WOMAN'S WORLD MORE FEMALES TAKE CHARGE OF FAMILY FINANCES, INCLUDING INVESTING CHORES ONCE HANDLED BY MEN.

Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer

Linda McCall is a numbers person, an accountant by trade.

But her practical approach to calculating figures has gone beyond tax season. McCall is also her family's de facto portfolio manager. ``That started right after I married my husband (also a CPA) 20 years ago.

``I pay all of the bills, do the tax returns and consult with David.''

David is not McCall's husband. David is McCall's Merrill Lynch man, the guy she talks to when her portfolio needs some shuffling.

Such a scenario is becoming more commonplace as women take charge of their family's financial management. The once male-dominant world of Wall Street is also marketing more products to women - a demographic that industry executives candidly describe as ``where the dime is at.''

Women currently control about $14 trillion in assets, a number that is expected to nearly double in the next decade, according to the Center for Women's Business Research. At the same time, an estimated 85 percent of women will make financial decisions in their households.

Factors like these are influencing financial institutions to capture more women investors through marketing and educational seminars. For example, WM financial services devotes an entire section of its Web site to ``Women & Investing.'' The section highlights gender-specific financial topics including ``Are women and men really equal?''

The answer: ``Not when it comes to investing; (and) the odds are you'll be better at it than your male counterparts,'' according to the Web site.

Terrance Odean, a finance professor at the University of California at Berkeley, proved this theory in the last decade. He and a colleague found that women's portfolios gained 1.4 percent more than men's portfolios. His study went even further, finding that single women also did better than men, with 2.3 percent greater gains.

The results indicated that women tend to pick more conservative investments. ``And a lot of it is cultural,'' Odean said.

Men are also a bit overconfident when it comes to investing. The study, which Odean and professor Brad Barber conducted while at UC Davis, reported that men traded 45 percent more often than women do. By trading more, men reduce their net returns. And because women trade less, they usually get better returns, and avoid transaction costs and capital gains taxes, the study concluded.

Of course, it's not always clear which gender is better at investing. There are myriad factors to consider including education, inheritance and marriage.

Carrie Schwab Pomerantz, vice-president of consumer education at Charles Schwab, said marketing can be rather complicated when dealing with the relatively new demographic of women investors.

``You can't lump women all together,'' said Pomerantz, whose father founded the San Francisco-based brokerage house. ``Not all women's attitudes and behavior are on par with, let's just say, me.''

A common profile of women investors is that they are more cautious when it comes to investing. Pomerantz agrees that women can approach Wall Street with more caution, but there are those ``who like to play the game.''

Women investors also pose a few learning lessons for the brokerage houses. Instead of viewing the group as a particular gender, financial institutions are perceiving women as they would new investors. That means whatever the interest of a new female investor, the same needs and wants can be applied to neophyte male investors, Pomerantz said.

But new investors are armed with more information these days as a greater number of employers offer 401(k) plans. Conversely, with fewer employers offering pensions, more women are finding the need to prepare for retirement.

Women business owners in particular are finding themselves in a bind when retirement years approach. The fact that women live longer than men also brings about potential complications.

``Women soon realize succession planning and retirement are suddenly upon them after being in business for more than two decades,'' said Lizzy Boucher, communications project manager for the Center for Women's Business Research in Washington.

Caretaking is yet another factor that women are confronting, often paying for children's education and parents or grandparents enrolled in long-term care. Boucher said financial institutions are realizing these trends, focusing their attention on women who may need a financial primer.

But Irene Stache didn't have time to prepare for her husband's death almost three years ago. His wishes were to allocate his assets and set up a charitable trust that would grant scholarships to students attending law school at the University of California, Los Angeles.

``My background was in engineering and I spent 12 years as a housewife. And now I had all of this responsibility,'' said the woman from Upland.

She sought advice from her financial planner at Schwab. She asked her accountant for help. She even consulted an attorney.

``I wanted to help my husband realize his dream. And all of these people helped me do that,'' Stache said. ``And from a business perspective this has been a success. But not to me, because I lost my husband.''

Stache's story differs from McCall's in that she had to confront financial terms overnight. Whereas McCall, from Pasadena, didn't get married until she was 32, and ``I had to learn the day-to-day finances from early on.''

Women are also taking charge of family portfolios from within companies like Merrill Lynch. Jan Krug, managing director for Merrill in Los Angeles, easily recalls the boiler-roomesque vibe on Wall Street in the 1980s. But as more women took upper-level positions, that mentality began shifting. And by the 1990s more equality began to existing on the trading floors.

Men also had to learn different skill sets. ``They had to find compassion and patience, and hone their ability to listen,'' Krug said. ``But our response to women has been the same - to customize not genderize. And as women acquire wealth it brings about the same sets of issues and complications that every investor confronts.''

A downturn in the economy can also blur gender lines. Casey Mervine, a private client consultant at Schwab, said men were too bullish during the late 1990s. And when the economy started to turn more women began monitoring their portfolios' shortcomings.

``The bullish husband couldn't keep the wife at bay any longer,''said Mervine, who has clients in Ontario and Long Beach.

Many of Mervine's clients today are women who now handle the family's portfolio. He works with a doctor's wife ``who often feels like the chief financial officer'' for the family. Then there are women who outlive their husbands and ``find out one day they have to deal with 100 mutual funds.

``Things have certainly changed. And the stock market is not the old boys' network it used to be.''

Evan Pondel, [phone]

evan.pondel(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, 3 boxes

Photo:

(color) Linda McCall works on her family's finances at her Altadena home. Like an increasing number of women, McCall has become her family's de facto investment portfolio manager.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) ON THE WEB

Source: Investorguide.com

(2) FEMALE-TO-MALE EARNINGS COMPARED

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1961 to 2004 Annual Social and Economic Supplements

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(3) Ladylike behavior

Sources: WM Financial Services, National Center for Women and Retirement Research