Increasing the opportunities and representation of women in the financial services industry isn’t just about the benefits equality will bring to women, it’s also about the benefits women bring to a business.

There are few places where that is so clearly exemplified as at Morton Wealth, a California-based financial advisor firm where two of the three top executive positions are held by women – with Meghan Pinchuk, as CIO, and Stacey McKinnon, as both COO and CMO. Both women are also partners in the firm.

McKinnon’s path to Morton Wealth took her through a series of other jobs, including food service, campground receptionist, restaurant server, marketing associate, catering manager, wedding planner, barista, and fitness instructor.

When she first met Pinchuk, it was in a Pilates class she was leading. One day, Pinchuk, who had recently become part-owner at the firm, came up to McKinnon and said, “I like your classes and I like the way you run the studio, do you want to join my firm?”

McKinnon laughed, but Pinchuk was serious.

“I certainly didn’t think those skills were connected,” McKinnon said. “But I just celebrated 10 years since Meghan made that wild ask, and can now confidently say that financial advice, wedding planning, and instructing fitness do require one very important skill – you have to be good with people.”

Unlike McKinnon, Pinchuk has spent her whole professional life at Morton Wealth, but it was a career choice that was also unexpected. She majored in English in college and had tried a handful of internships in areas like public relations. The firm’s founder, Lon Morton, who had managed money for her grandfather and had known her since she was 12-years-old, recruited her right out of college.

“He didn’t much care that I was 21, fresh out of college with an English major. If I came to him with an idea for how to make things better, he empowered me to execute on it.”

Empowering curiosity and new ideas

“What struck me about wealth management was how dynamic it was and how there would always be new things to learn and new challenges to tackle,” she said. “Morton’s approach to investing is drastically different than other firms in the industry in that we are always looking for new ideas and open to new investment concepts. The investments we’re researching today are very different than the ones we were focused on 10-15 years ago. This industry can be incredibly appealing and dynamic if approached with curiosity and a hunger for learning and growth.”

Pinchuk was just two years into her career as a financial advisor when the 2008 financial crisis hit. A year before, experts had predicted an economy that would slow down without entering a full-blown recession.

“The jarring reality we faced was a great lesson that no one can predict the future or markets. This experience was foundational for me in how I think about building portfolios,” Pinchuk said. “If we can add different types of investments that we believe will be more resilient in challenging environments, then our clients can sleep better at night. It’s not about avoiding volatile asset classes like stocks, but rather acknowledging that this is just one of many options and incorporating stocks as part of a truly diversified portfolio that includes other, less correlated types of investments.”

Pinchuk’s ascent at the firm was swift. After starting out as a research analyst and investment advisor, she became vice president in four years. Three years later, in 2013, she became co-president. In 2015, Financial Advisor magazine named her one of 10 young advisors to watch.

“I think the main takeaway that all can benefit from is to start with curiosity. Be curious as to why something works the way it does and how it could be better. Assuming that status quo is right is a recipe for stagnation. I feel so fortunate to be at a company where we actively empower growth and learning and curiosity,” Pinchuk said, which “also makes our company stronger and more resilient.”

Curiosity and challenging the status quo are evident in Pinchuk’s investment philosophy. While alternative investments – which encompass everything from private equity to real estate and commodities – have traditionally been viewed as riskier investments, she turns that type of thinking on its head. To Pinchuk, there is an inherent lack of reliability built into traditional asset classes like stocks. She compares it to a popularity contest: if an investor buys a $10 stock because he thinks it’s actually worth $15, the investor’s ability to make a profit depends on another person agreeing on the value of the stock and being willing to buy it at that $15 price.

Contrast alternative investments: “Many of the alternatives we’re focused on today have more control built into them, such as in the private credit space where you can build in contractual upfront payments and meaningful protections along the way if things don’t go according to plan. Many alternatives have ‘back-up’ plans in place so that if plan A fails, there’s a plan B to get paid back and make your return. These types of protections feel much more comfortable than hoping that someone else will agree with you on a certain stock price,” Pinchuk said.  

