Willow CEO and Founder Lacy Garcia joins Wealth! to give insight into how women can empower themselves through their finances.
Garcia argues that the financial planning industry must evolve to address inequities among investors: “So I think what’s really critical is that the industry needs to understand that for women, for underrepresented investors, that these pay gaps have existed, that the challenges that create a big gap in their ability to save for retirement and the amount of money that they’re earning over a lifetime. And then to be able to really create not just products, but also strategies to make sure that women and younger and next-gen underrepresented investors are able to then achieve the retirement income that they need, but with an understanding that they start from perhaps a place of disadvantage.”
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This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
Less than half of women are confident about their finances.
But 94% of women believe that they’ll have to be personally responsible for their finances at some point in their lives.
This is according to a Bank of America report to discuss how women can feel empowered about their finances.
Lacy Garcia, who’s the Willow founder and CEO is here with us, Lacy.
Great to have you on, especially on this important topic.
So let’s begin with why this certainly is the case right now and where we’re starting to see it shift a little bit.
Uh Thank you so much for having me on pleasure to be here.
Well, I just heard your former speakers all talking about the great wealth transfer and first and foremost, women are the greatest recipients of that great wealth transfer, not only as spouses, but just talking about millennials, but also the daughters and also women are creating, starting more businesses than any other cohort and are creating wealth and in, in, you know, really the breadwinners and half or more of all homes in the US, but they have not historically felt that they were understood or empowered by the financial services industry.
They have felt that they have not been able to take control of their finances because they haven’t been able to find an advisor that they trust.
And that’s what we focus on at Trust willow.com.
Making sure advisors understand the unique needs of women and that they are able to empathize, educate and empower them to, to, you know, could take control their finances, but also to achieve their life goals as well when you think about that too.
And, and you mentioned Willow, of course, is leaning and and is purely uh looking at the financial technology landscape and really discovering where you can play even more of a role into making sure that women have that financial independence too.
What are some of the top planning techniques that many women are looking to put into action when they come and engage with?
Willow.
Yeah, I think that, you know, first people, women are coming to us or not just women, but also next gen investors and underrepresented investors, those who haven’t felt like they’ve been able to find the advisor who understands them.
You know, our first and foremost looking for that trusted guidance and advice.
But thanks to technology and obviously, we use A I to to actually strengthen the ability of advisors to connect with investors and to support them.
And there’s so many technology and tools that to help um you know, not just women but but all investors to better budget, you know, and have a better sense of, first of all, what is my life cost?
You know, how, how much money am I spending and how much money do I need to save?
And so those tools are there to help, to empower them and also to help them to find the right financial professional who can provide that trusted guidance and advice that they need to feel, you know, confident and in control of their uh of their money, especially in these uncertain times that we’re living in.
You know, it’s really interesting in one of our earlier segments as well we were mentioning and, and kind of concluding with the thought that, you know, some of the planning also becomes a little bit easier or more confident when we’re doing more work to also close the equity and the pay and the wage gap uh across genders too.
Where are you seeing even more of that work continue to be done and then ultimately kind of remediate some of the stresses of financial planning.
Yeah.
So I think what’s really critical is that, you know, the industry needs to understand that for, for women, for underrepresented investors that these pay gaps have existed that, you know, the challenges that, that, you know, create a big gap in their ability to save for retirement and the amount of money that they’re earning over a lifetime and then to be able to really create not just products but also strategies to make sure that women and younger and next gen uh underrepresented investors are able to then, you know, achieve the retirement income that they need.
But with an understanding that they start from, you know, perhaps a place of disadvantage, right?
And so that’s really critical and you know, the industry is starting to pay attention, but that is our focus too and making sure that advisors really understand the circle instances, they understand, you know, how they can truly support these investors in being able to, you know, save enough money to invest properly so that they are able to set themselves up, you know, for success in retirement and for taking care of themselves and their family throughout their lifetime and beyond Lacy Garcia Willow, founder and CEO.
Thank you so much for taking the time here with us.
We appreciate it.
Thank you, Brad.
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