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 Wealth management in the U.S. has been historically dominated by
men, with women making up less than 12 percent of advisers,
according to analytics firm Cerulli Associates.
With women expected to take control of as much as two-thirds of U.S.
personal wealth in the next 10 years, executives are looking to get
more women into the adviser workforce.
"We are very focused on increasing the number of female financial
advisers and the number of women in our executive leadership team,"
said Greg Fleming, president of Morgan Stanley's wealth and asset
management businesses, at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit on
Tuesday in New York.
Morgan Stanley, the biggest brokerage in the world by number of
advisers it employs, and rival Bank of America <BAC.N> Merrill
Lynch, have both put a priority on hiring advisers from the
"Millennial" generation, who were born between 1981 and 1999.
The average financial adviser is now 52, according to Cerulli
Associates. Similar research by the software company PriceMetrix
puts the average wealth management client at 62 years old.
Hiring younger advisers could help firms lower the average ages in
both categories.
Merrill Lynch, which has one of Wall Street's most robust training
programs for young advisers, added 230 new trainees in the first
quarter.
"We have never strayed away from our commitment to our training
program," which is key to addressing the needs of clients and
Millennials, John Thiel, head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management,
said at Reuters Wealth Management Summit.
The bigger picture, Thiel said, is the overall growing amount of
wealth in the U.S., which will require the help of experienced
advisers.
This is especially true now that the multi-year bull market in
equities is losing steam. Investors say the long-running calculus of
splitting investments between stocks and bonds likely will not earn
enough income to secure comfortable retirement income.
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Merrill Lynch added a net total of 76 experienced advisers to its
roughly 14,100 financial advisers in the first quarter.
Brokerages are not alone among financial services firms looking for
experienced employees in the face of future wealth.
Peter Charrington, global head of Citi Private Bank, distinguished
his roughly 450 private bankers from their broker peers as having a
different skill set for their work serving ultra high net worth
clients who have a minimum of $25 million.
Those individuals are rare, Charrington said. Still, he would like
to see Citi add but around35 private bankers this year worldwide.
Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits
(For other news from Reuters Wealth Management Summit, click on
http://www.reuters.com/summit/Wealth15)
(Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts and Svea Herbst)
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