By Sheila McGrath
WKTV Contributing Writer
When you’re a woman working in a male-dominated field, it helps to have a strong sense of self.
After practicing as a financial advisor for more than a decade, Abby Lininger has definitely acquired one. But it wasn’t something that happened overnight.
“It wasn’t a short journey,” she said.
Lininger, 34, runs the Drake Financial Group office at 2034 84th St. SW in Byron Center. She helps young people open their first investment accounts, manages accounts for retirees, and meets with clients of all ages who seek her help getting their financial lives in order.
Although she believes things are changing for the better, the world of finance is still a man’s world, Lininger says. Even in 2022, men are often the financial decision-makers in a family. And when it comes to seeking help from a financial advisor, they’re likely to look to another man for advice.
According to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., women make up about 23 percent of financial advisors in the U.S.
But there are still a lot of clients out there for someone who doesn’t quite fit the traditional mold, she said. She loves the opportunity to serve a different clientele, whether it’s single, professional women, or young couples who got the brush-off from another advisor because they didn’t have a big enough bank account.
“I don’t look like most advisors you might have met before, but I’m OK with that. I don’t need everybody to be my client. I am looking for people who don’t want that stereotypical financial advisor,” she said.
Lininger graduated from Hope College in 2009 after studying international relations and Spanish. Although her father was a financial advisor, she didn’t see herself going into the same field.
But with the Great Recession making it hard for new graduates to find jobs in 2009, she decided to go to work for her father’s business after all. Her father, Mark Drake, started Drake Financial Group in Portage, where Lininger grew up.
As a new college grad who was also a woman in a male-dominated field, she struggled to gain credibility at first, she said. It’s a field where there’s a lot for anyone to learn – male or female. But she was also very aware of not looking the part of a typical financial advisor. She didn’t wear suits. She didn’t have straight hair. She jokes that she didn’t even sound like a financial advisor. People on the phone would ask her “How old are you?”
She made it through the early years by consulting with others in her office who had more experience, and always continuing to learn. And in time she learned to leverage her laid-back style into a strength. When she’s dealing with clients, she likes to be casual and relatable, using plain language to describe complex topics.
“I think the biggest thing was the realization that I don’t have to be someone else to be successful,” she said.
She said that she does think things are changing. More women are taking charge of their own financial lives, and she thinks that she definitely has more female peers than her father did when he was starting his career.
Lininger opened the satellite office of Drake Financial Group in Byron Center in 2014 after she and her husband, Brad, moved to the area from Portage. Opening her own office has helped her pave her own path and establish her own credibility, apart from her father’s, she said.
“I’m here creating my own reputation, and I think that is a beautiful thing,” she said.
