CII calls on industry to back women's finance initiative

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CII calls on industry to back women's finance initiative

The Chartered Insurance Institute has called for more insurance professionals to become an Insuring Women’s Futures ambassador.

Speaking at the Insurance Supper Club yesterday (July 2), Sian Fisher, chief executive of the CII, said she was looking for more ambassadors to commit to running a financial wellbeing session at work, social groups, universities, colleges, charities, friends and family.

The Insuring Women’s Futures campaign, formed in 2016, aims to improve women’s lifelong financial resilience and some of the root causes of women’s pension deficits — that women on average have less in pension savings than men.

It also looks to set the standard in flexible working for carers and parents and raises awareness of risks faced by women throughout society.

The initiative already has hundreds of ambassadors working to support female financial wellbeing but Ms Fisher challenged more to sign up in order to meet the ‘Talk to 10,000’ challenge she has set the profession.

The ‘Talk to 10,000 challenge’ requires ambassadors to meet and talk through key financial moments that matter in women’s lives with at least 10 women each.

The challenge was created after research carried out by the Insuring Women’s Futures initiative discovered in 2019 that women still lacked financial resilience and were often at a significant financial disadvantage to men.

The initiative, which was created to find ways to improve women’s financial futures for the benefit of the whole of society, also found millennial women were now expected to be worse off than their mothers and grandmothers.

Ms Fisher said: "Women working today should not be worse off than their mothers and grandmothers and financial wellbeing sessions will help women have a plan to make the most of the pound in their pocket."

Ms Fisher added that she was confident the group could help women have the savings, insurance and pensions in place they needed if enough ambassadors committed to ‘Talk to 10,000’ this year.

Kathryn Knowles, managing director at Cura and an ambassador herself, said: "It is so important that we get female finance professionals to get the message out there that women need to protect their futures.

"There’s still this traditional stigma that it’s men that work in finance, or that it’s the male of the household that needs a pension, needs life insurance and income protection. That simply isn’t true in today’s modern society. 

"To engage with women more we need the voices of women who know their stuff when it comes to finances to step up and be heard."

Anna Sofat, chief executive of Addidi Wealth, said she was delighted to see this initiative from Ms Fisher and the CII.

She added: "We will be signing up and promoting it in our community. I very much hope many more financial advisers sign up to it as well. 

"We need to engage with more women within and outside of the industry and I would like to think that the 10,000 could become 100,000."

Anyone who signs up to be an Insuring Women’s Futures ambassador will be invited to a training session explaining how to hold a financial wellbeing session.

imogen.tew@ft.com

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