When Alexandra Jackson joined Rathbones as a graduate in 2007, a natural consideration would have been to choose whether to delay having a family or becoming a fund manager. But she has been able to do both.
Ms Jackson, who has been manager of the Rathbone UK Opportunities Fund since 2017 says: “Most people think which one should they delay? Do you delay having a family or do you delay becoming a manager?”
She attributes this to the fact a lot of women may deem it pointless to become fund managers before going on maternity as their track record often suffers as a result of taking extended time off work.
Key Points:
- Female fund managers fear their track record will suffer when they go on maternity leave.
- Having a co-manager could be key to maintaining a track record.
- Equalising maternity/paternity rights will change ‘main care giver’ perception.
Ms Jackson has two daughters, aged seven and four. She first became assistant fund manager of the fund – which was then called the Rathbone Recovery fund – in the middle of an eight-month maternity period in 2013.So how did she manage her track record?
Track record
Ms Jackson says she did not face an issue with her track record because, at the time she went on maternity, she was not a fund manager. But she says she may have struggled to maintain a track record had she been a fund manager before maternity.
“Track record is everything for fund managers,” says Ms Jackson. It is a key barometer of success in finance, particularly in fund management.
When choosing a manager, investors, intermediaries or consultants typically use track record to compare the success of different fund managers, and particularly how well their funds performed during times of economic distress.
Ms Jackson cautions that having a six-month to one-year gap in the track record “makes it much harder for clients, intermediaries or consultants to be able to use the track record as a decision-making tool”.
According to Ms Jackson, track record matters because it is harder for fund managers to raise assets or for clients to entrust their savings into the hands of a fund manager with a poor record.
She adds that the fund management industry needs to think harder about how women and anybody who takes an extended career break maintain their track record.
Co-management
When Ms Jackson had her second daughter in 2017, she said she was “completely off” for a six-month period during her maternity, with her co-manager taking charge.
She had been made co-manager of the Rathbone Recovery Fund in 2014.
When she had her first child she started working remotely after five months, as the person doing her maternity cover left much earlier, before Ms Jackson was due to return from maternity.
She says having a co-manager was a key factor that helped her maintain her track record even during her maternity.
“Because we are co-managers we are both named on the fund. That is what happens with co-managers, therefore we were able to keep the track record,” Ms Jackson adds.
Ms Jackson highlights other benefits of having co-fund managers. “You are putting a lot of responsibility and risk if you just have one manager who is everything for a fund.”
She finds the fund management industry one that is difficult to arrange caretaking cover, as “all funds are very different and personal”.
“People are increasingly becoming co-managers rather than lead and assistant or deputy,” Ms Jackson says. “More and more of them want to take sabbaticals; people want to take time-off to care for their relatives.”
Ms Jackson lives with her husband, and they have opted for a full-time nanny who looks after both the children. She prefers this set-up, despite the similar cost to nursery, as she says the children receive more personalised care.
When she had her first child, she opted for a nanny-share with one of her neighbours, as she found it significantly cheaper.
Flexible working
Despite the apparent challenges, Ms Jackson says fund management is a good career for women, largely due to its flexible nature.
When she returned from her first maternity leave, Ms Jackson was working only three days a week, with the remaining two days taken from her annual allowance.
“That is another thing that could become more of a formal thing, so people can come back more gradually,” she says.
Ms Jackson also has the ability to work from home as is necessary, but she stresses balance is key, and adds that working from home may not always be viable.
She says: “If something does need to be done in the team, being a lone ranger is probably not going to work out that well.
“The industry is a great one for women. It is about track record and the strength of the decisions you make, not necessarily the time you spent agonising over them.
“You don’t have to always be at your desk, and a lot of the time you want to be away seeing companies.”
Equalising parental rights
Ms Jackson says industry perceptions suggest that taking care of children is usually a task borne by mothers only. But equalising maternity and paternity rights will help address this.
She adds: “Paternity leave should be exactly the same as maternity. This is how we change recruitment decisions.
“If we have two candidates, one of who can take two weeks paid paternity and the other one who can take six months paid maternity, you have an implicit [incentive] to hire the man.
“If both of them could take six months fully paid parental leave, you kind of neutralise the impact of gender on that hiring decision.”
In 2019, then prime minister Theresa May proposed increasing paternity pay from 2 to 12 weeks. But this was before she stepped down. It remains to be seen how her successor Boris Johnson will tackle this.
Ms Jackson concludes: “If male fund managers started to take six months off, you would very quickly find things like track record retention, and those issues would get fixed quickly by people working in teams and as co-managers.”
Saloni Sardana is a former features writer at FTAdviser and Financial Adviser
