Monthly Archives: May 2026

Why women often leave their advisor after a major life event

The Future of Client Connection with Linda Sherman (Ep. 95)

Advisor, Business, Coaching, Consulting, Education, Finance, Financial, Financial Advisor, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What if the biggest opportunity in financial advice isn’t finding new clients, but going deeper with the ones you already have?

Join Duncan MacPherson as he sits down with Linda Sherman, co-founder of Financially Empowered and creator of the “Go There, Ask Her” strategy, to talk about why so many female clients feel disconnected from financial conversations and what advisors can actually do about it.

Linda shares practical approaches to building trust with women clients through goals-based planning, better communication, and genuine emotional intelligence. They also get into why women are often the driving force behind referrals and multigenerational relationships, and how advisors who get this right tend to see stronger retention across the board.

In this episode:

  • Why women often leave their advisor after a major life event
  • The difference between a client who attends meetings and one who’s truly engaged
  • How goals-based conversations shift the dynamic
  • Why women drive referrals and multigenerational relationships
  • Turning routine service touchpoints into relationship-building moments

If you work with couples or families, this one is worth your full attention. Linda and Duncan cover the moments in a client’s life when she’s most likely to walk, what it actually means to make a woman feel genuinely included in a financial conversation, and the small process changes that can turn a transactional relationship into a lasting one.

Promotions:

Connect With Duncan MacPherson:

Connect With Linda Sherman:

About Our Guest:

Linda Sherman is a Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Financially Empowered, LLC. Linda’s entire career has been in the financial services industry, specializing in marketing, consultative sales, training, and creating actionable solutions to achieve client and corporate objectives. She founded Financially Empowered to focus on her passions, working with Financial Advisors, educating women, and making an impact.

Prior to Financially Empowered, Linda was a Regional Director for Legg Mason, responsible for marketing, sales, and servicing of their equity, fixed income, and alternative investments in the greater Los Angeles market. Before Legg Mason, Linda was with Morgan Stanley in New York in the firm’s Equity Research Department before joining the newly created fee-based institutional consulting business as one of its first employees in 1989. She was promoted to Executive Director for the Southern California region, where she supervised 61 retail brokerage offices and 1600 Financial Advisors.

Linda graduated UCLA in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. She lives in Pacific Palisades, California, with her husband, son, and 2 Labradors.

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The Evolution of Financial Advice with Steve Sanduski

The Evolution of Financial Advice with Steve Sanduski (Ep. 94)

Advisor, Business, Coaching, Consulting, Education, Finance, Financial, Financial Advisor, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Your clients don’t want a portfolio manager. They want someone who’ll catch them when they fall.

That’s the truth most advisors are too busy chasing alpha to hear, and it’s exactly why Duncan MacPherson sits down with industry legend Steve Sandusky in this episode.

Steve climbs mountains, and he’s spent decades teaching advisors that the most important rope in their practice isn’t tied to the markets. It’s the belay: the quiet discipline of holding the line so your client can keep climbing without fear of the fall. Get that right and you stop selling advice. You become the first call when life cracks open.

Duncan and Steve unpack “Return on Life,” the framework reshaping the profession by measuring success not in basis points but in a client’s freedom, time, and meaning. They get into why story and symbolism build trust faster than any performance chart, how celestial navigation can steady clients (and you) when the markets blur, and what it takes to build a practice the AI tsunami can’t touch.

Key takeaways:

  • Using story and symbolism to forge trust that compounds
  • Designing a purpose-driven practice that ages well
  • Pricing human judgment in an AI-saturated market
  • Knowing when to lean into technology and when to put it down
  • Finding your North Star when every client is asking, “What now?”

If you’re done competing on returns and ready to compete on meaning, this episode is the map. Outthink. Outcare. Outlast.

Promotions:

Connect With Duncan MacPherson:

Connect With Steve Sanduski:

About Our Guest:

Steve Sanduski, MBA, CFP® is the Founder and President of Belay Advisor, a financial advisor coaching, consulting, and marketing services company that works with individuals and firms to accelerate growth.

For more than 20 years, he’s been building businesses and helping professionals become more successful. Prior to founding Belay Advisor, Steve was the Managing Partner of Peak Advisor Alliance, a business coaching and training resources company that grew from 0 to 1,000 coaching clients during his 11 years of managing the company.

Earlier in his career, he was a senior leader at an independent broker/dealer and helped build the firm’s corporate RIA from $0 to nearly $2 billion in assets under management in a short period of time.

An accomplished writer, Steve is a New York Times Bestselling author and the co-author of two books:

Steve is also a frequent contributor to the trade press including Investment News. Financial Planning Magazine, and Financial Advisor Magazine.

As a professional speaker, Steve has addressed audiences all over the country and he focuses on delivering practical ideas, strategies and tools that attendees can use immediately to reach higher levels of success.

He’s also the host of several podcasts including Between Now and Success and Barron’s Advisor: The Way Forward podcast. On both podcasts, Steve interviews top financial industry leaders as well as other accomplished professional from around the world who have messages that can benefit financial advisors

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