Episode 32 - Empowering Women in Wealth with Catherine Dorazio
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In this week's episode of Your Estate Matters, Nicole and Greg engage with Catherine Dorazio, a seasoned wealth advisor from Connor Clark & Lunn Private Capital. They explore the growing influence of women in wealth management, noting that women are projected to control significant portions of wealth in the coming years. Catherine discusses the societal and economic impacts of this trend, the conservative investment approaches often adopted by women, and the challenges they face in financial literacy. The episode emphasizes the importance of education and professional support, encouraging women to take control of their financial futures.
Transcript:
Nicole 00:00:02 Hello and welcome to Your Estate Matters with your hosts, my colleague Greg Brennand and myself, Nicole Garton of Heritage Trust.
Greg 00:00:09 Your Estate Matters is a podcast dedicated to everything estates, including building and preserving your legacy.
Nicole 00:00:16 If it's estate related, we'll be talking about it. We're having the conversations today that will help Canadians protect their families, their assets and their legacies tomorrow. With us today on Your Estate Matters is Catherine Dorazio, wealth advisor, Connor Clark & Lunn Private Capital. Catherine brings 25 years of leadership and client advisory experience to families, foundations and endowments to impact their lives by implementing successful investment strategies and wealth planning. She has a deep understanding of exceptional client service, the importance of listening and aligning her guidance to the values of each client. BC Business Magazine named Catherine one of its most influential women in finance in 2019, and one of BC's 50 Most Influential Women in 2015. Catherine holds a B.Comm from the University of Victoria and an MBA from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. After being granted a finance scholarship at Boston College.
Nicole 00:01:23 Catherine, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about women and wealth.
Catherine 00:01:27 Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm really excited.
Nicole 00:01:29 Great. So tell us about you and your current role to being a wealth advisor with CNL.
Catherine 00:01:35 It's been a journey, so 25 years. But I think, you know, the foundation was making an impact in clients lives. And that brought me in the finance industry right to a client facing role early on in my career. You know, seeing the impact I could have actually, was the transition then to being on the leadership team and part of our strategic direction for seasonal, where I was a managing director. And after ten years of doing that, you know, bringing people into the industry, teaching them how to do it on the foundation of changing client lives. You know, I thought the last chapter, I would go and do that myself again. So as a wealth advisor, you know, being able to sit in front of a client and their family, you know, is an incredible privilege.
Catherine 00:02:19 And so that's where I am today.
Nicole 00:02:21 So we talked to a lot of different people from financial institutions. Tell us about Connor Clark & Lunn, its role in wealth management.
Catherine 00:02:30 Yeah. So Connor Clark is a pension money manager, most notably in Canada and around the world. And what seasonal private capital is able to do is give access to not only the minds and the talent that ultimately manage that money to individuals in their families, but really also the asset classes or types of investments that they otherwise wouldn't likely have access to. And then someone like myself would play the role of a strategist to understand, you know, really what we're working with as far as not only the money, but the values and also the construct and ambitions that a family may have, and intertwining that into an investment strategy.
Greg 00:03:06 What are the latest statistics regarding women and wealth?
Catherine 00:03:10 Well, there's a very large wave I see forming and really cresting upon us right now. If you go to the US, which is the most notable statistic, you have $11 trillion of wealth controlled by women today.
Catherine 00:03:21 And by 2035, you're going to see that amass to 30 trillion. In addition to that, you bring that home to Canada. You have a $2.2 trillion number going to $4 trillion. But that's two thirds of Canadian wealth being controlled by women in a very short period of time ahead of us here. Now you ask why and where is that coming from? Well, first we have the baby boomers, a large cohort. We've seen transform industry as they've gone from birth to now just reaching 80 at the first year of the baby boomer cohort. And statistically, the wife will be the last to die in those relationships. And they'll be left with that wealth and that responsibility. They've all had children. And with that, you know, you've got 50% of those children being statistically female, and so they will be gaining inheritances to which they will then have wealth to direct. In addition to that, still 50% of relationships are probably even more entering into divorce at some period of time. And so you see the division of assets.
