Melissa Dincher, a financial adviser at UBS and mother of three, found her own path toward great success, but not without some serious introspection on what really matters in life. She shared her story with Crain Currency.
Tell us about your road to becoming a financial adviser.
I practiced law for 10 years before taking 10 years off to raise my three children. During that time, I did a lot of volunteer and philanthropy work with the NYS DOE [New York state Department of Education] and my kids' schools. Then, about three years ago, my father came to me with an interesting idea. He said that as he approached retirement, he wanted to keep our book of business in the family, and he wanted me to help run it.
Of course, my first thought was “lawyers don't do math!” But the timing was right. It was during the pandemic, and I knew I would have flexibility to enter the financial adviser field while continuing to handle the responsibilities at home.
I dove right in. I literally locked myself in my closet for six months to take the securities industry exam, the Series 7 and the Series 66. Then I entered the wealth management program at UBS and joined my father's team.
Since then, I have set out on a mission to diversify our portfolio of clients to be more supportive and inclusive of women and multicultural investors. I do this by partnering with the teams at UBS that support women, business owners, next-generation and multicultural investors, and athletes and entertainers to guide individuals on their financial planning and legacy-building journeys.
You're well-known as a proactive advocate for women. Were you always that way, or is it something that's become important to you over time?
Honestly, I grew up with a single mother. My parents got divorced when I was 5, so I always saw her hustle her way up the corporate America ladder, mentor her female peers, advocate for women's issues and donate the little extra money she had to organizations that support women. So I had a good role model.
However, it wasn't until I became a financial adviser that I myself started intentionally advocating for women in meaningful and impactful ways.
UBS has a team specifically dedicated to women and the challenges we face when it comes to our finances, including lack of participation in making financial decisions and lack of access to information and resources that would help us navigate our finances. UBS gave me the platform to be able to support women in ways I could have never imagined — through event programming and education around female entrepreneurs, the wealth gap and ways to bring more women to the financial table.
Who are some female leaders in the finance industry that inspire you and why?
Cate Luzio. After years in banking, Cate left the finance world to open up a co-working space in Nomad called Luminary that is geared toward women but is open to all, where she set up a beautiful space where people can work, convene, network, host events, record content, even take Pilates classes and shower after!
She does amazing, insightful programming at Luminary and at the Glass Ceiling restaurant and bar she owns upstairs. I’ve heard her speak several times to inspire women to take risks in their careers, to do the thing that makes them truly happy and to support other women along their journeys. She’s an inspiration.
What about the relationship between money, work and motherhood — the plight of the working mom? What makes you mad, and what makes you hopeful?
Women have definitely come a long way to contribute to household incomes, but we still face so many challenges that hold us back from taking control of, or even being involved in, our financial decisions.
For starters, we are still not trusted, and we may not even trust ourselves to make financial decisions. How many times have you heard a woman say, "I'm not good at math" or "my partner is better at math so he handles the finances"?
Second, we often still fall into traditional gender roles and societal norms, which dictate that the men handle the money and the women handle the home and kids. And lastly and perhaps most significantly, we just don't have the time to be involved in our financial decisions because we handle a disproportionate amount of child care and housework responsibilities.
I can relate to this the most because while I was home for 10 years raising my children, I did everything around the household and for the kids. But even after returning to work, building a business and having a very demanding job, I still largely handle everything — cooking, cleaning, packing meals, scheduling after-school activities and play dates, shuffling kids to their extracurricular activities, food shopping — all while trying to keep up with my social engagements, networking and maintaining a healthy life.
Working moms carry a huge load, and I'd love to see a world where that is more balanced or where we have more flexibility in our work schedules without being penalized with lower pay. What makes me hopeful is that women are gaining ground in the fight for equal pay. If we're going to have the level of responsibilities I just described, we should at least be getting paid commensurate with our male counterparts.
You give a lot of stellar advice, but when it comes to your own career and finances, what are the words that YOU live by?
I constantly think about the risk-reward ratio.
I believe that you need to take chances in life, because if you don't take risks and step out of your comfort zone, you cannot grow. However, I try to balance the risks with stability, comfort and safety.
It's just like investing — a portion of your portfolio should be risky enough to withstand volatility but ultimately provide higher returns and growth because of the higher risk, while the other portion of your portfolio should be anchored with conservative and stable investments.
My ultimate goal in business and in life is balance and diversification — a balanced, diversified portfolio and a balanced, diversified life.
Which foundations and organizations are you involved with, and how did you pick those to devote your very limited spare time to?
One of my biggest passions is gender equality in pay and wealth. The most staggering statistic I've come across is that a 20% pay gap leads to an 85% wealth gap. This is because the less we are being paid, the less we are saving, the less we are investing and the less our money is growing. Therefore, we are disadvantaged in the opportunity to build wealth and leave a legacy.
There is a nonprofit organization at the forefront of this fight called The Unlocked Foundation, on which I'm an adviser to the board. This group of professional women from diverse backgrounds that represent several industries spanning law, finance, media, fashion, sports, entertainment, health care and arts have all had personal experiences standing in the wealth gap. The Unlocked Foundation seeks to empower women to take the brave steps to close the wealth gap in their own lives through education, networking opportunities and hosting elevated and beautiful events where we provide a safe space for women to talk about money; to get advice on negotiation skills, investing, changing our mindset and culture around money; and creating an impact.
How do you define success? And are you there yet?
Success to me is creating a positive impact in other people's lives, whether that be my children, my family, my clients or my friends.
The opportunity to support someone else on their journey, whatever that journey may be — financial, career, educational, personal — propels me to do better myself.
This is an ongoing, lifelong path, so I can't say I'm there yet. But I can say I'm really proud of the progress I have made and continue to make in supporting others and being a small part in changing people's lives for the better.