This applies not just to the IFA sector but also to many others areas including, surprisingly, fund management, where the representation of female managers is utterly woeful. I am no feminist but things have to change.
I was reminded of this after reading through the latest research from FE Trustnet on the number of what it calls ‘alpha managers’ – those who are in the top 10 per cent of UK retail fund managers.
According to FE, based on the latest performance figures, there are 165 ‘alpha managers’ on its list of the UK’s best fund managers. Disappointingly, however, only 10 of these are women, just 6 per cent of the total. In other words, 94 per cent of top fund managers are male.
The figure of 10 female managers is just two up on last year. The reason for this is that female fund managers still make up only a tiny proportion of the total number of fund managers.
That is an utterly shameful figure in the 21st century and suggests that British fund management companies need a rather sharp heel pointed in their direction or at least a sharp elbow in the ribs.
Of course at this point some male readers will be saying that there are good reasons for the imbalance: it takes years to train a fund manager and traditionally it has been dominated by men; women take career breaks for children and you need continuity for many years, perhaps, change just takes time, and so on.
All of these excuses have some truth but they simply ignore the epic failure of the fund management industry to nurture and promote female talent.
This is a shame because I am sure that our universities are full of bright female graduates itching to learn the well-remunerated skills of investment management. Anecdotally, I am aware that there are a growing number of female researchers and analysts, which is a positive sign, but the figures are just not good enough and human resource managers in particular need to do more to correct this imbalance. Female brains are just as capable as male brains when it comes to fund management, as FE’s research proves, and we are wasting a vast pool of potential talent.
Many others areas of financial services are little better and IFAs have no reason to be smug. While there are many excellent female IFAs and financial planners, and I have met many, the advice profession is again overwhelmingly male. Many will have started their own businesses and perhaps equalising the gender imbalance is not a priority in a small firm, but I wonder how many have missed an opportunity to employ an outstanding female partner?
To give you an example: I have read several case studies recently involving advisers who were asked to help a widow with her inheritance. In most cases these were written by male IFAs. I know all of these will have done a decent job but I wonder if many widows would have found more empathy and rapport with a female adviser? Quite a few, I suspect.
Banking and many areas of the City also remain male bastions. Can you remember the last time you popped into a bank at lunchtime and found that all the cashiers were male and behind them a female manager was hovering in the background? No, nor can I.
Interestingly in some of the newer and more enlightened areas of financial services women are doing much better. Many senior financial marketing people are women, in public relations and communications it is common to meet highly professional female account managers and many successful public relations firms are run by female entrepreneurs. In my own profession of financial journalism too you will not have to go far to find a highly-qualified female journalist or editor, and paraplanning is surging ahead with a pool of ambitious and enthusiastic female paraplanners.
Before you ask, I am not in favour of quotas, as Lloyds Bank has reportedly adopted recently. I have always believed that people should be selected for jobs on merit but it is obvious the present system is not working and it needs to be fixed.
Industry trade and professional bodies could do much more to encourage their members to recruit female talent and to recognise that for female staff to succeed there may need to be systemic change. It is no good organising a weekly senior management meeting for 8am every Monday morning if your female manager has to get the kids to school at that time. Practices such as this undoubtedly discriminate against women managers.
There is no doubt in my mind that financial services companies would be better off, and perhaps more successful, with more talented female managers and a little less male testosterone.
Financial services companies would be better off, with more talented female managersKevin O’Donnell is a financial writer and journalist
Norse, in response to Jeff Prestridge’s column on falling adviser numbers
Jeff, admirable sentiment, you should be right, however there is no point in increasing demand for a product that has no ability to meet that demand. Falling adviser numbers is only half the picture. Each adviser now sees fewer clients and charges larger fees to each client. The advice gap is far wider than you know because we now have less truly active clients. For established advisers, the clients that we see already value us highly, we don’t need help. New advisers and online solutions simply do not have the true experience to merit a high-value name tag. They are not yet worthy.
