Ellevest’s Sylvia Kwan on Investing with Impact, Designing for Women, and Redefining the Future of Wealth
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters Milken Conference Series episode, Adam Torres speaks with Sylvia Kwan, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Ellevest, about the overlooked financial moment when women inherit wealth as surviving spouses—before it’s passed to the next generation. Sylvia shares how Ellevest is helping women invest for both returns and impact, and why this shift represents one of the most transformative opportunities in finance today.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I have Sylvia Kwan on the line, and she’s CEO and Chief Investment Officer over at Ellevest.
Sylvia, welcome to the show. Thank you. I’m excited to be here. Thanks so much for having me on the podcast, Adam. All right, Sylvia. So and Fred, for everybody listening, , this particular episode is gonna be part of our Milken series where we cover the global conference that we go to every year.
And I’ll tell you, it’s just, it’s just one of my favorite conferences of the year. And the first thing for Sylvia, so so you were out at the conference. I know we didn’t meet each other in person. This is our first time. But speaking, how’d it go for you? Was it your first time or, I mean, talk, about the connection overall.
Yeah. So this year was my first time attending. Oh, I like it. A movie. I’m a fan. Yeah. Awesome. That’s awesome. First timer. So de definitely tell me, first tell me what it like. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, you know, I was first introduced to the Milken Institute through its newly launched women’s financial security initiative.
And so Milken had sponsored a talking circle with Gloria Steinem at her home. Mm-hmm. And invited a number of female leaders from different disciplines to really discuss, you know, how do we help women achieve financial security and success? And it was really through that participation that I was invited to speak at the Global conference this year.
So I will say that attending the Global Con, the Milk and Global Conference has really spoiled me for all other conferences. Oh, you said it. Not me. I gotta work at those other conferences. You’re gonna get in trouble. Go ahead. Know. I hate to say it, but at least for me, I can’t speak for everybody. No, you can speak everyone.
But just, you know, obviously, as a multi timer, you know, just the programming, the quality of the speakers, just the high energy, the global attendance. And I would say one of the biggest things that really struck me compared to certainly other, you know, most of the other conferences that I speak at are mm-hmm.
Financial services types of conferences, and the diversity of participants and attendees at Milken was just. Incredible to see, you know, across genders, age, nationality, you know, any way you slice and dice. But everyone really having this common bond of working towards a future where everyone has. An opportunity to flourish.
Mm. You know, whether that’s economically, you know, across healthcare, education, policy, et cetera. So it was really an incredible experience. It expanded my perspective and thinking. Mm-hmm. And I really hope I get invited back to speak and get an opportunity to attend again. Mm-hmm. Now, one of the things I always like to do is.
Just kind of like and this, these are not my words. Some of the previous guests that have participated in this series for milk and have called it like, you know, brain Candy, they’ve called it you know, Disneyland. They call, a bunch of different things that people have said. And one of the things I like to do is I like to.
Like kind of venture. It’s almost like exploring in the, in the topics and panels and subjects that I, that aren’t part of my day to day. So obviously your day to day and finance and other things. I’m just curious, did you venture at all? Did you go into anything? You’re like, absolutely. Let me go.
Anything stick out. You care to share? Like just in general? I don’t know. Yeah, definitely healthcare. Mm. That just personally is something, you know, that is super interesting to me. And certainly there’s an intersection between, you know, finance and, and, and healthcare as well. Mm-hmm. But really kind of like, you know, really interested in hearing, all of the kind of the topics on longevity and, you know, really, you know, also kind of the part that technology can play in helping everyone achieve better health outcomes.
Super, super interesting. Love that. I went to a couple that were also on kind of entrepreneurs and, a very growing segment of entrepreneurs being women over the age of 50. Mm-hmm. And having, a ton of experience and maturity and, you know, just learning a lot of, you know, interesting statistics and findings just from all different types of industries and all different experts.
Hmm. wanna switch topics just slightly here. Let’s get into what you’re doing at Ellevest. Maybe start off by telling a little bit more about your firm. Sure. So Ellevest is an investment management firm. We are a registered investment advisor with the SEC founded about 10 years ago by Sally Croach, who is a powerhouse in financial services.
And we uniquely serve women investors by recognizing and meeting their unique preferences, needs and realities. When it comes to investing Mm. Women, you know, have historically been underserved by our industry. And that’s, I think, really part of the reason women have been on the sidelines when it comes to investing.
So, you know, if you think about it, if women experience a gender pay gap, they’re not investing, taking control of their finances and, you know, their money needs to last longer because they generally have longer lifespans than men, then women are just not set up for financial success. So Elles was really founded to change that.
Hmm. So today, mm-hmm. Oh, go ahead. No, you go ahead today. What? Oh, I was just gonna say today, you know, we’re focused on helping women, families, and allies kind of build, manage, and grow their wealth with intention. Mm-hmm. Through financial planning, wealth management, and retirement planning. So women want high financial returns just like all of us do.
Mm-hmm. But they also want their investments to have some kind of positive impact. Yeah, so ves is a firm, we are solely focused on helping investors invest for both returns and impact. Hmm. Now, the we, we hear this very often about the great wealth transfer, like right, that’s taking place right now and that’ll continue to take place.
