Advisers have been urged to tap into the '£36.8bn wealth of Generation X and millennial women' as part of Parmenion’s ‘Advise Her’ campaign.
The platform and discretionary manager launched the campaign earlier this month to champion better advice for women, who it argues are both influencers and owners of “huge swathes” of uninvested wealth in the UK.
‘Advise Her’ will run throughout 2020. Parmenion is set to publish resources and insights regularly on its website to support financial advisers looking for information to drive diversity in their business.
Ms Thomas said there was a “gulf” between the number of women engaged with the topic of investing compared to men and often there was a difference in the type of advice women were after in terms of managing their money.
According to the 2019 Kantar report 'Winning over Wealth', if investment providers were able to engage more meaningfully with women, increasing their level of financial engagement and confidence, the results could generate a further £12.4bn from millennial women and £24.4bn from Gen X women.
Emma Thomas, Parmenion’s chief financial officer, said: “Our own data shows that there is an obvious gap between the money women have, and the money they are efficiently investing.
“In a world of long-term low interest rates, simply sitting on cash is not the best way to manage money.”
She added: “Our campaign urges the finance industry to think about how they address this gap, in order to get their slice of this pie.”
Female wealth is expected to increase in the coming years. According to a study from WealthiHer, published last year, women are predicted to own 60 per cent of all wealth by 2025 partly due to increased female longevity.
Parmenion’s campaign will tackle female longevity as its first topic, highlighting the importance of pension planning around the potential that a wife might outlive her husband by a number of years.
Ms Thomas said: “For financial professionals looking to secure new business, this is a massive potential client pool. But advisers must start talking in a way that gives women confidence that their wealth needs are being understood.”
The ‘Advise Her’ campaign, which kicked off on Valentine’s Day (February 14), will also address the need for more female representation in the financial services sector and the working conditions needed to make finance a more attractive industry to work in.
“There is a lot of criticism of the financial sector that it just pays lip service to supporting women”, Ms Thomas said.
“The challenge is creating inclusive policies that don’t just appeal to women but encourage and normalise best working practices for everyone.
“In that way, everybody – especially women – can feel confident in their decision to work part-time, or move their hours for childcare pick-ups, for example.”
Ms Thomas added the “core” of the campaign was to promote inclusivity and diversity of thinking to a financial advice business to support its commercial success and long-term growth.
imogen.tew@ft.com
Financial Adviser is calling on the regulator to do more to encourage, promote and support diversity and inclusion across financial services. Let us know what you think by emailing fa.letters@ft.com.
