April 25, 2025 • Tracey Longo
Over the next five years, women are expected to control more than 50% of the wealth in America. But multiple studies have found that as many as 70% of them may switch advisors when they assume control of the family wealth.
In reality, the percentage of women who fire their advisors is higher, veteran women advisors said at Financial Advisor magazine’s Invest In Women conference in Boston this week.
“This is literally how I get my clients and I can tell you the number is higher than you think. It’s more like 80% to 90%,” Cary Carbonaro, managing advisor and women and wealth ambassador at Ashton Thomas in Scottsdale, Ariz., said during a “Why Women Fire Their Advisors” panel discussion.
The problem is exacerbated by male advisors who don’t believe their women clients are unhappy and heading to the exits. “It’s obvious that male advisors don’t know what they don’t know,” said Carbonaro, author of the new book “Women and Wealth: A Playbook to Empowering Clients and Unlocking Their Fortune.”
Findings from a new Nationwide study found that almost all advisors are confident they can help women investors, with 95% saying they understand the needs of women clients and feel well-equipped to serve them.
But despite advisors’ confidence, fewer than 50% of women clients believe their advisor understands their financial goals at their particular stage of life.
Carbonaro said she hears male advisors say, “’I’m not doing anything wrong.’ I tell them, ‘OK, well then, how come this statistic on women firing you hasn’t changed in years?’”
Carbonaro showed a picture of 10 of her women friends in San Francisco. Each had shared the reason why they were on the verge of firing their male advisor, she said. One inherited her dad’s advisor and feels he doesn’t get her at all. She said she interviewed several advisors and decided not to work with any because they’re so old school.
Another friend said that she wants to invest in startups but her advisor is fighting her. Still another said she was a data scientist and when she asked her advisor what the numbers meant, she realized he didn’t know or understand what she wanted to do in the future.
Women are more disappointed, more disengaged and more likely to leave their male financial advisors than ever before, according to 2024 research from New York Life Investments’ Advisor Advancement Institute.
Women investors report that their financial advisors “treat them differently,” the study found. They also feel more “patronized by financial advisors” who they said are “less likely to listen to their ideas” and “push women out of conversations.
The study found the following problems led women to fire their male advisors:
• Poor customer service (reported by 39% of women in the study, up from 27% in 2019).
• The lack of a personal connection with their financial advisor (cited by 32%, up from 29% in 2019).
• Poor performance (cited by 45% of women, up from 33% in 2019).
Because women want more education and ask more questions, “women take longer to close.as clients,” Becca Hajjar, managing principal, chief business development officer at Commonwealth Financial Network, said. “She needs all the information and collaboration and needs to talk about your plan with her friends. While the process takes longer, if you do the right thing by women clients they’ll be clients for life.”
The fact that many women prospects may be a bit shell shocked from one or more bad experiences with advisors and in the process of firing their current advisor can also slow the process of onboarding, Hajar noted.
“Allyship is an important part of what we do make sure that we keep this at the forefront when working with women who are transitioning to our office after firing their advisor,” noted Sheryl Hickerson, founder and CEO, Females and Finance, Being an ally to women clients and investors also means moving the profession forward by helping male advisors understand some of their deficits, “so they don’t get fired,” Hickerson added.
Because women want more education and ask more questions, “women take longer to close.as clients,” Becca Hajjar, managing principal, chief business development officer, Commonwealth said. “She needs all the information and collaboration and needs to talk about your plan with her friends. While the process takes longer, if you do the right thing by women clients they’ll be clients for life.”
The fact that many women prospects may be a bit shell shocked from one or more bad experiences with advisors and in the process of firing their current advisor can also slow the process of onboarding, Hajar noted.
“Allyship is an important part of what we do make sure that we keep this at the forefront when working with women who are transitioning to our office after firing their advisor,” noted Sheryl Hickerson, founder and CEO, Females and Finance,
Being an ally to women clients and investors also means moving the profession forward by helping male advisors understand some of their deficits, “so they don’t get fired,” Hickerson added.
