Note to advisors: We have had reports from some of you who have not received our follow-up email from the call.  If you are on our list or attended our call, make sure that DirectionsForWomen@me.com is added to your contact list so our emails to you won’t end up in your Junk Mail. Otherwise, please email us at the above address and ask to be added to our list.

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This afternoon, Direction$ hosted a conference call with more than 100 financial advisors to discuss “Changing the Conversation of Personal Finance for Women.”

It is an exciting development to engage all these minds in our initiative, and we look forward to future calls in September.

We will be harvesting the comments and ideas shared during the conference call and posting this harvest in another blog, to appear in the next few days.

Here is a summary of the initiatives Direction$ is pushing forward, and we would love your input and feedback on these ideas. Please help us to continue the conversation by commenting below.

  • Continuing coverage in the press, both professional and consumer, to bring more attention to the financial planning needs of women and the role of Direction$ advisors in changing the way we work with women
  • Building partnerships with experts in disciplines distinct from financial planning, such as linguistics, gender studies, psychotherapy, cultural anthropology, behavioral finance, neurology, storytelling and narrative artists. How can these disciplines help us speak to women more effectively and understand their attitudes and issues with money, risk management, wealth?
  • Building an amazing, conversation-changing website that will be a vibrant, exciting place to start, continue, and extend the different discussions we want to have around the subjects of women and money. We see this website as the go-to place for women consumers and the advisors committed to serving these women, for the empowerment, education, and engagement necessary to help women become strong and competent financial decision-makers.
  • Development of college level curriculum on women-centric financial planning issues.
  • Launching prototype consumer circles in Atlanta and the Washington DC area to refine and develop our circle philosophy and process, as the way to create safe space for women to have conversations about money.
  • Thoughtful reflection on what you are telling us you want and need in an advisor community.
  • Development of business models that can support and grow our passion for changing the conversation around personal finance for women.

Again, please use the comment section in this blog to give us feedback on these directions, and the role you might like to play as we move forward together. Feel free to also continue the conversation in our “Direction$ Alliance” community on Facebook. There you will find forum discussions on such topics as “Engaging your women clients throughout the relationship.” You can either go to Facebook and search for the “Directions Alliance” group, or simply click here to visit the Directions Alliance community on Facebook. Once you arrive at the community, please hit the “Like” button and begin participating. There is strength in our numbers.

We hope — if you took away nothing else from the conference call — that you are nevertheless clear about the vision of the Direction$ Alliance as a member-driven and inspired community. Our goal is to create a place for us to meet and start exchanging our experiences and wisdom to make us all better planners and advisors to women.

With our deep appreciation,

Eleanor, Elizabeth, and Peg

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