Shiney is among Kerala's most successful IFAs, is a FIFA member and has been involved in the Sheconomy initiative that DSP Blackrock is spearheading. She passionately believes that financial planners can be far more successful when they also engage the most crucial member of the family - the woman. In this very insightful article, Shiney pens her thoughts on why she believes so and also gives some rich insights into understanding another customer segment that planners need to focus on : the single woman. As Shiney says, women make up 50% of humans on this planet. Do financial planners truly understand them? Read on to gain rich insights on how you can become a more successful planner by understanding 50% of your clients better than you perhaps have been doing so far.

The Sheconomy series on CNBC was an interesting exercise to reach out to the heart of the Financial Planning process in a family - The Woman. My learning from the interaction with Women in Business segment was, that though most women seek to self actualise thru running small businesses, the core of the Financial Planning Process is rooted in her family. While she is working at what she wants to do for herself, her priority continues to be a holistic view of the family needs. In my opinion need for women for Financial Planning is considerably higher vis a vis men and they have the potential to be better investors.

Breaking up of the Joint family.

Assuming that most families continue to be run with the man as the head, he has to wear many hats in a nuclear family unlike the one in joint families. Getting a supportive spouse into the act would offer him a wider perspective and give the family a second line of defence in the wealth building process that he is working on. Women increasingly continue to play larger roles to the extent of being equal to men in financial matters.

Strong Emotional Intelligence and Spirit of Sacrifice.

While working with the Financial Planning Process, we realise that achievement of goals depend not only on the traditional tools that we work with, but also a strong spirit of sacrifice. Controlling spending in favour of saving and building wealth is inherent to most women. My work as a Financial Planner has always been enhanced by taking the point of view of the woman. She is the one who would listen to the outpouring of a child's heart dreaming about what he wants to be when he grows up and a husband talking about his vision of what he wants to build for the future. She would gently bring in the resources that she has been the custodian of; to achieve the family goals. She would have been tucking small sums away for years methodically for a rainy day. However, the focus on saving here is high and investment low. We have been working with these women to bring in a radical shift from the saving to an investment mindset so as to enhance the return and create wealth for the family over time.

Goal Focus.

Women by nature are less speculative and to some extent less risk averse than men. Buy and hold as a strategy usually has more subscribers in women. They have a high level of goal orientation and usually do not need the adrenalin of high risk investments that some men seek. So they tend to hold on to investments as long as they are able to achieve their objectives. This would result in their investments giving better returns, making it more tax efficient and incurring lower transaction fees viz a viz their male counterparts.

Single Women

Having addressed some of the generic issues in the preceding paragraphs let me add some special situation needs for women. One of the most relevant planning needs would be for the 'Single woman'.

Complexities for Single Women.

Woman can be single out of choice or through widowhood, divorce, separation etc. Though on the face of it there is nothing which discerns the financial needs from that of other women with support systems, on a closer look, unlike the family woman, the single woman is expected to take care of herself - financially and emotionally. There is a clear requirement to define who would act on her behalf in an emergency, unfortunate event that she cannot act for herself, in sickness, aging etc. These would require much thorough planning through creation of a trust, living will, guardianship of non children - biological or adopted, their education needs, custody of pets and so on.

Estate Planning.

Her need for estate planning may be dismal unless there are small children, dependent parents or has a large wealth. Today, many single women are involved in social work, are part NGOs and fairly committed emotionally as well as financially, which may require estate planning.

Risk Planning.

Insurance for disability and health would be very high on priority for single women because they are not likely to have strong financial, emotional and physical back up. Though she may have an emotional support in friends or some relatives, a good financial backing needs to be created. Dependent Children, when there is no support from the spouse would compound the financial planning needs. It will be more complex in the event of disability or sickness for the woman. As discussed earlier need for a private trust could also be relevant.

To conclude

To sum up, women form 50% of this planet and are increasing playing larger role in the society with large stake in financial matters. They either lend support or in many cases they play the pivotal role in the family finances. Financial Planning for women needs to be addressed to ensure that this society not only empowers women but helps in creating a better social fabric.