According to research by Deloitte, the number of women who reach the highest level of leadership in financial services is on the rise, with women now holding 18% of financial C-suite positions globally. But the research also says that number is climbing slowly — without a more concerted effort, women financial leaders may not even reach 25% by 2031.
Lindsay Hans, President and Co-head of Merrill Wealth Management, is working to change that. In her role, she’s committed to lowering the barrier to entry for women financial advisors — including being a strong advocate for their new training program which is more attractive to female advisors who may not have a pre-existing network or wealthy personal connections.
She says that because women, in general, value predictability over risk in everything from our jobs to our investments, she wants the female financial advisors who work for Merrill Wealth Management to never have to worry about how they’re going to find a client. “This job is all about how do I help someone solve their needs and their goals, and how I help them plan,” Hans says. “That is often something that very much attracts women to this business. It’s the business development piece that sometimes becomes a stop.”
Looking back on her own career in the financial industry, Hans says that while she knows she probably had some bosses who were not supportive of women, she tried to stay focused on being really good at her job. “In this career path, we all have to think about being excellent,” Hans says. “It is a quantifiable, measurable, competitive, and goal-oriented industry. And being excellent does not mean being perfect, but we want to be known as being excellent as individuals and as a company.”
Listen to the How She Does It podcast to hear more about how Lindsay Hans manages having a stressful career and being a mom of two young kids, and why she believes a job as a financial advisor “is the best career nobody knows about.”
