Women are poised to gain control over a far greater proportion of global wealth in the years to come and financial advisors — especially those who are female — have an opportunity to tap into this shift by engaging with women clients, said Danette Pottle, wealth sales director, wealth distribution with Sun Life Financial Inc., at Sun Life Global Investments’ Women’s Investment Symposium in Toronto on Thursday.

As the population ages and the intergenerational wealth transfer gets underway, women will be the ones to ultimately inherit much of the wealth as they live longer, on average, than their male counterparts, Pottle said.

“Females outlive men by about five to seven years,” she said. “At some point in our lives, we will probably be single, and we will inherit wealth. So, when we are dealing with female clients who are aging, we need to think about how wealthy they’re going to become in the next five, 10, 15 years.”

Women are already earning more than ever before, Pottle noted, and they’re the ones making 80% of decisions in the household. However, she added that two-thirds of Canadian women don’t work with an advisor.

“They’re very much underserviced,” she said. “Women want and need advice and they’re actually looking for advisors.”

Female advisors, Pottle added, are in a particularly unique position to capture business from this demographic.

“You have a huge competitive advantage as a female advisor,” Pottle said to the audience of female advisors. She pointed to statistics showing that 80% of women leave their advisor when their spouse passes away — and a vast majority of those women will seek out a female advisor to help them manage their finances.

“We, as female advisors, are very well positioned for an intergenerational wealth transfer that’s going to be huge over the coming years,” Pottle said.

When advising couples, Pottle urges advisors to engage both individuals in the couple, and avoid having meetings with just one member of the household. As women tend to take a more holistic and goal-oriented approach to decision-making than men, it’s necessary for advisors to take a slightly different approach when advising female clients, she pointed out.

“Females make decisions very differently than males do,” Pottle said. “Quite often, the advisor doesn’t actually shift the conversation once the male dies. Quite often, it’s business as usual, but we must consider that.”