Affluent Alpha Ladies Unite!

We held our second meeting last night for a group of women who are engaging in a conversation about investing their assets to align with their values. We are also focused on how the finance world could better engage women. Maybe, it's just the Bay Area, but all of these women are interested in the private markets, including angel investing and putting money into venture, private equity and hedge funds. The group discussed banding together to buy into funds with seven digit minimums. First things first: women want to feel more secure with the logistical aspects of their financial picture, like estate planning and life insurance. Then, they'd be ready to move on to "high-class" problems, such as identifying the right private equity fund to invest in. Reminders for financial advisers: women grow weary of feeling that their adviser uses too much jargon, that they have to push to get clarity on fees or more cooperation on values based investing. From our survey (currently, we have 64 respondents. I'll write more about the survey after we get 100 responses), affluent women want to see a vastly improved financial services landscape. Over 50% responded that financial institutions "give me a headache" or worse. Some of the features they'd like to see: clear, simple language (81%), greater transparency on fees (80%), to invest my assets to align with my values (91%), more competence and/or confidence with money and investing (90.0%) and many more eye-popping findings. Note that this is a biased sample. Over 1/3 of respondents have more than $1 million in liquid assets.

What Do Women Want?

Studies show that women are not satisfied with current offerings for managing their wealth. 70% of women with wealth managers believe that their advisor should take a more female-centric approach (BCG Survey, 2010)and more generally, 84% of women feel misunderstood by investment marketers (she-conomy.com). Considering that 75% of the nation's wealth is controlled by women over age 50 (MassMutual Financial Group, 2007), this seems...dumb.

I've put together a small group of affluent women to find out what would make them happy, satisfied customers. Our first meeting last week was super-charged with energy and excitement. We talked about looking at money from the perspective of meaning and values which everyone felt was inspiring. Once women have financial security, they want a whole lot more than charts and risk tolerance from their money.

Women are interested in
•Sharing ideas and their relationship to money with a trusted group of peers, within the context of protecting their privacy
•Security – want to protect resources first, then be more adventuresome.
•Trusted long-term relationships with financial providers, eg, a longstanding family accountant who knows all the family members and the family's financial history.
•Communication within family – not finding financial skeletons in the closet from the generation above, working with spouse to achieve goals and leaving a legacy that gives freedom and flexibility to children while not reducing their children’s desire for success.
•Building knowledge around how to invest assets that align with their deeply held values “doing good while doing well”. I call this "premium with a purpose".
•Showing leadership in investing in more meaning-driven ways.

I'm looking forward to our next gathering in a few weeks.

I will be sending out a survey to a wide audience of women investors this week to find out more about their desires around aligning their values and wealth. Check back for a discussion of the results in early May!

If interested in participating in a discussion group or learning more, drop me a line at marya@maryastark.com.

Red or Blue: Which Party Truly Needs its Women?

I'm reposting my article from the Huffington Post which I wrote with my Emerge America co-chair Dorka Keehn.

We are intrigued by the sudden surge of Republican women candidates at the national level. As founders of EMERGE AMERICA, an organization that trains Democratic women to run for office, we are keenly aware of the ebb and flow of support for increasing the percentage of women in elected office. But if creating a more transparent government and moving a progressive agenda are the goals, increasing the number of women Democrats in elected office should be a central strategy.

Traditionally, women are viewed as more liberal than men. This gives the advantage to Democrat female candidates and hurts their Republican counterparts. When women are elected, they play a significant role in shaping progressive policy. They are more likely than men to bring citizens into the political process, to opt for open government, and to be responsive to groups previously denied access.

Women also introduce more legislation and co-sponsor more bills than male members. While female electeds lead the charge on "women friendly" issues like child-care, they also are at the forefront of policies regarding the economy, health care, the environment and human rights. Looking at the recent Senate land mine ban, 68 members supported it, which included 100% of the women but only 51% of the men. With President Obama's landmark health care reform, all Democratic female senators and members of the House except for one congresswoman insured its victory. And the historic American Clean Energy and Security Act passed with a tight vote supported by 66 Democratic congresswomen's votes, while 40 Democratic congressmen opposed it.

While the United States holds itself out as a model democracy, it ranks 82nd in the world for women in elected office behind Mexico, China and Pakistan. We push other countries such as Iraq to insert a 25% quota for female representation into its constitution, but the United States opposes such requirements for its own government and at 17% falls far short of its mandates for other countries.

What's missing? Women, like men, need to be recruited to run for public office. Emerge America is the only organization that gives Democratic women the tools to win: an in-depth training program and a powerful political network. Unlike Republican recruitment, we actively outreach to diverse female leaders and 40% of our graduates are women of color. Founded in 2002, Emerge is currently in 9 states with plans to expand its program across the country. In such a short time close to 50% of our alumnae have already run for office and 60% of them have won.

While supporting women candidates may seem a secondary concern for many, electing more Democratic women is the most effective long-term strategy for shaping and passing a progressive agenda and for creating a more transparent democracy.


Dorka Keehn is the Board co-Chair and a co-Founder of Emerge America. She is currently writing a book, ECO AMAZONS, on American women environmental leaders to be published in Spring 2011.