BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 13, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESSWEEK INVESTOR A Street Legend Sets Up Shop on the Net Muriel ''Mickie'' Siebert has spent her 46-year career breaking barriers in the clubby male world of Wall Street. Now Siebert, who owns a discount brokerage bearing her name, is turning her attention to helping other women break barriers to financial success. In mid-October, her Siebert Financial Corp. ( SIEB) bought two Internet operations that offer investment education, advice, and services geared to women. Siebert hopes to use her acquisitions, Women's Financial Network and Herdollar.com, to create a one-stop Web site for a woman's business and personal-finance needs. The existing Women's Financial Network site (www.wfn.com), which already has 40,000 members, will form the basis of the new WFN by Siebert. Launched six months ago by CBS MarketWatch columnist Jennifer Openshaw, WFN is designed to assist women with financial planning at different stages of life. It offers well-organized message boards with titles such as ''Single & Striving,'' and ''Financial Family.'' Herdollar, a financial education program for women being marketed to institutions, began in March. It was started by two Goldman Sachs alumnae: former equity analyst Tamara King and investment banker Mandee Heller. All three women have signed on with Siebert to help reconstruct and manage her site. ''It would have been cheaper to build my own women and investing site, but I bought the talent,'' says Siebert, who paid about $2 million for the two dot-com outfits and plans to spend much more on marketing. That's a significant outlay for someone whose firm earned $6.7 million after taxes in the first nine months of this year. ''It's a big undertaking for me because I'm putting my name on [this venture],'' says Siebert. Siebert intends to raise the sophistication level of WFN, and in fact, one of her first moves was to get rid of the financial horoscopes. WFN by Siebert will offer stock trading, mutual funds, and bond buying, and continue the existing services of free checking and online bill-paying. She also plans to target women entrepreneurs by helping them obtain financing and offering IRA and 401(k) programs for them and their businesses. NO ADS. Siebert recognizes, like nearly every other financial-services provider, that it would be risky not to take aim at the women's market. Women are making more money than ever, starting businesses at nearly twice the rate of men, and expecting to inherit huge estates. But despite their growing wealth, women still display a significant lack of confidence in their investing abilities and financial knowledge. Indeed, only 53% of women, vs. 82% of men, have confidence in their investing skills, according to a 2000 Harris Poll sponsored by Charles Schwab, which just rolled out its own women and investing program. The poll also found that women in their 20s and 30s are just as likely as their elders to say investing is ''scary for them.'' To be sure, competitors on the Internet are trying to address these issues. Siebert vows her approach will be different. Most other women's financial sites depend on advertising. As Siebert sees it, the sites push financial products--not because they are particularly good for women--but because they're sold by advertisers. What's more, the sites quickly lose control of customers who click on the products and then get shunted away to the financial provider. By contrast, WFN won't rely on ad dollars. Instead, Siebert will fund it privately, as well as from transaction fees it generates. She makes it clear she will maintain the integrity of the site by closely monitoring the products it offers. ''The real question is whether these women online are ready to do business or are just surfing,'' says Siebert. Given her background and commitment, she may be in a better position to find an answer than others who've gone before her. For more on women's financial Web sites, or to join a discussion in our forum, see hers.online at www.businessweek.com/investor/ Questions? Comments? E-mail hers@businessweek.com or fax (212) 512-2538 By TODDI GUTNER _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS A Street Legend Sets Up Shop on the Net RESUME: Muriel (Mickie) Siebert INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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