 Welcome to the Alpha Rising inaugural podcast for TheStreet.com. I'm Tracy Burns. I'm honored to be your host. I'm even more honored to have Jane Newton here as our inaugural guest. Jane, founder of the Region Atlantic Wall Street Women Forum, managing partner and wealth advisor, and I think more importantly, Barron's put you on their top 100 women financial advisor list in 2015. Thank you for being here. Well, Tracy, thank you for having me here today. This is quite a list of accomplishments. I think, though, we start with the Wall Street Women Forum. Back in 2008, 2009, when the world was falling apart, financial crisis first imploding, then exploding because its tentacles hit everywhere. We saw many high-powered women falling, taking the fall. One may say, yes. Right? And you decide we need an organization to help. How did this all start? It really goes back to my background on Wall Street and I'm happy to share that with you, but specific to what happened in 2008 is my clients who were on Wall Street, both men and women, and many of my friends and former colleagues, all had the same concerns. Number one, what was going to happen to their jobs? Right? Many of them had already lost their jobs. They knew they were on a path, probably to have their jobs become obsolete or they were just concerned. And the second question that I heard repeatedly, Tracy, was what's the compensation going to look like? You know that Wall Streeters get a nice cash salary, but most of their compensation is deferred and very variable. And by the way, it's often deferred, especially back then, into company stock. So their actual take home pay for the lifestyle that they often want to lead may be a little bit mismatched. And they were concerned about these clawbacks. So all of a sudden, they're wondering, how am I going to be able to continue the life that I would like to live for me and my family? Because let's not, I mean, diminish these bonuses or this deferred compensation that you were talking about. It's a huge, huge numbers that were disappearing. Huge numbers disappearing, right? Firms that went under and everybody lost all their stock compensation, right? All that deferred compensation. So yes, Wall Streeters, their compensation is somewhat unique from other industries. People say it's high, it's high, but it's not all cash. So questions about what's going to happen to jobs, where will the opportunities be, and how am I going to be able to afford my lifestyle? So I heard those questions from my clients. I set out to talk to many others I know and ask them what was on their minds. Men and women had the same questions. The women in addition had other concerns. How am I going to reinvent myself yet again? Many of these women had already been through the industry consolidation, you know, the Manny Hanny, Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and they were getting tired of it, or they were at the same firm and their management kept changing, right? As the industry was evolving very quickly and they asked themselves how do I stay relevant, right? And even people in their 50s on Wall Street are starting to feel like they age out, and that was accelerating. So I heard all these questions and I thought there's a real thirst for information that isn't in my natural wheel set, but I know how to get the answers for my clients and also the women wanted to get together with their peers. We can talk about this, but women generally don't spend as much time on that building the network as maybe the men do. I put this together and I went to my partners and I said I want to put together an event for Region Atlantic in the city for high level women on Wall Street. Just the kind of people we know we can help with our advice, our financial planning, and yes, investment management. So they jumped at this because on one hand it's a pool of really amazing potential clients. Correct. On the other hand, there's a philanthropic angle here. There's a philanthropic angle and with me personally, and I've realized maybe in hindsight that the Wall Street woman forum community that is now 750 strong and growing today, that I didn't have that as I grew up on Wall Street. I certainly didn't have it when I started out in investment banking, and maybe I didn't invest as much in it, but I didn't have that what I think of now as the sisterhood. This group of women that come together in small groups and big groups, but I can help convene with Region Atlantic to help each other, to learn from each other and the speakers and what we can do individually and collectively to really advance women in the industry. So it's for ourselves, but it's also to help the next ones coming up behind us. Because it was lacking when we came up the ranks. Absolutely. I mean, especially in investment banking, I mean, if anyone is familiar with it, it's grueling, the hours are long, and therefore it is very hard for women to last in investment banking. So I think there's a lot of things I have learned along the way, right alongside all the women in the forum community that I wish I'd known in my 20s when I started out in investment banking. And gosh knows where I'd be today if I'd known some of that back then. We didn't talk about the term sponsors. There was no notion that there's somebody better than a mentor who can help advance our careers, who can help advocate for us even when we're not in the