The advice profession should continue to define what financial planning is while segregating it from what it used to be, according to Emmelia Davidson-Slack, independent financial planner at Premier Wealth Solutions.
Davidson-Slack told FT Adviser that while she has entered a “well round, human-centric profession”, she has been led to believe this was not always the case.
“People remember periods of time when financial services were branded poorly or exploited clients,” she explained.
Davidson-Slack, who recently won financial adviser apprentice of the year at the Chartered Insurance Institute awards, said she was told about this by a colleague who worked in a sistering profession.
“They said ‘I was around when this had previously gone wrong, where people I knew were advised to move money offshore’.”
Davidson-Slack said after hearing this she felt “defenceless and quite naïve”.
“I thought ‘that’s not what I want to do and that’s not anything like how I see advice’,” she added.
She said while the advice profession has progressed and evolved, this negativity and lack of trust lingers.
Younger talent
Davidson-Slack also looked at how companies could seek to retain their talented, younger members of staff.
She explained that, at the moment, there is a trend where those in their twenties who are leaving university do not stay at the same company for an extended period of time.
While she said it was difficult to give a definite answer to how companies can retain young talent, she suggested that if they “feel valued” and "have got clarity and progression”, then younger people are likely to stay on for longer.
“As long as a company can bring in recognition, trust in employees and celebrate them, I can’t see why someone would want to leave,” she added.
In terms of the diversity of staff, Davidson-Slack believes diversity in the industry “is not as scarce as you think”, but pointed out there is not yet a 50/50 ratio between men and women in the industry.
She said this was a particular shame as: “I have voiced previously that the profession lends itself really well to women.”
She explained women generally have empathetic, sympathetic, listening, communicative qualities which is “central” to building trust and rapport with clients.
“That’s one of the hardest parts of the job, anyone could learn the technical side but learning to manage people and to listen and truly understand them is almost invaluable.”
She said there is still more to be done to bring women into the industry but noted there were “lots of new or young female advisers coming through”.
Career journey
Davidson-Slack entered the industry in a “not so ordinary way” as, at the time, she was preparing to ask for maternity leave for the third time and was “feeling a bit guilty about it”.
This made her reflect and helped her to decide she needed a career that was “more flexible” so she could prioritise her children.
It was around this time that her mother was setting up her own advice firm and so Davidson-Slack made the decision to enter into the profession.
“I started my exams with no financial understanding, although I had a personal insight into it because my mum had been my husband’s financial adviser,” she said.
Despite this unorthodox entrance into the industry, Davidson-Slack said this did not hold her back, specifying that she has never felt that being a mother in her twenties has been to her disadvantage.
“Everybody has been incredibly kind and generous,” she said.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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