Catherine 00:04:18 And again, women have a large portion of wealth then to be responsible for the last one, which is, you know, something we probably all are starting to witness is just how many women are shifting to be the breadwinners of families. It's over 40% and rising that actually lead the financial contribution to a family. And likely then you know, the decisions that come with it. But most families now today both spouses are working. And so that's just a even a larger percentage of women that are ultimately going to be in control of wealth and wealth decisions.
Nicole 00:04:50 So how will this so-called feminization of wealth impact the economy and society, do you think?
Catherine 00:04:57 Well, let's just go back like statistic or not. You know, women want to be part of their life design. You know, I think there's a desire there for them to be part of the conversation in how a family unit, you know, decides to spend, save or give away. Women, notably, also are really attached to them. Their children be in a better responsible position than they feel they are.
Catherine 00:05:21 So you know, the first thing women, when you have control of wealth, will be able to make more choices about their life and get out of potentially, you know, harmful or undesirable situations. So fundamentally, a society, I think, you know, we're going to see women having a choice from there. Women are really driven with wealth. You see them start businesses, become entrepreneurs. You see them really thinking about what they want that wealth to do. And back to that word of impact that's driven my career. You know, I think that's fundamental for a lot of women. And then you think about when you have control of wealth, you spend it on what matters to you. So whether it's the finance industry, and we'll probably get into investing in this or the health care industry or anything, you know, women are going to direct that wealth to what's important to them. And so that shift is going to be seen globally across all industry.
Greg 00:06:09 So for women do you think they invest and spend their wealth differently than men in general?
Catherine 00:06:16 Well, let's put spending aside because that's probably an easy yes.
Catherine 00:06:20 You know investing I'm going to say no. Statistically women are more conservative. But that to me means they haven't had the resource and access to the information and education to understand investments be catered to in the way that they wanted to learn about them, to make decisions. Women want to make money. They want to have performance. That's no different in the asset. Classes are agnostic really, to a female or male making that decision. But I think the gap that we've missed is making sure that they feel understanding and educated on the types. So we have seen a conservatism because of a lack of understanding, right?
Greg 00:06:56 So in Canada, I mean, Vancouver may be slightly different. A lot of wealth has been built out of the commodity side of things such as farming, timber, etc. so with women, would you find a divide between rural women and, you know, city women for their investment approach?
Catherine 00:07:15 You can look at investing on a stock specific, industry specific basis. And there's been opportunity in all of those male dominated sectors over time.
Catherine 00:07:25 And if you want to choose that, yes, there may be ones that they lean to. I come at when you look at strategies strategically, what asset classes are going to have an opportunity in the current environment, less so on a specific industry. And so we get a real diversified approach by asset class. And that's where I think it's agnostic to where.
Nicole 00:07:45 Okay. So what challenges remain regarding women and wealth.
Catherine 00:07:49 So first off I think there's a confidence gap. You know right now if you ask majority of women if they were put in that position of responsibility, especially ones who are older than maybe the demographic, you know, that's working and earning today, they haven't gained that understanding and that responsibility seems daunting. We don't see many financial advisers still as females representing this to, you know, families or women. There's only 15 to 20% of female advisors in the financial space. And so we are underrepresented. And I would also say that, you know, firms, women have really been an afterthought.
Catherine 00:08:26 They came along with the equation versus being the target audience, to which we were designing businesses and communicating to. And then there's a knowledge gap. So because they haven't been, you know, thought of on the forefront of the communication and the resources, they haven't kept up in their knowledge. And that gets that conservatism stat I mentioned previously. But there's just a lack of trust and understanding in a lot of industries, whether it's finance or health care. And so we need to, you know, bring them up. And those are challenges. I know people are aware of when you see that $30 trillion stat, it's a notable enough to say we need to make some shifts, but you can't make those overnight.
Nicole 00:09:03 So remind me, what is that $30 trillion stat.