room. That's a sponsor's responsibility and benefit to anybody being sponsored. We didn't even have that word in a vocabulary. No, we didn't even know. Nor did we even think to find a mentor. I didn't at least back then. Yeah, I think yes. And I think that one of the questions, and I still get asked this today, is if I was choosing a mentor or better yet a sponsor, or if I was looking for one, should it be a man or a woman? I don't think there's a right or wrong. Find that person. Many women I've talked to have views on whether they prefer a man or woman, but you have to have those relationships really solid. I think that we had formal mentor programs, and we all know that some of those work out well, and some of those relationships that were foistered on us don't work so well. And so I think part of it is we have to own our own careers, right? Men and women know that, but what does that look like? And part of our owning our own careers is to take the risk and go find those relationships that can help us. I think that's like something like every young woman coming out of college should be told. The first thing you need to do is go find yourself a sponsor. Let's talk, since you brought it up, let's talk about the difference between sponsorship and mentorship, because these are buzzwords people throw around all the time lately. Sure. And there is a huge difference. Right. So I think of mentors as that person you go to. It could be your boss, it could be a colleague, it could be actually someone who works for you. The person you go to for advice, for guidance, for directions, for help, you ask all the silly questions of, and they may give you answers, they may push you in the right direction, but they're there really to guide you. That is completely different from a sponsor who is really there to advocate for you. So think of the sponsor as the person who's pounding the table when you're not even in the room saying, Trace is the person that you have to put on that committee. Trace is the person who really needs to take that job in Chicago. Trace is the person to solve that problem for you, as opposed to it's all the men who they're pounding the table for. So the sponsor is really, as one of my keynote speakers likes to say, that most of the most important decisions about your career are made when you're not even in the room. It's that person who's providing you those opportunities. That's a lot to ask, right? That's like finding that big brother, big sister that wants to put their neck out on the line for you. And they are, right? They're investing a sponsor, I believe, is putting their personal capital to work. Totally. So there's a whole question about how do I get a sponsor, and I don't believe you get one, I think you have to earn it. And also, if you're being sponsored, sometimes called a protege, what is your responsibility in turn? Because that person is putting their neck out for you. Right. And so like an organization like yours actually brings all these women together, 750 strong, you said now, which is amazing. Invite only, correct? Yes. Invite only because it's geared specifically for high level women on the street across all sectors. So if you're a managing director in sales and trading in IT, in private equity all across the street, and you walk into our event, you know, you're seeing your peers, it's your caliber. And I can tell you, because I'm involved in enough Wall Street organizations, there is no other organization like this with only high level women across the whole of Wall Street. And that's why they come. Do you encourage these women to be sponsors then? Because really, those are the people the young generation needs, right? Yes. And it's both sides at the forum. I encourage them to be sponsors. I actually consider myself as the founder and leader of the Wall Street Women Forum. In a sense, I'm sponsoring all of them and helping them form connections and help each other and together what we can succeed as collectively. What we talk about the forum in terms of sponsorship is all the questions you've asked. How do I get a sponsor? What what does that look like? How do I leverage that relationship? I've even been asked how do we exit a relationship with a sponsor that isn't working? All of those things. We also talk about what can we do to sponsor in term because I think there is a real commitment maybe not when I was coming up on Wall Street, but a real commitment now among the women to give back to help those coming up behind us. It's amazing because I see it too. I myself too did not have a mentor, was not sponsored, and and and was part of that generation a little bit where they would claw your eyes out. Yes. And so it's really nice to hear it's changing, especially when we talk to younger entrepreneurs. I had the pleasure of interviewing the founders of Rent the Runway. They're young, but they are all about giving back. So I love that the conversation is changing. I think that there's a lot of things that have changed. And I think back and I never had a role model when I was an investment banking or even private banking. And I was at JP Morgan, so a very large firm. I found pieces of women that I respected a lot that I liked and I could put together a composite, but I cannot say I had a role model. And I used to think I was the only one like that. And I've learned now that most of us coming of age on Wall Street in