Q&A: WIPN’s 9th President Talks About Navigating 2020

WIPN—We Inspire. Promote. Network.—is nearing the completion of its 15^th year helping to connect, mentor and advance women in the retirement industry.

On October 17, WIPN will celebrate its impact with events hosted by chapters nationwide. Daniella Moiseyev, the organization’s ninth president, led the group during the tumultuous year of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Here, she discusses her introduction to the organization in 2009 and how the pandemic affected WIPN’s members.

Moiseyev highlights the crucial role WIPN played in fostering a supportive environment for women in pensions, along with insights on the organization’s growth, ongoing challenges for women in the retirement industry and the importance of sponsorship and authentic leadership.

PLANADVISER: Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your role in WIPN?

Daniella Moiseyev: I am head of retirement and income solutions content strategy at Principal Financial Group. I was also president of WIPN in 2020, which was during the pandemic.

PLANADVISER: How did you become involved with WIPN, and how did your tenure as president go?

Daniella Moiseyev: I got involved with WIPN around 2009. I had just moved from wealth management to retirement, and my boss at the time wanted to attend a big industry conference. I wasn’t speaking, and I felt a bit daunted by it all. My friend introduced me to Sheri Fitts, who mentioned a group called Women in Pensions Network. She invited me to an event, and back then it was maybe 15 people. It was a small, welcoming group, and throughout the conference, I saw familiar faces. It made me feel much more comfortable because, back then, the industry was very male-dominated—navy blue suits everywhere. There were so few women, so it was intimidating.

Fast forward a bit, I had gone to a few more events, and then they needed volunteers to help file for 501(c)(6) status. I raised my hand. That was probably around 2010 or 2011. I remember being on the call with Marcia Wagner, who was helping us, and Lisa Buffington, who became president a few years later. It was a lot of high-powered women on that call, and I thought, “Am I in the right place?”

From there, I got more involved, first with the marketing committee, then becoming chair of the marketing committee in 2015. I eventually became vice president and then president in 2020. It was about six or seven years of climbing within the organization.

PLANADVISER: What was the size of the organization when you first joined?

Daniella Moiseyev: When I first got involved, it was 2009, and there were only about 15 women at events. We’d meet at conferences to support each other because the industry was so male-dominated. It was a way to build camaraderie so we wouldn’t feel so outnumbered.

PLANADVISER: When do you feel like the growth of WIPN really took off?

Daniella Moiseyev: Real growth happened around 2013. Before that, our membership was tied to the calendar year. Everyone’s membership expired on December 31, so every year we started with zero members. We had to send emails and make calls, asking people to renew. We’d get to maybe 275 or 300 members each year, but it was a heavy lift.

In 2017 or 2018, we switched to a rolling membership with automatic renewals. That helped tremendously. But the biggest jump came when we started restricting our biggest events to members only in 2018. Before that, we let anyone come to any event, and there wasn’t much benefit to joining. When we made that change, our membership jumped from around 330 to 1,000. We’re almost back to our pre-pandemic high of 1,500 members.

PLANADVISER: How did the pandemic affect your tenure as president?

Daniella Moiseyev: It was an unprecedented time. While many women embraced the flexibility of working from home, there were challenges. A lot of senior women had to quit their jobs because there was no childcare or school, and they couldn’t balance work with homeschooling. Many women had to make difficult choices.

It was a tough year for everyone. We had to cancel 134 events due to COVID-19, and while the hybrid work environment has been helpful, I still worry about women being “out of sight, out of mind.” The flexibility is great, but it can also make women less visible in the workplace, which can hurt their career advancement.

PLANADVISER: Why do you think so many high-level women stepped away from their positions during the pandemic?

Daniella Moiseyev: It was mostly due to childcare issues. The more high-powered your job, the more demanding it is, and it’s hard to balance that with kids at home. It wasn’t just entry-level positions; I saw a lot of directors and senior women stepping away. The pandemic forced a lot of us to confront the difficulties of balancing work and family, and it’s something women have been struggling with for decades.

PLANADVISER: What are some of the challenges women still face in the retirement industry today?

Daniella Moiseyev: One of the key issues is that women are over-mentored and under-sponsored. Mentoring is great, but sponsorship is crucial, because it means someone is advocating for you when you’re not in the room. Women tend to get less sponsorship than men, and that holds them back from advancing.

Another big issue is the “broken rung.” Women and men enter the industry in roughly equal numbers, but it’s that first step from individual contributor to first-line manager where we see the biggest drop-off. The numbers start at 50-50 but drop to about 32% women in managerial roles. This gap widens as you go up the leadership ladder, with less than 17% of C-suite positions held by women, and most of those are in non-[profit-and-loss] roles like HR or marketing.

PLANADVISER: What are some initiatives WIPN is working on to address these challenges?

Daniella Moiseyev: We’ve started an Allies in Action program where senior men are paired with women to act as sponsors, not just mentors. We need more men involved as allies if we want to create lasting change in the industry. We’ve also been working on growing our chapters. We’re at 32 chapters now, and we want to keep expanding, because local events give women who can’t attend big conferences the chance to network and get support.

For me, it’s all about leading authentically. Women shouldn’t feel like they have to lead like men to be successful. There’s no one way to lead, and it’s important for women to feel empowered to lead in a way that’s true to themselves.

PLANADVISER: Are you still involved with WIPN?

Daniella Moiseyev: Yes, I still lead the [Washington,] D.C. chapter and sit on the Past Presidents Advisory Council, which meets quarterly to help guide the current board. We’re focused on improving the organization’s infrastructure and growing the Allies in Action program to get more men involved. I believe the future of WIPN is bright, and I’m excited to see where it goes.