What, what does this mean for women in wealth? Yeah, so the great wealth transfer, which is really the kind of the largest, you know, intergenerational transfer, wealth transfer in history so far, you know, shift of wealth from baby boomers and silent generation to younger generations. Everybody’s talking about it, especially in the financial industry, but most are really focused on, you know, how do we engage the next generation to, to build wealth and, and to invest.
What’s interesting is that we believe the industry really underestimates and undervalues the fact that before that wealth gets to the next generation, it actually goes to women first as the surviving spouses of the older generation. So these women will, will live seven, 10, even longer, you know, number of years than their spouses.
So they will have agency over that wealth first before it goes to the next generation. And because, so this is gonna have a really, why don’t people talk about that? By the way, you’re the first person I’ve heard talk about that. And I’ve heard, you know, I do 50 interviews a week minimum, and I, I, thousands of interviews, I’ll do 1500 to 2000 interviews.
And many of them, we have a big money show. You’re the first person I ever brought up that moment in time and I can’t understand why. That’s interesting. It’s pretty shocking. I never thought of it. I never thought of it. Like it’s, that money’s not just like a little pit stop. What are you talking about?
Like how come nobody’s talking about this? Exactly. And that’s why I think the end, the industry has just overlooked, it has just overlooked women as how is that possible an audience? Well, how is that even possible? But you’re right. No, I agree. No. ’cause my frustration comes from, I’ve done. Hundreds of interviews and it’s like thousands and, our money show is big.
I’ve never heard anybody else even say that. It’s rare that you hear a never. Right. Exactly. I mean, I take my own mom, you know, she’s outlived my dad for now 12 years. Wow. And this is the first time she’s had full agency, you know, over her wealth and she thinks about investing differently than mm-hmm.
my dad did. Yeah, and I think we’ve also found that at, Ellevest, that women, and also I would say even the next generation have different approaches and preferences. You know, not just for investing, but also spending so we can see some significant shifts. Yeah. I guess the obvious follow up question that has to be what can we expect to happen when women have more control of, generational wealth?
Is the industry prepared for, like, that’s the obvious follow up, right? Like. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I, I don’t think the industry is prepared for it. ’cause, you know, first, number one, they’re kind of overlooking, you know, this, you know, the fact that women are going to receive it first. But what we found at Ellevest is, and, the data and the research really backs that up is, you know, women they want.
They’re more keen on aligning their investments with their values. So they’re really focused on, you know, how do we not, only invest for returns, but also invest to make some kind of positive impact, whether that’s environmental or gender, or economic. Mm-hmm. I think women tend to be more philanthropic than men.
They tend to invest more in their families and communities. So if you think about, you know, for example. I’m sure you’re, familiar with the figure that, you know, less than 2% of venture dollars, you know, goes to women founded companies. And also less than 2% of charitable giving in the US goes to organizations that specifically serve women and girls.
So if you think about women you know. Getting a more, you know, significant amount of wealth and being those investors and those givers that support, you know, women and girls organizations or support more women founders that can actually move the needle. I. Quite a bit. And so, you know, women run businesses, hire more women, pay them more.
That can impact, for example, the gender pay gap. You know, obviously it’s gonna take some amount of time. But we believe the Great Wealth Transfer has the potential to reshape society and society’s beliefs about women and wealth. We kind of call this the, the feminization of wealth and we believe it could really drive some, some meaningful change over time.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think it’s, it’s definitely something interesting to consider and now I, I mean, it’s on my radar and now for my audience. I mean, if they’ve been having conversations about this and I haven’t heard it, I’m like, it’s a great, it’s a great conversation to have and it almost reminds me, not exactly, but I remember when when the financial services industry was.
Preparing for if we go far back enough, like what’s gonna happen with the next year? Every, every generation they prepare, right? Every generation they prepare, but it only they prepare as they, it gets closer for that generation to actually, you know, inherit some money basically. Exactly. Because then it’s like they’re gonna be a control.
We gotta prepare, but that preparation exactly comes a little bit. So I’d imagine is this wealth transfer continues? To take place that it’ll be, you know, it’ll, what you’re talking about, more people will catch onto it and then obviously hopefully I know your company is doing that you know, serve those needs.
Right? Exactly, exactly. We feel we’re, we’re well positioned and we certainly have seen a lot of women come to us for, for this very reason. Wonderful. Well, Sylvia, this has been great having you on the show today and catching up more about your, your experience over at the milking conference and also and to learn more about Ellevest.
That being said, if somebody’s listening or watching this and they want to learn more or wanna connect with your team, how do they do that? I. A number of ways. You can certainly go to our website at ellevest.com, E-L-L-E-V-E-S-T. You can link in with me on LinkedIn. Ellevest also has a LinkedIn presence as well as an Instagram presence.
So we are active on social media as well. So multiple ways to reach out to LMS. Perfect. And everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes so that you can just click on ’em and head right on over and speaking to the audience. If this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Sylvia, thanks again for coming on the show. Thank you so much, Adam.