the 80s and 90s did not know, did not have those role models either. Now sponsors weren't even talked about. Exactly. When I think back on the arc of my career, I realize I had sponsors. Things didn't, yes I worked hard, but things didn't just happen. Sure. Those doors didn't just get opened. And I realize now that I did have both men and women who were clearly my sponsors. We just didn't think about it then. And I asked myself whether I treated that relationship as well as I could have, because it wasn't so thought about, so strategic for me back then. Right. And that's why I think young women really need to think this through. And look, the other problem too is when we looked up, we didn't see a lot of women. That's, that's so I think that expression you cannot be what you cannot see is so true. And as I said, there were women that I liked. They were bringing at what they did. They were great managers. They were great in other ways, but they weren't necessarily the role models I sought in terms of blending both their professional life. And I knew I wanted to have a family and I did. And so they were not necessarily kicking on all the cylinders I was hoping to find. Which is a great point because the many of the women that I, that were up top when I was there, did not have children, did not have families. They dedicated their lives to this. And I didn't want to be that girl. And so then, then I found myself lost in the process. It's different now. It, look, it was challenging once I had my own family. Because you have two boys. I have two boys who are now in their 20s. They're, they're launched, but they're always my babies. As big as they are. They're always my babies. Always a mom. That was where it got really challenging. Not only in terms of the grueling nature of being in investment banking as you, as you said, but also figuring it out. For the younger women and men, you know, in their 20s and 30s these days, they have so many more female role models. I'd like to think we're all role models for them. And I think they, they also still have that open mindness and gung-ho-ness about them. And they are much more vocal, I would say. I'm not sure if they're more strategic, but much more vocal than we even thought to be about seeking out those relationships. Especially the women. When you and I talked yesterday, we both stepped out of whatever this corporate America thing is for a while, to be home with the kids. And that used to be seen as a really, really negative, like, oh, you're giving up your career thing. It's not anymore. Actually, I think people are almost pursuing it as a noble thing, which it really is, quite frankly. It's the hardest job in the world. But should women be worried about that these days? I think it's much more acceptable. We see men off-ramping. Look, when I, when I left J.P. Morgan, there was no term for off-ramping. And let me be clear, I loved my career at J.P. Morgan. And in 17 years there, what a phenomenal way to go from investment banking into private banking, where I could really have an impact on the person directly across from me at the table. Life was good. And then what happened was life. Right. We had an important time, my husband and me, and with our two young sons. And I decided to leave my career in private banking. And on the one hand, it was a very difficult decision, because I really loved the career and the challenges and what I was building. But in the other hand, I really love my kids too. And that was really important. So it was made it a very easy decision. And we think of that as off-ramping now. I don't think the notion of stepping out is so frowned upon right now. What I think is really continues to be incredibly challenging is how to get back in. And I have many, many women who mostly were on Wall Street, and that's how they find me, but could be in any career. They were lawyers. They were in manufacturing management positions. They stepped off for whatever reason. And now they want to get back in. And it is really tough. I was, I don't want to say I was a lucky woman. We say we're lucky too often. I was lucky and I worked very hard to build on the relationships that I had long had to get me where I am today at Region Atlantic. But it's really hard to on-ramp. I think it takes a certain person willing to take a risk on you coming back in to say, oh, Jane can do this. Tracy can do this. Johnny can do this. Why doesn't this fall on the shoulders of corporate America a little bit more though? Shouldn't it be a little bit more, I mean, it's a talent pool. It's a talent, and there's a talent shortage in certain fields. And there's a talent shortage. And just because someone, I love the off-ramp thing that sounds so much better than me saying, stepping out, these are talented women. These firms should want these women back. This is a valuable resource. Some industries and some firms are doing much better. There are, in many firms, formal programs. I know people who have gone through them on Wall Street. There's these various entree, they don't call them on-ramp, but entree programs. And they're grueling, very mixed successes to how they do. And I would say they shouldn't just be for women, because there are men who have stepped back. And I think that's what's helped things. The other thing I think that, Tracy, that helps with this is many of our peers, when we were women and we off-ramped, are