Conversation

A. Before we start, please call me either Mickie—that’s "-ie", not "-ey"—or Muriel. Your choice.

A. The kids in school, back in Cleveland. There were three Muriels. Two of us got the nickname Mickie, and one got the nickname Moo.

A. We opened it in November 1995. Our first Florida office was in Boca, because a lot of our New York area clients had retired there. Then I started getting calls from people on the west coast of Florida, asking, "What’s wrong with us?" I said, "Absolutely nothing." So I checked out Naples, and, being a Midwesterner, I felt at home here. Our business here has grown every year—not by leaps and bounds, but steadily and solidly.

A. Not technically, but I was there from day one. On May 1, 1975, the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) mandated that all brokerage commissions were to be negotiable. Until then, any trades under $300,000 had a fixed commission rate. I didn’t know how I was going to pay for my research under the new rules and still be competitive. I finally decided I would become an "execution only" broker and deal mainly with institutions at a discount, keeping perhaps a dozen individual accounts. We were so busy that first day we didn’t have time to go to the john! The next day we were front-page news in the Wall Street Journal. We were not loved in the industry, but it goes with the territory. As far as I know, we are the only brokerage to go "discount" that day that is still in business.

Q. All that, of course, was before the emergence of the Internet. How important has that development been for your particular business?

A. It’s enabled prices to be reduced even further, of course. And we can provide information at no cost to our customers. Two-thirds of all our orders in our retail discount brokerage are placed on the Internet.

Q. I know you also have a Web site on the Internet called the Women’s Financial Network (wfn.com). Its mission is to help improve women’s financial literacy, right?

A. Yes, and now I intend to broaden it so that it not only helps individuals, but also women business owners. Twice as many businesses today are being started by women as by men. Some of these businesses are being started with a credit card, and being run out of homes, but the owners don’t have the financial knowledge of how to go about expanding their businesses. They might not know the questions they’ll be asked when they go for a bank loan. Or what’s involved in putting together a business plan. Or the kind of insurance they’ll need. So perhaps I can give them some of those basics.

Q. When you first got involved in helping women improve their financial literacy, did women tend to be timid about finances?

A. Absolutely. We were told, and taught, that money was not a proper subject for a lady! Seriously. And yet statistics today say that, at one time or another, 90 percent of all women will have to take control of their financial futures.

Q. Let’s say a woman is getting a divorce, or her husband dies suddenly, and she doesn’t have a clue about her finances. Is this as likely to happen with upper-income readers of this magazine as much as with middle- or lower-income folks?

A. Yes, and in some cases more likely. Last week I met someone from Dallas who’s worth zillions, and she’s getting a divorce. She says, "I know my husband has accounts outside the country, but I don’t know anything about them. And I’ve never looked at an income tax return. What do I do?" I mean, you want to cry.

Q. So what does she do?

A. Get a copy of the last five years of your joint income tax returns. Look at your brokerage statements. Get a copy of the checkbook. Buy a large ledger pad, and write down housing expenses, food, entertainment, clothing, etc. Then take out every check, and write the amount in the corresponding column, and see how you’re spending your money. Then go through the checkbook and your deposits and make sure you know where that income or money has come from. It’s all basic and essential.

Q. Besides targeting women, you have also spent a lot of time and money in recent years trying to get your Siebert Personal Finance Program into the high schools.

A. Yes, indeed. When I was superintendent of banks, I saw the difficulties young people could get into with credit card debt. They were starting out in life by just paying the minimum balance each month and maxing out one card after another. Or when they opened a bank account and the bank gave them a book of 20 checks, they thought they could now write 20 checks, no matter how much was in the account. I saw all that, and I said that if I was ever in a position to do something about it, I would.

Q. When did you start?

A. In 1998. I had been appointed the president of NYWA (New York Women’s Agenda), which is a coalition of 88 women’s organizations. I told them at the first board meeting my goal was to get basic personal-finance education into the urban schools. Jo LoCicero raised her hand and said, "I can help you. I’ve taught in the system for 30 years." She introduced me to Rudy Crew, who was chancellor of the New York schools, and within eight weeks we had an outline.

Q. When did the New York City schools adopt the program?

A. It took several years, because things move slowly in education, but it now represents a third of New York’s required course in economics. And it’s being looked at all around the country, including Dade County in Florida, where Crew is now the chancellor.

Q. When you’re introduced, it’s almost always as "Muriel Siebert, the first woman to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange ..." Is that how you want to be most remembered?

A. No. School program. "Muriel Siebert, who changed millions of people’s lives through personal financial literacy."

Q. All that, of course, was before the emergence of the Internet. How important has that development been for your particular business?