How the finance industry can better serve female clients

One of Olga Miler’s goals is to tackle the gender wealth gap. Who knew this was even a thing? Well it most certainly is, especially when you consider that even a 10% gap in pay usually results in a 38% wealth gap at the age of 65. “Women in finance” is not an overly used phrase, and yet it represents a hugely underserved slice of the marketplace.

Inspired by women at UBS, and with the support of the broader organization, Olga co-founded a program to better serve female clients. The five year plan encompasses clearly defined commitments such as increasing the financial confidence of one million women.

Aiming to inspire change in the financial industry, the initiative not only has societal good on the agenda. That’s the catch. Olga makes no bones about the fact that the initiative was born out of commercial purpose. She is refreshingly honest about how the project wouldn't have seen the light of day if it hadn’t come with a rock-solid business case for profit.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Olga on this fascinating journey to launch and I’m delighted to be able to share some of her insights from this fantastically bold idea.

A remarkable journey

Olga is incredibly open about the fact that she has never come face to face with the awful challenges that #metoo has made part of our everyday limelight. Instead, she has often found herself in the company of women who have been fortunate enough to unleash their commercial drive and ambitious goals.

When we put our gender glasses on, Olga explained that it is usually confidence holding women back – always the self-doubt around capability and the niggling thoughts in our head that hold us back. To this she says: “I wish for us to be a little bit, as women, to be a little bit more courageous”. To that end, she has spent the last four years building something that will encourage women to just give it a go.

She’s very clear that a lack of financial confidence is preventing women from being able to do just that: give it a go. As such, she championed the business case around better understanding and serving women. Female clients were surveyed, data was studied, networks were built and eventually an inclusive approach was born. Even today, Olga says it remains a challenge to get this right. The journey has barely started – yet UBS have already made significant steps in establishing a strategy that sees women as a recognised business priority.

Resist the pinkwash temptation

This has clearly been no mean feat, particularly in a workforce of client advisors that remains predominantly male today. Interestingly, this is not the issue for Olga. She believes the more sustainable route to serving women better is to create a gender-bilingual environment for their advisor workforce. Olga’s number one goal is to make every conversation in her bank an inclusive one. To date, UBS Global Wealth Management* have retrained 30% of their client advisors to reshape their engagement with female clients. These advisors now put into practice the inclusive tools they’ve learnt and benefit from a constant feedback loop that includes female panels. Olga is passionate that the strategy is about changing an entire culture, not parachuting in a positive discrimination recruitment drive. In fact, it all boils down to helping UBS staff gain female customer trust.

If you want to become more financially confident, you can see what this looks like for starters here. You’ll see that there is no mention of a risk profile anywhere – a very different vernacular has been born at UBS and it will be fascinating to watch where this goes next.

You can see the full interview here.

*refers to UBS Wealth Management until 31.01.2018