Women who become super wealth advisors often never have one. The industry didn’t find them, didn’t make a case, didn’t build the pipeline. Jessica Jung did it anyway, and the way she works today is a good argument for what the industry has been missing.
Hearing What the Numbers Can’t Say
The standard advisory model treats the financial system as a product. Relationships are scaffolding, helpful in getting to the auction and maintained afterwards to prevent the client from leaving.
Jung’s approach treats it differently. His work is divided into two: mechanic, his team is in charge; financial planning, tax minimization, investment strategy, and what he calls the training part, the hard part that most firms never mention as a deliverable at all.
“In order to achieve financial freedom, there are machines that my team and I are working on. That is part of the financial plan and the strategy, but it is also part of the emotion, which is equally important.”
A client who comes in stressed about market volatility is not given a chart. They get a conversation about what it means to be unstable in their particular situation, hosted by someone who already knows what keeps them up at night.
Client meetings are also sometimes rescheduled, not because the counselor is unavailable, but because the client is not ready. If someone is not in the right place to absorb important financial information, Jung pivots, discusses other topics, and returns to the important conversation at another time.
It is difficult to teach. It’s easy to underestimate. Clients who have experienced it usually know the difference.
Information Increases, Gap Persists
Financial services have long acknowledged their gender inequality, in conferences, in industry white papers, in occasional commitments to do better. Female CFP professionals will grow by 13.9% between 2021 and 2024, outpacing male growth, according to the CFP Board.
The base remains low enough that the growth percentage can moderate the situation. Women still hold less than a quarter of CFP information, in a profession where clients continue to ask for the qualities that research associates with female counselors: attentiveness, clear communication, and a willingness to deal with the full picture of the client’s life rather than the balance sheet alone.
Jessica Jung saw this disparity from within. His client base is mostly male, seasoned professionals who come looking for financial expertise and find, over time, that what they equally value is having an advisor who understands their lives well enough to be a real sounding board.
Male mentors build those relationships, too.
The question the data raises is whether the profession has historically rewarded that approach, or whether it has rewarded a smaller skill set and is now catching up to what clients have always asked for.
What “Soft Skills” Really Do When Markets Divide
“Soft skills” carry a soft name for a reason. It means something that is fun to have but secondary to actual work. The skills that this term describes: listening, reading emotional registers, building trust over time, knowing when to push, are what determine whether a client sticks to a financial plan when the markets turn or abandons it at the wrong time.
Behavioral research has tracked this gap for years. The average investor has underperformed the S&P 500 for 15 consecutive years, largely because emotional responses to volatility outweigh rational strategy. A counselor’s job, in times of stress, is to be a strong voice in the room.
Jung made this his clear method, preparing clients in calm periods to reframe downturns as buying opportunities. Come and fix “, they are not so afraid. They see it as a place to enter certain positions.” Preparation is as psychological as it is financial, and requires an advisor who has built enough trust for the client to pick up the phone and listen when everything feels like it’s falling apart.
That kind of impact is compounded by a lot of discussions about things that don’t appear in any financial statement. He traces it back to Tony Robbins’ motto: “You become important when you add the most value to everyone or anyone else in that role.”
Value is what keeps a customer from walking across the street when a competitor offers lower fees. Built with attention, not alpha.
The Talent Shortage The Industry Is Built For
The counseling profession is aging faster than it is producing new entrants. According to Cerulli Associates, more than 109,000 advisors plan to retire in the next decade, representing 37.5% of the industry’s total and managing 41.5% of total assets, while the rookie failure rate hovers around 72%. Meanwhile, the client base is growing richer and expecting more from the advisor relationship, not less.
Bringing more women into the profession, however, is a diverse and practical conversation. The group of talents has always been there. The pipeline to reach it did not keep up with the speed.
Jessica Jung proposed the idea of training clients on health and lifestyle habits as part of the counseling relationship, a practice she developed in connection with the preparation of medical insurance examinations, which often produced lasting changes in behavior, in a research group meeting with other counselors. The room was interesting.
No one was doing it.
Data on emotional intelligence in customer relationships is not new. Customer demand is not new. The mentor shortage is not new. The industry has known all three for some time.
Jessica Jung, CFP® is the founder of Vast Wealth Advisors. He helps business owners and high net worth individuals direct their resources and goals through customized wealth strategies. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
Securities offered by Registered Representatives of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc, member broker and dealer of FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Cambridge and Vast Wealth Advisors are not affiliated. Cambridge does not provide tax or legal advice. Fixed insurance services provided by private insurance carriers.
