Morningstar Magazine - October/November 2016 - 86

Investors Passion to Help Cathy Curtis became a financial planner to help women and their families achieve financial success. USER PROFILE Roger Wohlner Oakland, Calif.-based financial planner Cathy Curtis is well-known in the industry as a financial planner who focuses on female clients. But it wasn't always that way. When she started her planning business 15 years ago, she, like many other advisors, went after any client who needed her help. But after taking a series of marketing and branding workshops, she soon realized the importance of finding a niche for her practice. "It was difficult to compete in a traditional way with other financial advisors, and I found the staid and corporate look of most financial advisor websites uninspiring," she says. "I also discovered that women make great clients. They are committed to the financial planning process from the start, it's easier to gain their trust, and they tend to have less ego-involvement when it comes to investing than men do." Once she made the decision to focus on female clients, her practice took off. She found that marketing and prospecting came easier to her. "Women control the household budget and generally are the ones that take a longer-term view of the family's finances," she says. Today, she runs a practice that currently serves 60 ongoing clients for which she provides both investment management and financial planning services on an AUM basis. She also manages a robust financial planning-only 86 Morningstar October/November 2016 group of clients who are on retainer. Eighty-five percent of her clients are women who are either single or who are clients with their partner or spouse. my friends and family for business or leads," she says. Curtis soon discovered the NAPFA fee-only model, and a light bulb went off in her head. She says that the fee-only model hit all of the factors that were important to her, including being able to help people without having to sell them financial products; following her passion for investments and investing; and the ability to build a long-term relationship with her clients based on trust and free from the conflicts of interest inherent in other compensation models. She took the plunge and launched her feeonly planning practice, Curtis Financial Planning, in January 2001. A Career Move to Financial Planning Building Her Practice Curtis grew up in San Francisco and attended the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in political science with an emphasis in environmental policy. "My goal was to head to law school but in the end, I decided to go right to work upon graduation. I wanted to be able to earn enough to support myself," she says. Curtis was an early adopter of social media. Platforms such as Facebook help her tailor her message and to interact with women who might be good clients for her practice. Her Facebook page has been successful in driving prospects who are friends of friends to her. Curtis began a 20-year career in the food packaged-goods industry with companies such as General Mills, Borden, Potlatch, and large food brokers. She began in customer service and then moved into sales and marketing, fields that Curtis credits to giving her the skills to successfully market herself as a financial planner later on. Curtis had been an investor since her teen years, and she had a love of business since childhood. As she began to think about making a career change, financial planning seemed like a natural transition. "I knew that I wanted to be self-employed but was afraid to make the leap. I took some extra time to ensure that I had enough in cash reserves to withstand the loss of income when starting out," Curtis says. She interviewed with a number of traditional brokerage firms. "But I decided that I didn't like the idea of cold-calling prospects or soliciting She also uses Twitter and LinkedIn extensively to network with other financial professionals and connect with prospective clients. Curtis estimates that about 15% of her clients have come directly or indirectly via social media. She also has begun experimenting with Instagram and Pinterest as marketing platforms. Curtis finds that prospective clients often seek her out when a "triggering event" occurs in their lives. These events include inheriting money, divorce, the death of a spouse, and retirement. She says that many clients are experiencing a midlife career crisis and want help figuring out if they can afford to take a more fulfilling but potentially lower-paying job or retire. "Clients appreciate my in-depth knowledge of their situation at their first meeting," she says. "I spend several hours going through the information they have shared with me so that from the first meeting, clients know that I will deliver sound recommendations and that all meetings will be productive."

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Morningstar Magazine - October/November 2016