Two groups for women financial advisors unite forces

Two organizations supporting the advancement of women in the financial advisor profession are uniting to boost their shared mission together.

The Female Advisor Network merged into the Women's Leadership Alliance at the beginning of the month, the two organizations said. As part of joining forces as a combined group with between 250 and 300 members, Female Advisor founder Nina O'Neal of AIM Advisors joined Women's Leadership Chair Kimberlee Bouska of Addison Avenue Investment Services and other members of the merged group's board.

Leaders of the combined group "anticipate doubling our membership in 2025 and continuing to grow quickly from there" through "leveraging the collective experience and professional networks of our ambassadors to form regional circles who work collaboratively to encourage membership" and "rolling out a new business ambassador partnership for businesses to join our community," Bouska said in an email.

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"With the combination of our organizations we hope to build a more impactful, organized movement towards positive change that benefits the entire industry," Bouska said. "The addition of Nina to our already stellar board and the women of FAN to our ambassador network means that we can be a powerful partner for industry firms and women advisors to finally make significant progress in attracting, retaining and advancing women."

Kimberlee Bouska

The groups formed roughly around the same time as efforts to build more pathways into the industry and wider networks furthering careers in a profession in which fewer than a quarter of certified financial planners are women. O'Neal launched Female Advisor Network in 2019. The organization has hosted events of its own and among members at large firms' conferences, created mentorship and accountability programs and opened a marketplace of technology and professional coaching firms that provide discounts to the group. Much of that will continue after the merger into Women's Leadership, O'Neal said in an interview.

After a member of her group who was also on the board of Women's Leadership brought the two organizations together, O'Neal was "was very impressed with their leadership, their infrastructure," the fact that they had become a formal 501(c)3 nonprofit and had "raised a lot of money for projects, staff and scholarships," she said.

"I didn't know anything about the Women's Leadership Alliance," O'Neal said in an interview. "They really wanted to explore working together, versus having two different organizations working toward the same purpose."

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A group of senior-level financial advisors who were part of the Raymond James Women Financial Advisors Network started Women's Leadership in 2017, and the group is still a strategic partner to the Raymond James program while being open to women, male allies, university professors and student aspiring professionals across the industry. The organization launched its ambassador program last year for its most active members, expanding the group's footprint and participating in local events. 

With a board of women advisors from across the country and an advisory board with planners and executives from firms like Raymond James, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Ameriprise, the group also offers mentorship, career resources and college student programs.

"In the past we've seen different broker-dealers approach this problem by creating women's councils in an effort to recruit more women to their firm, but this just shifts the numbers around from broker-dealer to broker-dealer without moving the needle," Bouska said. "We identified that we needed a firm-agnostic organization dedicated to bringing more women into the industry. At this time, we are working to recruit by focusing efforts on college age women and career changers. We work to overcome biases and societal stereotypes and show them what being a financial advisor is really all about. It's a career that is rewarding both emotionally and financially, where you have several career paths to choose from based on your personal preferences, where our inherent strengths as women make us exceptional in this career."

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Nina O'Neal

To get involved with the goal of advancing more women in the profession, advisors and firms can join as members or sponsors helping the merged group with, for example, its outreach to young women explaining, "what the job is and what are some of the benefits of it," O'Neal said. Besides promoting greater gender diversity in the profession, the programming will assist the industry in better serving a wider range of clients, she noted. 

"This is a group with a true heart and vision for really working towards the betterment of the whole industry," O'Neal said. "I'm thrilled at the opportunity we have together and just hope folks will join us."