LPL’s Independent Platform Creates Opportunity for Women Advisors

It’s not news that women are significantly less represented than men in the financial services industry. Women account for about 12 percent of advisors industrywide, according to Advisor Metrics 2014, The Cerulli Report, with women making up about 20 percent of LPL’s overall advisor count.

Yet industry trends, demographic shifts of wealth in the U.S. and investor preferences represent opportunity for women advisors. Private wealth in the U.S. is expected to grow to $22 trillion by 2020, with half of it controlled by women, according to Harvard Business Review. Paired with the fact that women investors have higher satisfaction rates when working with a female advisor, according to State Street Global Advisors’ Women and Investing Omnibus Survey, April 2015, there appears to be tremendous opportunity for women advisors to support women investors today and into the future.

As women enter the industry or grow upon existing careers in financial services, seizing the opportunity to serve more Americans with their investing needs, they face the similar challenges of most women professionals: a glass ceiling, work/life balance and pay gaps.