The approach has certainly won over clients and caught the attention of the investment community. At the start of 2024, the firm had 1,147 client households and $2.53 billion assets under management (AUM).

The advantages of hiring more women

Pinchuk and McKinnon’s positions at Morton Wealth reflect a commitment to gender balance that is reflected throughout the staff at Morton Wealth. “We are intentional about women being represented at every level of the organization. We know that women need to see other women thriving in leadership and senior roles in the company, so we have been intentional to ensure we have shown through our actions – not just words – that women are empowered at all levels,” McKinnon said.

For Morton Wealth, having women in all roles isn’t just about equality, it’s also good business practice in a country where women control over 50% of the wealth.

“Women are tired of being underrepresented (and underpaid) in many industries. The desire for women clients to work with women advisors is higher than it has ever been. We (as women) don’t want someone to stand in front of us grandstanding, speak to us in a demeaning way, or assume that we are not financially capable. We want to work with someone that sees our ambition and wants to partner with us to help us achieve our dreams,” McKinnon said.

In a blog post recounting her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated industry, McKinnon noted other advantages to hiring women that include diversity of thought. “When you put a group of like-minded people together, you get status quo results. As firms learn to value and incorporate more powerful women into leadership roles, they’ll find that their ideas and strategies become more creative, thoughtful and innovative,” she wrote.

Despite progress, just 20 percent of leadership positions in financial services are held by women.

In some cases, women’s own success at the workplace is, paradoxically, what has held them back, according to McKinnon. “Unfortunately, many women in financial services get stuck in ‘secretary mode’ where they are incredibly valuable at that level, and the fear of finding their replacement leaves them stuck. We’ve actively fought against that occurrence. When we see people who are talented, we partner with them to find ways to continue growing within the organization,” she said.

Morton Wealth’s commitment to hiring women also entailed eliminating another potential source of bias – focusing on hiring people with backgrounds in finance. Instead, Morton Wealth’s hiring philosophy prioritizes finding people’s whose values align with their own. McKinnon describes them as “people who strive for excellence, empower others, lead with empathy, enjoy work and the impact they make, maintain engaging relationships, and are intent on acting in the best interest of others.”

“By hiring to values, instead of just credentials, we have been able to find cultural fits who we can teach the business. This has made a lot more space for women to enter the workplace and thrive,” she added.

Removing barriers and attracting more women

While no woman’s experience will be the same, McKinnon points to some common barriers many face when entering the financial services industry. Trying to open up the so-called ‘boys club’ to more women is a self-defeating proposition, she notes, as such “environments are not empowering for women, and they generally choose different professions instead of fighting to be in the club.”

Another issue: “Women are often asked to prove themselves – more than men,” McKinnon added, leading to workplace environments where women get ‘left behind,’ undermining efforts at more gender diversity. Some workplace cultures still take a ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ approach to what they do, which fails to “empower people from different backgrounds and life experiences.”

Besides removing barriers, firms must proactively work to attract women and support them in growing their careers. McKinnon says “more robust in-house training” will help level the playing field so that all employees have a chance to succeed. Seeing more women in positions of leadership and power is also likely to draw talented recruits.

“The first thing a recruit does when they are considering your firm is to look at your website. If they don’t see themselves in the faces of your people, they won’t consider the role,” McKinnon said.

But changing the way things are done in financial services goes all the way back to the curriculum for financial education. Too often people see the finance industry as being all about “data/numbers/stock analysis.”

“When in reality, being an advisor is often much closer to a therapist or counselor, especially since many firms have evolved to centralized models where advisors are no longer doing portfolio management. Advisors spend the majority of their time building relationships and helping clients sort through the complexity of their lives and decisions – advice goes far beyond the numbers,” McKinnon said.