the men who have daughters. And I can't tell you how many times a man says to me, you know, I think very differently now that I've raised a daughter. I want her to have all the opportunities that I had or that the men have. And she should have no obstacles. So I think it's raising their awareness and they're much more attuned to it. Change is slow. I know. These things are ingrained. And I sure you know the differences now are not so explicit. It's not the boom-boom room and the trading floor and all the craziness that some of us know happened that was rather not friendly. Oh, there was still a firm in Jersey that hasn't cut the memo. But whatever. Right. And certainly in your industry, in the media industry, there's, you know, continues to be bombshells about gender discrimination. It's much more under the surface. Yeah. They call it unconscious bias. And we all have it. Do it. So I think that it's no more easy because it's hidden. But we need to, it all starts to me with awareness. So there is a mindset that we have a valuable talent pool that we're not tapping. And I do think it comes to someone saying, I'll extend a hand to you. I need you. I want you. I'll take a risk. And selling you to whoever else has to be in on that decision. I've heard this time and time again now that the men have daughters coming up the ranks and they're thinking things differently because of their daughters. So, so to that, do you think it will change with the generations? I have gotten mixed response to this. Do we get rid of the wonderful white men that are at the top right now when they move on and the next generation comes up, will it be different or is it that slow to change? I'm very hopeful. I've seen change already, but it is going to be slow. So let's, let's use Wall Street as the example. After the financial crisis of 0809, we saw so many very high profile, very visible women leaving the street. You may say they took the fall. We can, we can talk about that. But they, they left for whatever reason or they were pushed out. Right. And you know who they are. As any women on Wall Street saw that happening, it had, it affected them deeply. If Ina Drew can't make it, what means that for me? If Zoe Cruz can't make it, if Erin Callan can't make it, if it didn't work for them, why do I think this is going to work for me? And so I think that it dealt a blow to many women who may have decided that they were going to stick it out and try that much harder and find ways to make it work. It may be that they did a lateral move to get somewhere else. They changed within the industry. And I think it also is a big part why women go and launch their own firms. They've become entrepreneurs because they'd rather control their own destiny. Right. And many of them actually want to be the female owners of a, of a, of a firm that helps other women. Right. And maybe has female clients. And, and really that, the time is right for entrepreneurship. Right. Money's cheap. You can work remotely. So, so that, that works to our advantage. But that comes to the confidence issue, doesn't it? Like women, real, I think we overthink things sometimes, right? The notion that some of these women now watching the Zoe Cruises, the Sally Crouchucks of the world take a fall and all of a sudden questioning their own abilities, this is a confidence issue, isn't it? It is a confidence issue, Tracy. And look, I, I face some of that too. So, I get asked all the time, why would these very accomplished women, you know, on Wall Street, need any help having self-confidence? And so there's this notion that we're, you know, supremely confident. Right. And boy, is that a myth. Right. I've yet to meet a woman who's willing, you know, who's, who's not willing to admit that she doubts herself at times. So, I think that we are sometimes our own worst enemy. So, we can talk about, you know, it's the company's fault, it's the management, it's, you know, the white men in power, it's all of that. And yes, there's some truth to that. But it's also about what we can do to further ourselves. And so we can't just whine, we have to actually act. And one of the things we can, we can focus on is the things we can control. So, I can't control what happens, you know, in the industry consolidation or the, the stock price of a particular bank or, you know, all of that. But I can control my own parts of my own career. And what I, what I help these women and our speakers help these women realize is how to own it, how to take charge of your own career. So, we talked about the relationships that matter, that's certainly sponsorship, right? How can we squash those voices in our head? Those voices of self-doubt that say, when are they going to figure out I'm really not that smart? When are they gonna figure out I'm, I really shouldn't be working with that client? Right, that I do not have a plan, you know, what together. Exactly, when are they going to figure out that this is like, I'm really taking a re-list here out of my comfort zone? And I think that we have to stop those voices in our heads and, and squash that negative self-talk. One of the most interesting things for me, I love to connect dots. I've realized connect dots and connect people is something that I just kind of took for granted, but I've realized and other people have helped me realize that's something I really enjoy doing. Connect the dots from okay, we're