Carolyn O’Reilly is a financial adviser at Perpetual Private which, late last year, launched its “Advice for women, by women” initiative.
She is one of seven female advisers who are dedicated to building a supportive and inclusive environment for female clients to reach their full potential, particularly focusing on divorce, inheritance and retirement.
The new team has come together as a group of senior women in the business who are making the most of their life experiences.
Carolyn has been at Perpetual for 16 years, but the focus on women has only happened within the past 12 months.
“We came together as a team to work with financially established women in the second stage of their life; typically someone financially established with children who have grown up – women aged around 45+. They are women who want to travel and live their best lives without having to focus on their finances.”
These women are focused on enjoying life, and beyond work, they are also looking at philanthropy. In addition, these clients will have assets outside the home of more than $1million.
The focus on women came from the team’s collective experience over many years with the majority of clients being female, Carolyn said.
There are certain attributes that these women had in common such as what they’re feeling and what they wanted from the advice process.
“Women were in different relationships, married, single, de facto, in relationships but not living together but what is common is women want to take responsibility for decision making,” Carolyn said.
“Lots of clients are going through divorce, loss of spouse, receiving inheritances.”
According to Carolyn, the advice they provide is the same as they would to men but the language and the way they engage is tweaked. “What’s important to women is having that trusted element. Our book is growing organically because women refer friends.”
“We are aware there are inadequacies in serving females and are aware that there’s an underrepresentation of female advisers in the industry. We wanted to become part of the catalyst of the solution for change.”
When it comes to divorce it’s common for women to come out of the relationship not knowing what has happened to their money. They want to know if they will have enough to support their family and to do the things they need to do. And importantly, they never want to be disengaged from their finances again!
Many want to have a female financial adviser, said Carolyn.
What clients say
The expectation when women see an adviser is they need to know things. “I have clients that are overly apologetic about not knowing about everything,” Carolyn says.
“Women can feel really uncomfortable being emotional and asking what they think are silly questions.
“One of the strengths of a female adviser is a lot of empathy.”
Some of the unsolicited emails we’ve received from female clients are:
“I appreciated you involved me in the meeting today.”
“This is the first time I’ve been addressed in a meeting and asked my opinion.”
“I don’t understand a lot yet, but I’m keen to learn more.”
Inside the business
For the women-focused strategy to be successful, Carolyn said there needed to be a culture in Perpetual Private where there was mentoring and strong financial advocacy for young female advisers.
“The work is gratifying; it’s not just providing a service but creating change in that person by enabling that person to have a better understanding of their situation and possibilities.
We worked as a team to build the material and services we offer.
It’s a good example of when women work together, incredible things happen. Together we’re a lot stronger. We’re very committed to what we’re doing in the team – so naturally our clients benefit with an engaged team thriving on the work.
We are all so passionate – it’s more than just a job.”
Carolyn attributes the success of the business to the leadership of the organisation.
“The support has been immense and we’re really grateful.”
Why the time is right
Carolyn says now is the right time because the opportunity is right and we’re seeing a real shift in attitude across the industry of what women are experiencing today and their desire to engage in financial decision making.
“Women are seeking financial independence and as a business we need to be part of the solution.”
