TD Ameritrade Institutional announced Thursday that it has launched an outreach effort to aid in professional development of women advisors. It also said it aims to provide RIAs with additional tools needed to effectively market their services to female investors.
"It's obvious, and something we as an industry have to recognize, that we have a problem with diversity, and especially with attracting women to the profession," said Tom Bradley in an interview at the National Association for Personal Financial Planners annual conference in Salt Lake City, where he was a keynote speaker.
"There are really two issues; one is attracting women to the profession and the second is women as investors. A big part of this is treating and communicating with women in a manner with which they're comfortable."
Bradley says this is one reason for the new initiative. The second is in studying and contrasting behavior between the sexes.
"On the retail brokerage side, we see men much more active in their trading," he added. "Women are much more 'buy-and-hold.'"
The company sponsored NAPFA's Women's Initiative pre-conference event Tuesday, a program designed to attract and support women as leaders within the profession.
"We're continuing to do what we always do, which is to sponsor and participate in events, and ask female advisors about their challenges and what help they might need," added Kate Healy, TD's director of solutions and client marketing, who is responsible for heading up the program.
The genesis for the initiative, Healy said, was the lack of gender parity they noticed when putting together new practice management platforms.
