The US wealth management arm of RBC is stepping up efforts to reach out to women and encourage them to build a career as advisors.

RBC Wealth Management, which has been making a splash of hires across the US, has also ramped up efforts to bring in more female advisors, driven by how women are increasingly important holders of wealth and uneasy about a profession still dominated by men.

The firm, part of Toronto-listed Royal Bank of Canada, starts the programme with the release of a series of documentary-style videos highlighting some of the firm’s most successful women financial advisors and how they achieved their current positions. The women featured in the videos took different routes to their current positions. Together, they speak to the common theme of the initiative: “Everyone’s Path is Different. They All Can Lead Here.”

“The need and opportunity for female financial advisors has never been greater,” Kristen Kimmell, chief of staff at RBC Wealth Management, said.

The initiative comes at a time when women, for a variety of factors, including longer life expectancy, will be the recipients of most of an estimated $3.2 trillion in wealth that will transfer to the next generation in the US in the coming years, RBC said. (Other studies, such as from Accenture, have said that a total of around $30 trillion is likely to transfer from Boomers to the next generation over the next 30 to 40 years in North America alone.)

RBC also cited a study from the Insured Retirement Institute showing that 70 per cent of women seeking advisors say they would prefer to work with a woman. However, global research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates reports that women currently constitute only 16 per cent of the total advisor workforce.

“Adding more women to our advisor ranks is good for the industry, good for our business, but most of all, good for our clients,” Kimmell said. “As a leader in diversity with a client-first culture, RBC is positioned to become the firm of choice for not only female financial advisors seeking to grow their business, but for women with established careers in other industries looking for a change.”

Another issue is that the average age of financial advisors in the US is said to be rising, creating a potential shortage of talent at precisely the point when the upcoming generation of wealth-holders will need attention.