Hey, Schwab, here’s how to increase the number of female advisers in your ranks

The Charles Schwab Corp. is looking for ways to boost the number of female financial advisers among its ranks after a survey found that 40% of its firms don’t have a single woman advising clients.

The solution is not something quick, easy or particularly well-demonstrated by other financial firms. It’s also something that Schwab’s female financial advisers likely will have to lead.

Schwab has formed a task force to tackle the issue, but several female advisers attending the Schwab Impact Conference in Washington D.C. this week said the first step should be to get their male counterparts to recognize that they should have a woman on their team — and that they should make an effort to find one.

“We need to convince men that hiring a woman adviser can be a game changer for their business,” said Peggy Ruhlin, chief executive of Budros Ruhlin & Roe Inc.

Firms should demand that recruiters bring in qualified female candidates when they are looking to hire an adviser, she said. Many recruiters would have to up their game to do so, as only about 8% of client-facing advisers are women, according to Cerulli Associates Inc.

Another female adviser suggested that registered investment advisers try to hire “refugees” — the term she used for women who burn out while working for wirehouses and sometimes leave the industry altogether. These women should be targeted to join or start RIAs, she said.

Financial adviser Michelle Higgins said women need to be mentoring other women in the business and helping them advance their careers. She also said female advisers should be reaching out to financial planning schools to show female students that there are successful women in this industry.

Women also will have to discuss some of the cultural difficulties they face in the financial services business and debunk certain perceptions, including that clients don’t want financial help from women.

Female advisers at the Schwab conference told stories like a male colleague commenting, “I’d love to hire some gals” and of others who don’t want to hire a woman because she might get pregnant and take time off.

Ms. Ruhlin said it can be enlightening to a male colleague in certain circumstances when she suggests that he “think about if that were your daughter.” She asks him whether he would have considered certain decisions fair if someone else had done the same to his child.