Business
The Closet Theory
Elyse Essick wants women to take
their fashion sense to the financial pages.
EDITH BROIDA
Special to The Jewish News
:: _, , . ,
.
randma had a
knipple.
Modern
women have
portfolios. And according
to Elyse Essick, senior
partner and director of
marketing for Munder
Capital Management in
Birmingham, those port-
folios need review.
Essick urged the more
than 100 business and
professional women at
the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's
educational "Food for
Thought" breakfast meet-
ing in November to
become more knowledge-
able investors. "Read The
Wall Street Journal," she
advised. "It looks boring
and intimidating, but
you can follow the
overview on the left.
Learn to read stock mar-
ket quotations and mutu-
al fund tables."
Being more knowl-
edgeable, she feels, will lead to more
risk-taking. Her concern is that
women are not risk-takers; they tend
to stay in the shallow waters of
investing with Treasury bills and gov-
ernment bonds. Essick recommends
including equities, even for conserva-
tive investing, and is equally comfort-
able with international stocks, small
cap stocks and emerging markets.
"The higher the risk, the higher the
return," she asserts.
She acknowledges that different
stages in life call for different invest-
ment strategies. Addressing smartly
clad younger career women, she notes
this is the optimum time for invest-
ing in stocks. Speaking to smartly
dressed, middle-aged and older audi-
ences, she alludes to the "consolida-
tion" and "spending and gifting"
stages of life. During the latter peri-
12/25
1998
54 Detroit Jewish News
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Women need to take investment risks.
od, she says, gifts to charities can
decrease capital gains penalties when
selling highly appreciated stocks from
the extended bull market.
Essick is a member of the Jewish
Federation's Endowment Fund
Professional Advisory Committee.
Planning for the future is more
important than ever, she says, partic-
ularly for women. "Seventy-five per-
cent of the elderly poor are women.
Women can be expected to live until
they're 87."
For this reason, Essick believes in
starting early. A girl's bat mitzvah
may offer an opportunity to begin a
portfolio. Even though stockbrokers
are reluctant to sell a small number of
shares as gifts, often to the disap-
pointment of buyers, Essick suggests
investing some of the newly acquired
savings. "Invest for the long run.
Don't try to time the market. Watch
for bargains. Diversify. And invest in
companies you touch, even if that
means buying Liz Claiborne stock."
In this age of mergers, Essick
decided to mix her passions for fash-
ion and finance to design an
educational program for women who
want to learn successful investing.
The fashion-finance analogy
works, particularly when it is show-
cased with interactive technology.
Essick, a former model who con-
fesses a lingering love for clothes
shopping, took her presentation idea
to the creative services department at
Munder. The firm's graphics depart-
ment combined her upbeat fashion
clips with stock market tables and
charts to develop "Financial Fortitude
for Women of Style and Substance.
Using a lightweight notebook com-
puter, Essick easily projects the pre-
sentation onto a large screen.
"Smart shopping," says Essick, is a
concept for stocks as well as shoes.
She uses designer Kenneth Cole's
statement, "To be aware is more
important than what you wear" to set
31