not as self-confident as we know we really want to be consistently, right? We have our moments, but we have our other moments. Connect that to what it means to have a sponsor and then what it means to take risks and what it looks like to be more visible in your firm or in the industry. These are all themes that the Wall Street women want help with. So if I feel I'm lacking in confidence, how different is it when I know someone's got my back? When I know that there's a sponsor there who's going to catch me, who's going to open the doors for me and encourage me to take risks that maybe I didn't even know I was ready for. I've had many of the women say, and the men on Wall Street say, I was told to put my hand up for this job. I didn't think I was ready, right? Women say all the time I'm not ready. Right, because we have to check every box. We have to check every box. The men just put their hands up and say, I'm your guy. I can do this. I got this. Great stories around that and dismaying stories. Women, we need to put our hands up. If you knew someone was going to catch you and make sure that you had the tools and the support to do it, how much more likely are you going to be to put your hand up and take those risks? Just to say someone has my back. So it's tied back to the relationships which help engender self-confidence, but you need the self-confidence to reach out and forge those relationships, right? And then how that helps you become more visible. So one other thing you and I have talked about a little bit is we don't like tutoring our own horn, right? That word, I don't want to brag about myself. Many of us, myself included, will say I will pound the table for my own team. I can do that really comfortably. When someone's done a great job, I'll pound the table. But pound the table for myself, no way. So true. So if you have a sponsor do that for you, right? You don't have to do it yourself. It takes a village. Sure does. The other thing you and I talked about in the interest of time, I'm going to keep us moving here. Women ask, what am I missing? How come men don't? Actually, they both ask what they're missing, but perhaps in different ways. So in my role as a wealth advisor to busy, smart, capable professionals, these are people who often are taking care of their own personal finances. They may know they're not doing as great a job as they could. They may think they're doing a very good job. They may not realize there's other things they'd rather do with their time than do it themselves. They get a lot of information, right? Wall Streeters and other professionals, they get bombarded with things they should think about. Oh, I should do a Roth IRA conversion. Oh, tax reform is going to mean X. Or here's what the latest thing in estate planning or charitable giving. They don't know how to apply it to themselves. So inertia sets in. So my finding is that smart people are really afraid of making a bad decision. Yeah. And so unless they're going to seek help to help them make a sound decision, they make no decision, right? I don't want to have to admit to myself or my spouse or my brother-in-law that I did something silly. So that could impair my financial path down the road. So what they want to know is, what am I missing? Here's the questions I get. What is everybody else doing that I should think about? And I can share some of that with my clients, but at the end of the day, what they're really asking is, what's it mean for me? Of course. So I bring it home to them, knowing them very personally, thinking about if they have a career. How does their career fit into their long-term goals? What kind of path do they see themselves on and where do they really want to go? The women, as we know from our surveys of the Wall Street women in the forum community, is two-thirds of them say they're where they want to be in their careers, even if they don't know that they're being paid or recognized the way they'd like to be. That leaves one third who are not where they want to be. One third who know they want to make a change and get to their dream job. How do they get there? What do they want to do? Where do they want to go? Are all things about what they're missing and they need help with? I can find people to help them dream about their dream job. Where I come in is what can they afford to do? So they want to know what am I missing if I walk away from this job to take another job or I just walk away. What am I missing that could derail my finances? What am I able to do? And that's what I help them frame that decision. How do I become a member of the Wall Street Women Forum? I'd love you to be a member of the Wall Street Women Forum. I would too. How do we aspire to be a part of this eclectic group? So it's all word of mouth, amazing woman, recommending other women. This is a very vetted community so that the women who are part of it know that they're dealing with their and interacting with their peers. These are women with usually 20 plus years of experience in the industry and a lot of responsibilities. So think managing director level across all sectors, all kinds of firms in Wall Street. Two-thirds of our community come from the large banks, names you would know, and about a third come from much smaller firms, sometimes their own firms they founded, and they've moved back and forth. So they come because they want to learn from the speakers, learn