How to Attract More Female Advisors and Clients

To help that along, her firm talks with husbands and wives separately. Meeting with women alone "helps to solidity the relationship with women," said Bruno.

There were four other female wealth managers on her panel, including three who had started their own firms. Here are some of the highlights of what they said about the differences between female and male advisors and clients, which firms may want to keep in mind if they want to attract more of both.

(Related: Female Firm Owners More Likely Than Men to Be Financial Planners)

"Most women want a salary; they don't want a commission-based job," said Stacy Francis, founder, president and CEO of Francis Financial, a New York-based fee-only firm, about female advisors. "And they want flexibility to take care of their kids and parents."

Her woman-centric firm offers three weeks' vacation, many opportunities to work remotely out of the office, monthly massages and 15 minutes a day for workouts. These benefits help to retain and attract advisors, said Francis.

"Women have negotiating skills developed as mothers and wives and they teach their children about finances," said Nicole Perkins, a managing executive at Hawthorn, PNC Family Wealth, who's based in the firm's Philadelphia office. "We share a personal story."

But as a female African-American advisor she "finds it hard … to separate women and diversity issues. I'm both. Perkins says it's important for advisory firms to reach out to minority organizations in order to attract a more diversified staff. "That's what we need to do, to bring others in."

Cheryl Holland, founder and president of Abacus Planning Group in Columbia, South Carolina, said it's important for firms to "set an intention around diversity." She noted that female advisors have the "skill of empathy and are well organized," and, in "the war for human capital, why would you cut off any group?"

In the brief Q&A period that followed the discussion, one member of the audience reminded the panel that almost half of American women between the ages of 15 and 44 do not have children, so advisors should not assume that all women are focused on issues involving children. "Woman and mother should not be used interchangeably," she said.

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