Intro
Broadcasting live from the Business Radio X studios in Dayton, Ohio. It's time for Dayton Business Radio. Now, here's your host.
The Mag
Lee Cantor here, another episode of Dayton Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today, we have Peggy Collins with us. And she is with Northwestern Mutual. Welcome, Peggy.
Peggy Collins
Well, thank you so much, Lee.
The Mag
But before we get too far into things tell us about Northwestern Mutual, how are you serving folks?
Peggy Collins
Well, Northwestern Mutual, was originally built as a licensed insurance company. So we're the top-rated insurance company in the country. And they morphed over the years into financial services, advising companies. So when you think about having a financial adviser, most people think of that advisor, someone who handles their investments, well, we do that, but then we also look at someone's entire plan, because of some of the things they may be doing on one end of the plan could affect the other. So we really try to look at it in a holistic fashion for folks, kind of get, you know, be a one-stop-shop for them.
The Mag
Now, in your practice, do you have a specialty, or is anybody kind of a prospective client for you?
Peggy Collins
You know, for, for me, I love to work with everybody, but where I find my talents are really starting to lie. And where I enjoy my work the most is when I can work with females that are single or females that are in a couple-relationship, to really help educate and inspire them to understand their financial plans. So obviously, don't discriminate against anybody. But really, I find that my best work is done in that sort of segment of the market.
The Mag
Now, why do you think females kind of need help in that area when they meet those criteria?
Peggy Collins
That's a great question. And, you know, I've read studies, I've talked to people about it. You know, in the industry, I am really a unicorn, there are not that many of us, that are female that works in financial services at the advisor level. I feel like women are underserved. Male males do their thing. We think of things, maybe even outside of the box of just the straight numbers, and become more qualitative in nature. And I think as a female learns, as a female looks at what they're doing. They oftentimes forget about themselves. So my focus is really to focus on them, and try and teach them finance, you know, I've seen and heard different things about why there aren't that many women in STEM, why there aren't that many women in finance. And I want to change that I want to make people feel comfortable with their financial plans.
The Mag
Now, in our work here, we've had the privilege to work with a lot of women's associations that deal with STEM specifically. And I think the rate was like 80%. Kind of male-dominated in that in that as a career choice. Is it those numbers in finance as well?
Peggy Collins
Yeah, so the last numbers that I had recently heard in the financial services in the advising portion of the industry, there are about 18% of us that are female across the country. I belong to a great group of women at Northwestern Mutual, and it's empowering to see how many of us there are out there. But we still are highly outnumbered. So hopefully, we'll change that we're doing some things to hopefully draw more women into the career and not be afraid of it not That's the plan.
The Mag
Now, where do you think the problem lies? Is this something that you have to really attack at a young age? Is there a certain point when you were growing up where you were noticing there were less women with you as you were continuing on your education?
Peggy Collins
You know, I don't know that my experience was different. I got into the business. From my experience as a child, I'm one of 11 kids. My parents were typical, my dad worked, my mom stayed at home, and unfortunately, my dad passed away at a very young age in his 50s. And I specifically remember my mother having to learn how to write a check bounced checkbook, pay the bills because dad took care of that. Because she didn't really understand it. He understood it so she was just gonna let him do it. And I said to myself, I'm not going to be that way. So for me, it was an experience of I needed to feel like I could be independent which drove me in but you know, as one of the only female advisors in my office, it's just interesting to us the dynamic of you know, how female plans versus a male planner.
The Mag
Now, when you're kind of working out the plan for a female versus a male, is the female's risk tolerance different are their objectives different than the males?
Peggy Collins
I would see the risk tolerances aren't different, you might think more women are risk-averse. So I don't think that's the difference. But the plan becomes different. As females, we tend to be caretakers, we tend to worry about other people before ourselves. So getting women to step back and understand that they need to create these plans so that they're empowered, and really educate them on opportunities that they may not realize that they have in a plan. So again, risk tolerance, you know, I would think, think about that and think, oh, yeah, women would be less, you know, they would be more risk-averse, but I don't find that at all. I think women just they just want to understand it in a way that makes sense to them.
The Mag
And it just sounds like the priorities may be more top of mind, they might be different.
Peggy Collins
Yeah, absolutely. It really just becomes oftentimes it's more about family. It's more about helping the family. So tying in the things that they're doing into that realm. It is usually the top-of-mind thing for a female.
The Mag
Now walk me through kind of what does that first meeting look like when you are working with a potential client, whether it's male or female? Don't you kind of have to understand how they want their kind of retirement to end and how they want their kind of money to serve and affect them as they grow? And as they grow and as they age?
