I was lucky. My children didn't have health issues, didn't have big school problems, etc. And as I watched some of my peers go through this, you can see how quickly a family can get derailed when they are not lucky.

Women tend to collaborate, in my experience, more easily than gentlemen do.

If a woman was successful, she wasn't helping other women.

Women tend to live longer than men do. Women tend to have, unfortunately, their salaries peaked sooner than men's do. Both of these things are extraordinarily important in putting together financial and investing plans for women.

Fundraisers treat men completely differently than women. As a matter of fact, many of them have the default on their direct mail set up to read "Mister," and it really rankles a lot of women.

I want to buy a house. I want to retire well. I want to have baby.

Men tend to leave their financial adviser at a single-digit-percent rate in any given year. And women leave their husband and their joint financial adviser in the year after their spouse's death at a rate of greater than 70 percent - seven-zero.