This is one in a series of articles in our month-long special report, “Women in Family Offices.” To view all the articles, click here.
Laura Barclay has blazed a trail for women in finance. With more than 20 years in the industry, she is currently senior portfolio manager at TD Wealth, where she focuses on designing and delivering tailored, discretionary investment management services for ultra-high-net-worth families, corporations, foundations, estates and trusts.
Related video: Watch our panel on Women in Family Offices
Laura has long been recognized as an advocate for Canadian women entering the financial services industry. In 2014, she was a recipient of Vision in Action, TD’s highest form of individual employee recognition. Her sense of advocacy extends to the community. She sits on the board of directors for the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation, spent six years on the Estate Planning Council of Toronto (EPCT), and is an active member of the Toronto CFA Society.
In this conversation with Canadian Family Offices, she shares her experiences in the world of finance, as well her thoughts on women’s advantages as financial advisors and their increasing role as family decision-makers.
Why did you study accounting?
During high school, I enjoyed accounting and found the concepts easy to understand and straightforward, so I continued to pursue my CPA/CA designation at the University of Waterloo. As my career began to unfold, I was responsible for auditing the trading floor at TD, which piqued my interest in capital markets and led me to earn my CFA [Chartered Financial Analyst] designation.
Why did finance and investment interest you?
My dad was a teacher and had great protection from a well-run pension plan and a union providing job security. My mom was a public health nurse and had neither of those protections. So, I was always interested in understanding how financial security can be achieved on your own. I was especially aware of the risk that women face sometimes in careers earning less while likely living longer than their male counterparts.
The more I learned about investments, the more I wanted to learn. I did spend a few years in the ’90s working at Nortel, and that also taught me some very valuable lessons about investing and the hype of the dot-com era.
Who were your mentors?
I had many champions and mentors during my career. Martine Irman was an incredible leader and one of the few women on the trading floor when I was an auditor. She, as a very senior leader, always made time for me 25 years ago, and that left a big impression on me. [Former TD CEO] Ed Clark was also a champion for women leaders in the early days of my career. Seeing other women lead and being given a roadmap to roles that create a path to leadership are key.
Also, I really appreciated the flexibility that my branch manager and HR offered me at TD when I took a maternity leave 15 years ago. I was given the opportunity to design the leave I wanted, as well as when and how I returned to work and stayed in touch. I believe that has set me up for success and offered some flexibility for my colleagues who came after me to manage their mat leaves and not see their careers sidelined.
How would you describe your experience as a woman in the industry? What were the challenges?
My experience in the role has been incredible. The clients I work with are like family, and there is such a genuine interest between us. I care so much about their life journeys and their families, and I know they care about my journey as well.
Comments such as ‘We don’t know where you fit in’ were actually said in an interview by a hiring manager.
Interestingly, the biggest challenge for me was getting hired in the role in the first place. Funnily enough, 25 years ago I was looking at my current role and there were so few women in client-facing portfolio manager roles when I interviewed that lots of roadblocks appeared. Comments such as ‘We don’t know where you fit in’ were actually said in an interview by a hiring manager.
Luckily, I thought to myself, ‘Just keep going,’ and about seven years later I was able to break into the business and start my career managing money in 2008. Since that time, I have been able to grow from a team of one to a team of eight—four women and four men with diverse backgrounds. We manage over $2 billion of assets for just over 300 families. I think I might just be a great fit for the role.
How can the industry encourage more equal opportunities for women?
I am finding the industry changing quite rapidly. Sitting with some of the most successful advisors in the wealth business, I am surrounded by men typically later in their careers, but when they speak about retirement and successors, many are realizing that taking on a female partner makes their planning and building businesses more successful.
I think we are entering the time where women have a significant advantage entering the advice business. It is a relationship business, and women often wind up managing the wealth, whether because of death or divorces, or because they themselves have built incredibly successful businesses during their lifetimes. I have always felt like I have an advantage as a woman in the advice business. Trust and relatability are important for people to feel comfortable with you, strong emotional intelligence to develop empathy and active listening, perspective to offer unique insights and understanding the client experience. At the end of the day, everyone wants to feel heard, seen and understood.
What’s your approach to working with female clients?
There is a psychology to money, and it lands differently for each of us throughout our lives. It is like the idea of abundance or scarcity, fears (survival) and beliefs (I do or don’t have enough).
I see it a lot with women I meet for the first time. Almost always they use the phrase ‘I am conservative’ in their description of themselves and their investments. If I took that at face value, I would be building a portfolio with low risk and typically low returns. That could be a big disadvantage, and it’s not typically what a woman needs when longevity and other unique considerations must be thought of.
The most important piece of the puzzle is for me to understand why my client described herself that way. I spend a lot of time teaching and explaining and sharing examples of investments that give you the sense of security and yet still grow meaningfully.
Leading a client to the idea that as an investor you are now a business owner is important. Women are often better investors, as they don’t watch the portfolio and try to adjust it as frequently. Market volatility can be so upsetting and yet create incredible opportunities—working with a professional adds so much value during those difficult days.
What advice can you offer women starting out in finance?
Time is always marching on, whether politically, financially, or personally, so keep your eye on where you want to be in one year, five years and 10 years. Plant seeds for your success: What do you need to know? Who do you need in your life? What credentials do you need to get from here to the destination? Then be resilient, so you can roll with changes that come your way.
What advice do you have for matriarchs and their daughters, granddaughters and future generations about being more involved in financial decision-making?
I think it is critical to provide your partners, daughters and granddaughters the opportunity to be involved and build knowledge about finances and decision-making. Teaching the family values and generational visions for the future are all part of leading future generations to think of themselves as governors of wealth versus consumers of previous generations’ sacrifices.
I believe mature next generations should be comfortable navigating and building relationships with family wealth partners, lawyers, accountants, banking partners and wealth advisors, as those people would be your influencers if the predominant decision-maker was not at the table leading.
Of course, often it isn’t simple. Family personalities and dynamics can add challenges, but active communication can overcome a lot of friction. For the women in the family, ask for the invitation to join the discussions about the family business/wealth/values, and then lean in!
Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
The Canadian Family Offices newsletter comes out on Sundays and Wednesdays. If you are interested in stories about Canadian enterprising families, family offices and the professionals who work with them, but like your content aggregated, you can sign up for our free newsletter here.
Please visit here to see information about our standards of journalistic excellence.