Catherine 00:09:06 So the American wealth that will be controlled by women will be $30 trillion by 2030. In Canada, that comes to 2.2 trillion moving to over 4 trillion, which is two thirds of Canadian wealth will be controlled by women by 2030.
Nicole 00:09:24 So I've got questions about demographics because in some ways women, it seems women are getting ahead, but in some ways they're still lagging and that we've got two thirds of degrees earned by women, or 50% likely in the workforce.
Nicole 00:09:41 But if you look at the top earners and C-suite, it's, you know, partners of law firms, people that are invested in advisors, there's a smaller percentage. So overall, it seems like women still are making less. How does that impact their ability to build wealth?
Catherine 00:09:58 Yeah. You know, there's a lot of systemic pieces to, you know, why women have an advance to be equal right from outside of school, where, yeah, you've got usually 50% or more being female today to what we see representative in partnerships and executive. And, you know, having lived in a male dominated industry, I can tell you it's just there's a lot of things, whether it's that we bear the children and, you know, do take time off and that affects people's mindsets and coming back to work or these piece that they carry alongside their work responsibilities. I think the statistics are getting more known, but it does take really massive change. And wealth will help that, you know, whether they're going to build businesses on their own as entrepreneurs.
Catherine 00:10:39 You know, I think wealth will help women become more significant players of major corporations, whether that's the affordability, the things they can do to support them in the in term of things being much more equal, or, you know, just having a little bit more of the, you know, I guess, confidence to keep playing a role as an economic player.
Greg 00:10:59 For women along the journey. What can women do to increase their financial knowledge?
Catherine 00:11:04 Well, you know, I say this as consistency over intensity and a little bit over time. We all know we could go to the gym today, do the hardest workout and it's not going to do anything. But if we went there every day or even once a week or so, you know, we're going to see that change. So the first is to understand that, you know, you're not going to achieve this overnight. And you need to start from there. The resources are improving. But there are people like me, you know, that want to help educate and not just do.
Catherine 00:11:33 And so if you can pair yourself with a good professional, that's going to put you on that consistent journey to kind of peel the onion back, especially, as I say, when the numbers are yours on the page, you know they're going to be much more relevant. My job is to empower someone to be able then to take that information and make the day to day decisions. I'm not walking around with anyone, whether they're buying a car or going to the grocery store, so that education is going to be fundamental, and then how, you know, you go out and live your life, and that's the empowering piece to it, and don't overcomplicate it. You know, there's professionals who know this work. You know, there's professionals who know how to execute. So there's things you really don't need to know. But if you do your homework to get a professional that's going to understand and work with you well, and then teach you the things you do need to know, you know you're going to start in the right place versus the things that, you know, as I said, may be overcomplicated or unnecessary.
Catherine 00:12:25 The other piece I think about is, is a framework. You know, really there's not too many variables here. You've got what you spend, you've got what you earned. Let's start and see if one covers the other. You know, you might then need an investment portfolio to supplement the current income or the future income or both. What's left over then allows you to spend. Those are assets like your home, which could in Vancouver be considered an investment. Or they could also be the other things you're going to spend. So the variables aren't, you know, really that different person to person, but someone who can just guide you through that simply and not overcomplicate it, you know, will help you on the learning journey.
Greg 00:13:03 Catherine, how can our listeners find you?
Catherine 00:13:06 Well, the day of LinkedIn, I think you could just Google my name and you're going to see that come up. I'm also on the online private capital website and all my contact details would be there.
Nicole 00:13:17 Great. Well, thank you so much.
Nicole 00:13:18 You've been a wonderful resource.
Catherine 00:13:20 Thank you so much. Thanks.
Nicole 00:13:22 This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered individual, legal, financial or tax advice. Make sure to consult the advisor of your choice to advise you on your own circumstances. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Your Estate Matters. If you like this podcast, make sure to follow it on your podcast platform of choice.
Greg 00:13:44 Whether you are planning your own estate or you're acting as executor for somebody else's heritage, trust can help partner with Heritage Trust to protect your family, your assets, and your legacy.
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