August 19, 2026
Women Investors Are Showing Up, But Advisors Aren’t Keeping Up
Women are signing up for financial advice at significantly higher rates than average, yet most advisors still struggle to engage them meaningfully. Data by AcquireUp, a technology-first seminar marketing company for financial professionals, reveals that women-focused seminars had 103% higher registration rates than average last year.
So if women investors are showing up, why are advisors still failing to meet their needs and build long-term, meaningful relationships?
One of the biggest hurdles we see in the industry is not a lack of interest, but a lack of access to financial education that feels tailored and approachable.
Given women-focused seminars had 103% higher registration rates than average last year, we can tell the demand is already there.
This pairs nicely with the fact that AcquireUp’s 2026 Industry Index finds that in-person seminars continue to play a meaningful role in advisor and client relationships, accounting for 25% of benchmark production. These events help advisors connect with prospective clients in a trust-based environment, setting the foundation to build long-term relationships.
This highlights a critical gap: advisors are missing the opportunity to design and curate intentional, inclusive in-person experiences that drive conversation, connection, trust and ultimately action. Targeted, tailored meal-based and educational seminars should be designed for education and engagement, and feel less transactional overall.
How advisors can be more intentional with in-person engagement
Despite the strong engagement from women, we see that not enough industry seminars are targeted to women. At the same time, women outperform average registration rates, which signals a clear and under-addressed opportunity.
Right now, many events are happening in pockets, often driven by advisor or client demand, rather than being scaled through a more intentional marketing strategy. That creates a clear opportunity for firms to amplify what’s already working and reach more women in a meaningful way.
If advisory firms want to better serve women, it starts with being more intentional – recognizing that the demand is already there, investing in dedicated offerings and promoting them more actively.
Intentional strategy doesn’t stop at getting women to attend. Sessions must be tailored to their interests and demands. Research by New York Life finds that over half of women investors (59%) believe that women have unique investing needs and challenges, and of those who feel this way, a quarter (25%) believe their financial advisor does not understand this. Advisors who ignore this, serve to damage potential client relationships.
Investors don’t care for certifications or awards, vague or broad strategies or jargon. They scan for safety, sincerity and signs of reliability.
Advisors should therefore lead with connection, not credentials, and use their event to make women investors feel understood. They should be specific. Not ‘we can help you retire’, but ‘We can help you navigate career changes, caregiving responsibilities and making financial decisions with confidence.’
Advisors should consider delivering genuine value during their sessions, through a savings calculator, a tax-bracket worksheet, or a checklist of ‘10 things to do before you retire’, which shows that they give before they ask.
And they must follow through consistently, and use every touchpoint as an opportunity to reinforce the message: ‘Your unique goals matter. We’re here to help, whether that is selling a business, navigating family responsibilities, or advancing multi-generational wealth through estate planning.”
Technology does not replace the human touch, but the advisors that are reaching new clients and scaling effectively use a combination of hybrid strategies. AcquireUp’s Industry Index finds that 41% of advisors plan to use technology to streamline marketing, communication and client engagement.
Leveraging automated technology, advisors can better identify and target women investors at pivotal moments. Consider that the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), found that 70% of women fire their financial advisor within a year of their spouse’s death.
This underscores the importance of recognizing and acting on moments of decision. This includes identifying head-of-household transitions, the sale of a business, divorce, and other key milestones, and using smarter, more personalized marketing and seminar-based content to approach and meet women’s needs.
Women’s interest in harnessing the power over their financial futures is there. They are showing up. Now advisors need to show up for them. It’s not about physically getting them in the room for the seminar, but everything that takes place thereafter. Advisors must think through how to tailor their interactions, educational seminars and resources to build connection and trust with this core demographic. Advisors that fail to heed this advice, and continue to use copy and paste strategies, will lose the opportunity to connect with this valuable investor segment.
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Women now control roughly a third of U.S. retail investable assets, and that share is climbing toward 45% by 2030 as trillion-dollar wealth transfers move from spouses and parents into their hands. AcquireUp data shows the demand is already showing up in the room: women-focused seminars saw 103% higher registration rates than average last year. The opportunity isn't hypothetical, it's sitting in advisors' pipelines right now.
Start with specificity, not slogans. Women investors scan for safety and sincerity, not credentials, so advisors who lead with real scenarios (career changes, caregiving, widowhood, business sales) build trust faster than those pitching generic retirement planning. Pair that with a follow-through system, so every touchpoint after the seminar reinforces that her goals are being tracked, not filed away.
Skip the broad "how to retire" pitch. The advisors seeing results build sessions around tangible takeaways, like a savings calculator, a tax-bracket worksheet, or a "10 things to do before you retire" checklist, so attendees leave with something useful, not just a slide deck. Give value before asking for anything, and the room notices.
NAIFA research found that 70% of women fire their financial advisor within a year of a spouse's death. It's rarely about competence. It's about advisors treating major life transitions, like widowhood, divorce, or a business sale, as afterthoughts instead of the exact moments that call for proactive outreach.
Yes, but it's a complement to relationship-building, not a replacement for it. AcquireUp's 2026 Industry Index found 41% of advisors plan to use technology to streamline marketing and client engagement, and tools like automated seminar targeting help identify women approaching key milestones, such as widowhood or a head-of-household transition, before a competitor does.
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