Custom Channels for Investment Advice For Women, From Women

The number of investment clubs for young investors continues to grow, but most members are still boys. While male investors are getting younger and younger – some starting before puberty – women are still late bloomers to investing.

Women from Generation X and Y will live longer than their mothers yet they are less involved in retirement planning than the baby boomers. On average, women in the global workforce have a lower salary, lower savings and more career interruptions, and thus lower retirement savings than men.

Singapore millennials buck many of these trends. They invest and save more, demand salaries on par with men, and take fewer work leaves, such as to start a family. Despite being the world’s most proactive female investors, Singapore women still need to plan proactively for a long life and retirement.

Fortunately, more and more girls clubs are opening up – that is, women investment clubs and networks. Perhaps it is no big loss if you did not hang around the boys’ investment clubs after all. Women have stronger investment performance than men. Tapping into female expertise provides the opportunity to increase your investment returns while learning from the pros.

Channels for Investment Advice For Women, From Women:

Attend Women’s Investment Events – Investment firms and workplaces are offering more educational events for female investors.  Women prefer to talk over their investment decisions and get advice. Direct contact at these events also builds trust with the investment community. Webinars are the most popular forums, allowing you to benefit from investment education when the time is right.

Join Women Investment Networks – Ellevate is an example of a global women’s investment club with local branches, including a Singapore branch, to increase direct networking opportunities. Members automatically get shares in Ellevate’s mutual fund for women, which invests in companies with a high level of female leadership.

Become an Angel Investor – Women now make up 20% of angel investors. Angel investing provides an opportunity to sharpen your due diligence skills and ability to identify potential weaknesses in companies while evaluating new companies, industries and trends, under the guidance of experienced women investors.

Invest in Companies Mentored by Women – Men often take the same approach to investment and dating. They may have too many investment interests and spread themselves too thin. Women investors nurture companies and take them under their wings.  Investors use this valued trait to attract the best deals, as is evident on Angel.co. “[Julie] volunteers her time, network and talent to help RidePal be more successful,” coos RidePal’s CEO of Julie Chin, a Silicon Valley-based angel.

Invest in Businesses With Gender Diversity – The stock of companies with higher female representation on boards and in management perform better. Companies with two or more female board members have realised a compound annual return of 3.7% higher than those with none since 2005, according to Credit Suisse.

Use Managed Accounts – A managed account provides regular meetings and other forms of more active support from an investment advisor. Investment firms have advisors who specialise in targeted demographics and investment risk profiles such as millennial or retirement age women. Various sources estimate that the number of female financial advisors doubled from 2012 to 2014, to now comprise around one-quarter of total financial advisors. While women are still underrepresented, investors have a growing opportunity to tap into the financial expertise of women advisors.

Create a Family Office – Family offices – private investment vehicles for families – allow women to increase their control of family finances. The value of family offices is that all members including children make decisions together on investments, insurance, real estate and even philanthropy. Importantly, they tap into the investment expertise of female family members.

“You’ve daughters who’ve come back from the Ivy League universities or Oxford [university] and they are not going to accept that brother or uncle alone will run the business. More and more of the fathers and brothers are buying into this,” Noor Quek, managing director of NQ International tells the Financial Times.[1] Networks such as Family Office Women International bring women involved in family offices together for education and peer support.

In Asia where personal wealth is growing rapidly, a shortage of experienced wealth advisors could affect the quality of financial guidance you receive. Women investment networks can help you grow your retirement savings and make up for any potential shortfall.

For more financial and career guide for women, go to our Success section or read more on women inspiration.

[1] Jeremy Grant. (November 23, 2014). Role of Asian family offices expands from a narrow base. Financial Times.