Retaining Women Clients Through Life Transitions

About the Episode:

Discover why women clients leave their advisors during divorce, widowhood, and other major life transitions and the specific actions you can take to prevent it. Join host Kirsten Schlumbohm as she sits down with Grace Nicholson, BPC, founder of Akamai Advisors, who shares her hands-on approach to building trust with female clients before transitions occur and supporting them through vulnerable moments.

Grace offers practical guidance on hosting women-focused events, involving adult children in planning conversations, and adjusting your communication style when clients are grieving or navigating significant change. Learn how to create organized planning resources and reassess priorities when circumstances shift, giving you actionable strategies for serving women through life’s most vulnerable financial moments.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The Risk of Losing Women Clients: Why life transitions like divorce, widowhood, and career shifts pose such high risk for advisors, and how many professionals fail to work equally with both spouses.
• Building Trust Before Transitions: Hosting women-focused events, involving clients’ families early, and creating spaces where women feel celebrated and understood.
• The Critical First 90 Days: Specific touchpoints and actions advisors should take immediately after a spouse’s death or divorce to demonstrate empathy and expertise.
• Education Over Performance: Meeting women where they are emotionally and educating them on their financial picture rather than leading with portfolio returns during vulnerable times.
• Financial Blind Spots: Common gaps women in transition struggle with most, including tax changes when a spouse passes, beneficiary updates, and long-term care planning.
• Communication Adjustments: How to acknowledge the human side of transitions while keeping clients focused on long-term financial wellbeing, including when to redo planning tools.
• Tools That Build Confidence: Using concepts and tools from The Bucket Plan® financial planning process to create organized, accessible planning resources for clients.
• Speaking to the Client: The importance of addressing your actual client directly, not their children or caregivers, to maintain dignity and respect throughout the planning process.
• Serving the Next Generation: Designing your client experience today to ensure women feel seen, included, and empowered through every stage of their financial journey.

Resources:

• Books referenced: The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness by Morgan Housel, Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life―A Revolutionary Approach to Maximizing Life Experiences Over Accumulating Wealth by Bill Perkins, The Wealthy Gardener: Lessons on Prosperity Between Father and Son by John Soforic
• Processes mentioned: The Bucket Plan® and The Tax Management Journey®

Statistics:

• $125 trillion in assets is expected to transfer from Baby Boomers to younger generations over the next two decades.
• 57.9% of millennials have changed advisors or hired one for the first time after receiving significant inheritance.