Peggy Collins
Yeah, absolutely. So in a typical meeting, I call it it's a qualitative and a quantitative meeting. We'll ask them questions about balances, information, you know, around, you know, how much are they deferring to your 401k, those sorts of things that they may or may not know, we can gather that later. But really, the quantitative items, and then dissecting it down to what I call timeframes.
So looking at what short-term goals they might have, what midterm goals they might have, and then their long-term goals. Sometimes they don't have any. And sometimes the process is really to kind of walk them through that, to get them thinking about it. And it gets them thinking about what does retirement looks like. Because for most people, it just seems so far off, it's hard to imagine. But my job is to help them imagine that because they could be doing things that will set them up to be better off in retirement, just to get them to think about it. So again, it's segmented out. It's intended to be a lot more qualitative than quantitative in nature.
The Mag
Now, what are some of the mistakes you see kind of a new or novice investor kind of making?
Peggy Collins
Yeah, I think the big thing is for folks in retirement, and this is across the board is they just assume that there's one place where they can put money for retirement, you'll guess, 401 k, and IRA, sometimes folks don't know about a Roth portion of that. So really, they just think, Hey, I'm gonna stop this money away, and then I'm going to turn it, be able to take money out of it. They don't know that there are other places that they can save those dollars that are dependent on what their goals are in the short midterm and long term. And also what the tax implications to those decisions right now could be for them in the end. So the goal is to look through all of that in a, you know, overview, kind of like the forest through the trees model, to explain to them that, hey, you have some more options that might help you and benefit you on the back end, and even what they're currently doing today. So I think the biggest thing is just really knowing that there's not just one place that they can save their money. There's multiple.
The Mag
Now if you were giving advice to somebody who wasn't your client, but was out there listening, what would be like one thing they could do today, like an actionable step they can do that can really make a big impact down the road.
Peggy Collins
Oh, gosh, that's a loaded question. I'm really it is that I would, I would think, simply say it this way is that while most people think that ignorance is bliss, it really can be dangerous to whether or not they understand finance, they really need to take a stab to sit down and start to understand what they're doing today. So just take that moment. Maybe it's they work on their budget, maybe it starts saving at all, in any way, shape, or form. But little steps can mean big things later. And if they rip that band-aid off now, they're going to be way better off than later.
The Mag
Yeah, soon as they kind of lookup compounding, then I think, [Inaudible] right?
Peggy Collins
Exactly
The Mag
Even we understand how that works, that you're kind of be better off.
Peggy Collins
Yeah. And how you can't make up compounding it magically happens. It's a magical, mathematical treat, and the sooner that starts, the better off you are.
The Mag
Now, can you share a story about maybe the impact you've had on somebody don't name names or anything, but maybe kind of tell their story about how they started working with you? And then how it turned out?
Peggy Collins
Yeah, actually, it kind of goes back to that concept, or the example I gave us people not really understanding the many different places that they can save money. And I had a young lady who I was working with who saved tremendously, and was just socking all of her money away into her traditional 401k, which was great, right? You know, any sort of savings is great. Until we modeled it out for her and showed her, you know, based on the fact that she wasn't a big spender, she was great with her budget. At some point, the IRS was going to tell her, Hey, you're not taking out enough money. And hey, we're gonna force you to take that money out, required minimum distributions, whether you like it or not, and showed her what that could do to her on the back end, maybe from a tax perspective. And she didn't know that and was enlightened by that. So we were able to make some strategic moves with where she was putting money, not changing the amount of money she was saving. But really just the ability for us to use different vehicles for that, that would mitigate hopefully, that risk when she hits retirement.
The Mag
Good stuff. Now, if somebody wants to learn more about you and your work in your firm is there a website?
Peggy Collins
We do have a website. In my particular case, they can link probably the easiest way to link out to it is through northwesternmutual.com. And then you can search for an advisor and you can search for my name. I'm on all the social media platforms as you should on LinkedIn, and on Facebook as well. I find that that's usually the best place for folks to find me easily so they can search Peggy Collins, and they'll find me.
The Mag
Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You're doing important work.
Peggy Collins
Thank you so much, Lee. It's a personal mission, and I hope to help many people.
The Mag
Well, it sounds like you're doing a great job. Thank you for sharing your story.
Peggy Collins
Thanks.
The Mag
All right, this is Lee Cantor. We will see you all next time on Dayton Business Radio.
Image source: https://www.facebook.com/PeggyYinglingCollins/
