For International Women’s Day (IWD) we asked four women for their experiences and views on financial planning as a profession for women.
Caroline Stuart, founder of Sparrow Paraplanning, PFS Board and PFS Paraplanning Panel member
I began my paraplanning journey in 2003 and since then, I have seen the profession evolve and grow. The consistent factor over all this time, however, is that, unlike the financial adviser / planner role, there are predominately more female than male paraplanners. This is consistently around a 60% – 40% split based on Professional Paraplanner’s biennial survey.
There are probably many reasons for this but, based on my own experiences, paraplanning offers not only numerous options for leadership roles for women but also avenues into other areas that may have historically been a male preserve.
Paraplanning is also seen as a ‘safe space’ because of the supportive community that has built up over the years. As it is a much more diverse part of the wider financial planning profession, with less of a ‘pin stripe suit’ perception, it provides a more inviting entry point into the profession for many.
These are all things we should be highlighting to any women considering a career in paraplanning or financial planning but are unsure what future opportunities that could offer them.
Michelle Hoskin, Managing Director, Standards International
Like many, I have seen the financial planning sector evolve over the past 25 years. The emergence of roles such as practice managers, business managers and of course, paraplanners, has seen the many skills and abilities that women bring embraced by our magical sector.
I think it’s safe to say that women hold the potential to unlock many of the challenges and complexities that the sector faces as it tries to evolve into the future world of professional services.
There will, of course, always be challenges for any gender in any sector, as we are all a complex mix of characters and characteristics. My advice to any females in this sector is to embrace their uniqueness, stop trying to be similar to or like their male counterparts.
One of the biggest and most important qualities that every female must hold within their role, regardless of the size of their firm or organisation, is confidence. The confidence to lean in, put themselves forward, speak out and give their opinions that they know deep down, will add a tremendous amount of value. We need more balance around thinking and contribution. In my view, this is the single most important quality that will unlock our potential as a sector.
Rebecca Lucas, Director, Lime Outsourced Paraplanning Ltd
The financial services industry has seen a lot of positive changes over the past 20 years. It is such an exciting place to work, with lots of opportunities for women from all backgrounds. In particular, companies are recognising that diversity is a strength and something to be encouraged and celebrated. Paraplanning in particular is very female dominated with around 60% of paraplanners being female.
Things were quite different when I started in the industry. In one of my first job interviews I was asked “what job does your father do”. Even then, this struck me as a strange thing to ask but apparently this was a common interview question. Can you imagine being asked that question at an interview in 2022?! I am so happy things have moved on.
When I first started out, there were hardly any women working as advisers (and paraplanners were quite rare back then). I became an adviser when I was 24 and it was certainly a male-dominated career back then; conferences would always be a sea of grey suits. I was very lucky in that my managers and colleagues were encouraging and treated me as an equal, so as a female I never felt disadvantaged.
It’s always harder to “be something if you can’t see it” so the more female role models there are, the more women we will attract into our industry.
Helena Wardle, Partner & Chartered Financial Planner, Smith and Wardle
I genuinely love what I do. Sadly, not enough people can say this, but I feel that the caring element of financial planning is not advocated enough.
The intrinsic nature of financial services and the impact people working in finance can have on people is hugely underestimated. The sometimes negative reputation of financial services is a bad hangover, and we collectively have to work as an industry to gain people’s trust.
I think recruiting more women into financial services will help with this. Working in finance is not about being good at maths or the boring image that is portrayed about this being a stiff, formal and inflexible industry. It is a hugely human-focused line of work, focused on helping people, and we can do more to raise awareness of this.
Being a woman in financial services has been an opportunity to help influence change. What I find inspiring is how many thought leaders are trying to disrupt how things are and to create opportunities for greater diversity and change; but we can always do more. We need people to help lift women and minorities up and to be brave enough to stand up for those discriminated against and against biased views.
[Main image: miguel-bruna-TzVN0xQhWaQ-unsplash]
