Are Women More Open to Dealing With the New?

Will new robo-assistant technology find faster adoption among women? Kim Dellarocca, managing director of Pershing LLC, won't be surprised if that's the case. She pointed out that women juggling career and family are especially time-pressured, and hence may be more strongly attracted to digital efficiencies.

"It's a generalization," Dellarocca continued, "but women also tend to realize they don't have all the answers and are open to advice"—an observation that will resonate with any wife who has ever urged her spouse to stop driving around and ask for directions. Thus, when a trusted advisor communicates the benefits of a change, such as better aligning their asset management with changes in their life, they tend to go along. (Pershing recently profiled this client segment in a "Women: Investing with a Purpose" whitepaper released in March.)

Are female advisors more open to dealing with the unfamiliar? Dellarocca commented that an earlier Pershing whitepaper, 2014′s "30% Solution: Growing Your Business by Winning and Keeping Female Advisors," found that coming later to the game forced many female advisors to seek clients outside the overhunted segment of older rich white males. "It was the only way to get into the space," she noted. As a result, while many male advisors are now wrestling with how to reach non-traditional demographic groups, "Female advisors are already working with LGBT clients and women clients—both wealth inheritors and wealth creators—and the children of clients."