There's plenty for investors to worry about these days, what with a collapsing Europe, the threat of inflation, and the near certainty of rising taxes. But for many of the experts on this annual listing of the top 100 women financial advisers from Barron's, it all adds up to opportunity.

Dagny Maidman of Credit Suisse, for instance, has been helping her clients thrive by assembling core portfolios of bonds, then generating additional income by selling put options on selected blue-chip stocks. Those options - which obligate the seller to buy shares if they fall to certain levels - command increasingly higher premiums as volatility rises. Says Maidman quite correctly: "This is very Buffettesque - selling insurance on stocks at a time when people are at their most nervous."