from each other, and that word that's sometimes seen as a dirty word, they want to network, they want to connect with their peers. So then do you recommend for young women coming out to get involved in other organizations that, you know, that are for their age, their... Absolutely, and I often will steer them to those. There are so many other organizations for younger women on Wall Street, and then of course within some of their firms they have, most of them have some sort of women's initiative. I encourage women to take advantage of it. One of the things I saw over my career at JP Morgan is there were some women who would never get involved in a woman's organization. They did not want to be associated with something that needed help, right, or what we now... Right, you're weak. You're weak. You're weak, or we're scared of you. Or you're a pretty feminist. Exactly. So I never understood that for a long time. I was like, why would you not want to be part of something and help other women and maybe help yourself in turn? Now there's so many organizations like this. Some people might say there's too many. I say find the one that works for you that you can be part of and take a leadership role in to make a difference. Get involved and pick someone. My last question to you is on an entirely different note. The state of the financial advisory industry is changing. It has to. Right now we have a lot of white men at the top. We have a lot of men who talk to men and the transfer of wealth from men to women over the next ten years is in the trillions of dollars. All these women are going to inherit money from their husbands. Correct. Where are they going to go? Because they're not going to stay at these firms, are they? So this is all true, this huge transfer of wealth to women. I want to add on to that how much more and more women are the breadwinners. Right. So I mean just in the Wall Street women form community, I was always curious like how much how many of them are the primary breadwinners? How many is a significant other? What's the deal? And so I asked them and two thirds of them are either the primary breadwinner or the solo breadwinner. That's me. I'm solo. Okay. So you know how hard it is. Yes. That's two thirds. Only one third of them say they're equal breadwinners with their partner or the partner is the breadwinner. So we're talking two thirds of these women. That's not unique across corporate America. You look at the legal profession, you can go to, you know, consumer products, etc. fashion. The women are more and more the ones who are owning it. And the question is how do they feel about who are they going to work with as an advisor? Right. So I think this gets to what is someone looking for in a financial planner? Right. What is someone looking for in the as a financial advisor? I like to think that people are looking for a relationship. It's not a stockbroker. It's not, you know, someone who's going to give them investment tips. It's not transactional. It's all about relationships. I think what's important is that people have choices. Men and women have choices of gender, of age, of all sorts of different aspects. And yes, there are woefully few women in our industry. Just some of the statistics that of all the financial advisors, 310,000 advisors apparently in the U.S., only 16% of those are women. What? That's less than one in six. So 16% of them are women. And I would say just anecdotally my experience is most of them are newer to the industry. There are huge numbers of the white men, as you say it, who are going to retire in the next 10 years. Right, because the average age is close to 60. The average age is close to 60. Many of them are founders of their firms. Many of them have developed long-lasting relationships and they need to know how to be fair to their clients by finding a successor, right? You can just leave. It's not fair to your clients, in my view. What a great opportunity for women to step in. So one of the things I'm very committed to is figuring out how to show women that this is really an attractive space for them that the financial planning profession, it's not a job, it's a profession is perfect for women. We love people and relationships. It isn't just about dollars and cents and math. Yes, there's a big component of that. So how can we show women what it looks like and who would their role models be? Again, you cannot be what you cannot see. So if I and others can help lead a movement to attract more women into our industry, starting out, or like me, mid-career coming in to the wealth management space. And if we can help not just recruit them but retain and develop and help them to be successful, what a great thing. It gives more choices. This is a story that we will continue to talk about because I just think that the industry is going to get smacked in the head. They don't realize what's going to happen when women inherit this money and they go find boutique firms run by women, smaller firms, people like yourself, like everyone's going to Jane. Jane, this was so wonderful. We could keep talking and talking and you will come back and we'll continue this conversation. It's the region Atlantic Wall Street women form. If anyone wants to check it out, Jane, you are someone that everyone should be looking up to. Well, thank you, Tracy, and it was a delight being here with you today. You're great. Thank you.