COVER STORY
A Look At Leading Women Advisors
A fast-growing profession requires specific skills that women tend to have .
BY FA STAFF
FOR A PROFESSION THAT IS HALF A CENTURY OLD , the financial advice business is still troubled by certain frustrations . Near the top of that list is the fact that , unlike medicine and law , the profession remains overwhelmingly male despite the efforts of leading organizations to change its composition .
According to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards , the number of female CFP license holders has been steadily increasing , but women are still in the minority at 23.8 % of all CFP professionals .
Still , it remains a little-known truth that dating back to the 1970s and 1980s , many of the top advisors who helped transform the cottage industry of financial planning into a true profession were women : Alexandra Armstrong , Eileen Sharkey , Deena Katz , Judy Lau , Peggy Ruhlin , Judy Shine and Elissa Buie are just a few of the women who made a huge difference far beyond their representation in the overall advisor universe .
In this issue , Financial Advisor decided to feature nine female advisors , most of them from the second generation of professionals , who entered the business after it was established but had yet to mature . All nine , each in their own way , were quick to discern the opportunity in front of individuals seeking a career where they could put the clients ’ interest first and do well by doing good .
A few common threads run through their backgrounds . As advisory firms have expanded in scale over the last 25 years , certain skills , like marketing , organization , operations and human resources , have grown increasingly important for those firms wanting to achieve any meaningful scale . Women , it turns out , often exhibit dexterity in those areas — so their skills are suddenly in high demand .
The women profiled here talk in terms of having to market themselves in a world where there ’ s more men — and make sure they get known — but also talk about the empathy and authenticity that ’ s required to serve clients and counsel them on one of the most intimate parts of their lives — their money , and how it ’ s wrapped up in their goals , their aspirations and their legacies .
What follows is a look at nine highly successful female advisors , how they advanced in the profession and what they would tell young people entering the business today . But anybody , regardless of gender , could learn from them .
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE ADVISORS MARCH 2025 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 31