When Lauren Oschman, partner and CEO in personal wealth advisers Vestia, was waiting for her first daughter, she was the only female adviser to her firm.
“Culture and infrastructure were created in a way where I tried to see myself successful – not necessarily successful as a financial adviser,” she said. “I would have already demonstrated success in building a practice. It was more thinking about the mother I wanted to be, and thinking that I had to present in an environment where I was effectively measuring against people who had the spouse of staying at home who were supporting those who would not have to remove everything for children.
“I was immediately facing restrictions – in my mind – that the environment where I was was not decided to support me,” she added. “I knew that if I continued to have the career success I wanted to have and be the kind of mother I wanted to be, I had to change the environment I was in.”
So when her daughter was 10 days old, she decided to leave that firm and start Vestia, where she could build the infrastructure she needed to succeed as an adviser and mother.
For example, Vestia has a policy to be in the office three days a week, with flexibility for those who need it. “If I don't have the flexibility to come later than others so that I can take my daughters to school, then my family is not blooming as we want to be,” she said.
Oschman's experience led him to launch a group of mother councilors, a private Facebook group with over 250 participants. She also recently conducted a study in partnership with ensemble practice to better understand the experience of mothers in the industry.
“We talk a lot about the advisory firms that hire women, and of course motherhood is something that is very important for the lives of many professional women,” said Philip Palaveev, owner and CEO of ensemble practice. “Not every single woman becomes a mother, but she is certainly a great deal of the experience of many people. And she is certainly something that deeply affects their professional lives.”
The study, which was based on a study of 137 mothers in the group, found that most of them were very pleased with their careers, with 52% estimated their satisfaction at a 9 or 10 (on a scale 1-10). 41% others marked their satisfaction at 7 or 8. About 7% had a score less than 7, suggesting neutral or negative experiences. Palaveev called this group “challenged”, and although it is a small percentage, their dissatisfaction is “deep and widespread”.
Perhaps the number 1 indicator of happiness was ownership, with 53% of respondents who owned equity and 8% who had synthetic equality. The pleasure of the owners was in the 9th and 10th. The main advisers who were non -owners also had very high levels of pleasure.
“Mothers who are part of the ownership team, they feel well supported by their firm,” Paveeev said. “They still feel the pressure of motherhood and an ambitious career. So all those who are raising children are feeling that pressure, but they treat that pressure better, and they feel better supported by their colleagues in their firm. Those who are not involved in ownership experience more challenges.”
Firms with female leadership or owners tend to have higher rates of satisfaction, as these practices are more likely to have work-houses, flexible policies and more time paid, he added.
The happiest mothers work on average 40 hours a week and tend to work for smaller firms (with an average Aum of $ 230 million). They are more likely to be on a career path and have a mentor.
Oschman said this is an indication that it is not necessarily the industry that is making mothers challenge, but on the contrary, the strong environment.
“The mothers who are fighting, which there are from them there, is certainly not the industry. It may be that the determination they are in is not the one to be the most successful. But there is a way to do it within the industry,” she said. “If your infrastructure is established such that, the relationships that perhaps some of the middle -level supervisors or executives have with their direct relationships are one of the open communication, trust, transparency, then I still think you can get those benefits, even if your firm is greater.”
That is to say, smaller firms tend to have more flexibility to meet the needs of mothers.
“They don't have to necessarily show,” Well, here's politics, “and it's a yes or no,” she said. “Either you have to go through the red ribbon to seek an exception to having flexibility in your schedule or being able to work from home, such things. Small firms are able to be more versatile.”
Christy Raines, a mother of four children and founder and president of Azimuth Wealth Management, said she designed her signature from the surrounding land having children, even before she became a mother. Theeles, she said, is to have the ability to control your schedule. It grew azimuth from about $ 15 million in AUM and no employee when she was 30 years old in over $ 100 million and two employees now at the age of 42.
Christy Raines and her family.
“There is no better job for a professional, ambitious woman who wants to have a family than to own and run your investment management and financial planning firm,” Raines said. “The beauty of personal finance is that you are working with other families, other people, other people, and it gives yourself that you have the flexibility you do not have in the corporation.”
Raines designed her firm and customer service schedule to make her work for her clients and her team, who are all mothers.
“I've deliberately created the firm to turn something that historically feel like being treated as an obligation to be a mother working with young children in our firm's superpower,” she said.
Now, she works on average 25 hours a week to connect with her children's school schedule.
Having flexibility to work from home was another factor of happiness; 45% of mothers with that flexibility scored nine of 10 on average for career satisfaction. Those women also strongly recommended their firm as employers.
Karly Rizzo, a mother of two daughters and director of marketing operations with Adams Wealth Advisors, said the relocation to work from home during Covid-19 was a player. This allowed her to move to Texas from New England, manage her schedule and be more efficient, having no people to fall into her office.
“I miss the conversations in the hallway that I'm not part of being distant, but my conversations and my interactions are very directed, deliberate,” she said. “And I use my time very well. And I feel like it's a constant balance. And maybe sometimes I'm finally wrong too much time, but at least lets me find my balance because I don't think a company can determine what will work for one for a whole group of women.”
But Rizzo said the RIA space offers a sweet place for mothers due to the flexibility to create what works for you.
“You have this kind of entrepreneurs to feel, and I think that's what really shares it,” she said. “In this sense, the firm is very dependent on the style of leadership of the person at the top. If you have a childless son, his experience forms the firm's culture much different.”
The data point to the fact that firms with female leadership or owners tend to create more motherhood friendly policies.
“This is one thing we learned from the survey is, the men who create policies for mothers do not work very well,” Paveev said.
The study also asked about paid vacation, with 41% of participants who said they had unlimited Pto. But this policy was not related to happiness; In fact, unlimited PTO was more common among the “challenged” group. And 40% of this group said they felt pressure not to get it.
Unlimited, Paveeev said, has become a marketing scheme.
“Uncertainty does not work well when managing people,” he said. “People want to know what the answer is, what is the rule? And an environment where the rule is,” Well, we can't really tell you, but you'll discover it after the fact, “this is not a good way to manage and guide people. You get rest time and then return to the office and you see an angry line, it's not just a good way to do it.”
In general, mothers interviewed for this article fought with motherhood being seen as a restriction when to be seen as a force in this profession.
“If you think about your life experience as a mother – you have tremendous time management skills, attention to details, the ability to be empathetic, to be patient,” Oschman said. “All these things are really great skills to be a leader, to be a financial adviser. I think there are many strengths we develop as a mother who really translates to work, if we choose to look at it.”