Deb Waters is the Chief Technology Officer for Aegon N.V., a multinational life insurance, pensions, and asset management company. In her role, Deb ensures that Aegon is building out all the appropriate software needed for the firm, including infrastructure, data strategy, engineering, and architecture design, and making sure each business unit can serve its clients. She previously held various leadership positions at Citigroup Inc., including Global Head of Private Bank Operations and Technology and Head of Inclusion and Diversity for Citi’s Institutional Client Group Operations and Technology.
Q: How can firms engage more effectively with woman investors?
A: Firms can engage more effectively with woman investors in a variety of ways. We need to think about the different stages in a person’s life, whether it’s having their first baby, sending a child to college, or planning for retirement. It is very important, when working with women, that we understand where they are in their journey and their stage in life. In working with women, we also need to customize for their specific needs. In today's world, many women are the breadwinners in their household. That's different than it was 10 to 15 years ago. As advisors, we should ask ourselves, “What do we need to do to help make sure that person is secure in their finances?” and “Can we help them make the right financial decisions for not just themselves but for their whole family?”
Q: How can firms manage and grow digital channels to reach women investors, and what are the key considerations?
A: Firms can grow channels that make it easier for women to gain access to the information they need to manage their money more effectively. First, firms can push information out to women – this goes to customization. If you know the client – if you know what the client is interested in – you can push articles or certain information about their portfolios to them in an easy and secure manner. The second thing you can do is, once logged into their account, make it easy for women to quickly see what they want and navigate through your site smoothly. The third piece is making sure women can get to their advisors when they need to. Digitally, you should make it possible to do the simple things. The advisors are there for when you want to do the complex items. You need both.
Q: What does investment in diversity and inclusion mean to you, and how does it influence your leadership?
A: Investment in diversity and inclusion is critical. I have seen over the years that if you build a diverse team around yourself, you get to a better solution. You want people to challenge each other. People challenge each other when they come from different backgrounds because their experiences provide a distinct perspective which helps get to a better solution. If you read materials around this, you will see that teams that have a diverse set of people win. You also see that companies can have more revenue when they have diverse leadership because it brings that diversity of thought, making the company more able to address challenges in an increasingly constructive way. I have personally learned there is so much we don’t know. You must get uncomfortable before you can get comfortable. But, if you can be open minded and create an inclusive environment, “uncomfortable” gets you to a great place.
Q: What emerging financial services technologies are you most excited about for the next 3-5 years?
A: First is data. Everything that you want to do to help your client is about customization. Making sure the wealth program you create for your client meets their needs means you need to know the client. The way you know them is by having the right data. We gather data in a lot of different ways, more so now than ever before. Firms are starting to harness that data to make the experience better for the client and make clients’ needs more clear and more accessible. The other thing that is critical for the industry is APIs. They aren’t necessarily new, but APIs are the way we’re going to communicate moving forward. When you have companies or systems that are legacies, you need to create that suite of APIs to make it faster, easier, and able to grow in a way that, historically, hasn’t happened with how we’ve built technology. When you think about how you’re building technology, it’s about making your developers more productive. Today, technology is critical to any business. Therefore, you want your teams to be as productive as possible, so they can get as much done as they possibly can. Looking at new tools that enable these types of deliveries is going to help companies win.