Financial services could generate additional income by increasing their inclusion of disabled people, according to Hardeep Rai, group chief executive officer at Kaleidoscope.
Speaking on Kaleidoscope's partnership with St. James's Place which was announced last year, Rai stated: "I'd love for financial services to realise that the model of greater inclusion of disabled people could generate income."
He explained that while including disabled people in financial services is the "right thing to do", the way to make it sustainable is for companies to believe they will be valuable.
"There could be some real commercial benefit and real commercial gain from doing this as well," he explained.
One way in which this could occur was through the selling of products and services to them as "the disability community are very wealthy, contrary to what most people think", he explained.
Bringing people with disabilities into a professional capacity would be beneficial as it would increase diversity where there is hardly any.
These comments follow the release of a fireside chat video between Rai and St. James's Place head of academy, Andy Payne, discussing their own personal links to the topic.
In the video, released recently internally within SJP, both detailed how Payne's daughter and Hardeep's son, live with disability and the impact it has on them and those around them.
"The point of the video is to encourage people to disclose about disability," Rai explained.
"It is to make them realise that people within SJP that are quite senior are still open to these sorts of things and to make them feel supported."
Looking to the future, Payne stated: "The plan now is to build some momentum and awareness around the partnership, internally and externally on the back of that video."
Rai added: "The SJP engine has just become in terms of marketing."
Payne also detailed the progress that the partnership had made since the announcement, stating that they were on target - perhaps even ahead of target - in the goal of bringing in 10 trainee advisers during the first nine months of 2023.
Payne concluded: "I'm really passionate about changing the profession or helping to change the profession in a way that it becomes much more accessible and welcoming to people with a range of disabilities."
The firms also recently hosted a live event as part of their partnership to bring those with disabilities into the financial advice sector and to help those overcoming a range of health challenges to train as financial advisers.
The event took place on August 1 at SJP's offices, with insights from SJP advisers who happen to have disabilities, including Oliver Carpenter, who is a wheelchair user, and Dan Buckland, who has ADHD, Dyslexia and Dyscalculia.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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