Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • September 24, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com WEALTH MANAGEMENT Female investors have a growing influence By Valerie Dugan H ow far we women have come from the days of being uncer- tain about family finances, to starting our own portfolios. The contempo- rary female inves- tor is the driving force behind much of the nation's investable dollars. Globally, women control and influence private wealth totaling some $50 trillion. Assets held by women in the Asia- Pacific region are increasing fastest, at about 13 percent a year over the past five years. In North America, women's assets are growing in line with the global average: about 8 percent a year. The world's female population also makes some 85 percent of all consumer purchases, from new homes to new cars, from health care to vacations. Professionally, women are increasing- ly present in the C-suite: As of this year, some 25 CEOs, or 20 percent, of Fortune 500 companies are women, whereas in 1995 there were only 10 percent. How do these successful women manage their wealth? Data on investing habits of women and men show interesting patterns: while men tend to be more confident in their investments, they aren't necessar- ily more successful. In fact, a six-year study showed that women take fewer unnecessary risks than men in invest- ing. They also tend to do a better job at diversification of their portfolios. Women tend to change investment allocations less frequently than men and are more likely to invest in their employer savings plans — both of which, analysts say, are comparatively conservative behaviors that tend to lead to good outcomes. However, positive outcomes may not weather potential risk; because women tend to be more heavily invested in their employer savings plans than men, there is a great risk to becom- ing overweighted in those plans and not sufficiently diversified. The higher women go on the executive ladder, the more likely that at least part of their re- muneration will be in their company's stock. All fine and good — to a point. The higher percentage of her wealth invested with the employer, the more risk she assumes should her employer unexpectedly face financial challenges. Regardless of taking on higher risk with company stock, women tend to mitigate added risk by better managing personal debt. On average, they owe slightly less in auto and personal loans as well as on credit cards, all having a positive effect on their credit — their credit scores tend to be higher. Ironically, though, women tend to have less saved up for retirement; experts say this is not because of bad FOCUS: Women in Business By Matthew Broderick Special to the Hartford Business Journal W hen Geena Clonan, former co-managing director of the Connecticut Forum, planned one of the organization's first-year panel discussions in 1992 — "American Women in Focus Breaking New Ground" — she expected a stimulating conversation; what she helped found, as a result, was much greater. "We wanted to showcase Connecti- cut women through the Forum and we assumed, being a bedrock New Eng- land historical landscape, there would be information in the state about [historical] women," said Clonan. What she and Forum colleague Doris Sugarman discovered was a gap — and a need. In response, working with the professors from the then-Hartford College for Women, CPTV and the Con- necticut Forum, the pair helped create the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (CWHF), chronicling more than 300 years of female contributions to the state. The organization is celebrating its 25th anniversary. "We thought it would be a traveling exhibit," Clonan confessed. But demand was high from educa- tors who wanted biographies, sto- ries and curricu- lum — often absent in standard history books — about the critical role women played throughout the state's history. Twenty-five years later, Clonan said, teachers are still clamoring for these resources. "It's very evident with this 'new' wave of feminism with younger generations, like Millennials with 'me too' and 'that's enough' movements," Clonan said. Sarah Lubarsky, the Hall of Fame's executive director, agrees. "We've come a long way over the past quarter-century," Lubarsky said, "but there are still subtle messages that wom- en receive every day [in the workplace and media] that puts them on a lower realm than their male counterparts." She sees an opportunity through the Hall of Fame's community and educa- tion outreach to change that culture. She points to her organization's most popular programs, STEMfems, which connects girls in the state with women professionals in science, technology, engineering and math careers from partner companies, including Pfizer, Ensign-Bickford and Eversource. "The Hall is about women as role mod- els and it's great for young girls to hear about the experience of women who've gone into [career] fields largely domi- nated by men," Lubarsky said. And it's not just the workplace that the CWHF is looking to transform. Through its "Girls Day at the Capitol," CWHF is also teaching young women self-advoca- cy and the importance of public policy. "We want them to understand how important voting is and how, even if they're too young to vote now, they can advocate for themselves within their school or in their families to make their voices heard." That type of intergenerational empowerment is, in part, what drew Kristin Flyntz, director of customer marketing at The Hartford, to serve on the CWHF's board of trustees. "Demonstrating that women, even against great odds, can and do achieve at the highest level of every field re- mains critically important — particu- larly for young girls whose sense of themselves and what's possible is still developing," Flyntz said. She said the Hall of Fame, as part of its 25th anniversary celebration, will be launching a social media campaign this fall — #letsrole — in which girls and women can share their female role mod- els and why they are so important. "The Hall has been preserving, honor- ing and sharing the value of women's voices and contributions in every facet of society, so it's excited to see the cur- rent momentum," Flyntz said. That momentum is reflected both in the number of exhibit views for the Hall's traveling exhibits, which have nearly tripled from 5,000 a few years ago to Valerie Dugan Women's Spotlight At 25 years, CT Women's Hall of Fame seeks to leverage latest wave of female empowerment Geena Clonan is co-founder of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame, which is celebrating 25 years of highlighting top women in myriad industries, including business and politics. Sarah Lubarsky, Executive Director, Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame PHOTOS | CONTRIBUTED

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