said. Generally speaking, abut 70% of the participants that Shepherd’s female advisors meet with are women.
That’s not a coincidence. “There’s something about the ability to relate to somebody who fits in my shoes,” Hill observes. “I can have a more open and honest conversation about a subject—money—that can be very private and apprehensive.”
Bringing More Women into the Industry
Wenzel and Hill shared some advice for young women who might be thinking about getting into the industry.
“First of all, this is hard,” said Wenzel. “Whether you’re a man or a woman, this is a hard job.” The first thing anyone thinking about getting into the industry needs to do is figure out what their priorities are, she continued. “This is not a 9-to-5 job. You’ve got the flexibility to leave early or stay late if you have to. You get out of it what you put in. You might have to miss a birthday party or an anniversary, or work while you’re on vacation—we’ve all experienced that. So you have to be sure you’ve got your priorities straight.”
Advisors also have to put up with rejection, Wenzel noted, “and at the same time be confident and assertive about yourself.”
One of the things that Wenzel thinks is especially helpful to young women in the industry is having a mentor. Noting NAPA’s involvement in the American Retirement Association's “THRIVE” mentorship program, “We’re always looking for mentors and mentees,” she said. “My mother used to tell me that it’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes than your own. We’ve all been through some tough times, and it’s always great to be able to learn from the experiences of others people.”
Like many people in the retirement space, Hill had no idea it was so big until after she got into it—initially as an actuary (always a male-dominated field), then as a TPA (with more women involved), and now an advisor (historically male-dominated but in transition). So she sees “an obligation we have as female advisors to get the word out”—and not just about opportunities in the advisory space. There are many career paths in the industry for women, she noted, including as an actuary, a TPA, a recordkeeper or an ERISA attorney.
Of course, there’s also diversity in terms of personality. Looking at her own team, Hill see a range of personality types: “We have extroverts; we have introverts; people who like to talk to people; people who don’t,” she notes. “In this industry there’s a spot for nearly every type of personality. In the retirement space, you can find your spot—and thrive.”
