Female financial planners represent 32 per cent of the FPA’s new membership, with research showing that the FPA has a higher overall representation of female members at 23 per cent, compared with 18 per cent in “other associations”, according to a statement.
Mark Rantall, chief executive officer of the FPA, said while these figures are positive, the numbers are not satisfactory.
“Much needs to be done here to close the gap between the two genders and the FPA is aiming to do that with the financial planning profession,” Rantall said.
“In order for Australians to receive appropriate advice, there needs to be equal representation across genders and all demographics,” he added.
The research the FPA was referring to was an Investment Trends survey of around 845 financial planners, including RG146 compliant accountants, and dealer group managers who personally provide advice.
The “other associations” referred to in the survey did not specify any individual organisations but elsewhere respondents identified themselves as members of the AFA, FINSIA, SPAA, AIOFP, CPA, ICAA, IPA, MFAA, Law Society, and ‘other’. Therefore we can assume that the average representation of females in all other associations as a group is 18 per cent, according to the FPA.
Earlier this week, Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) chief executive Brad Fox also raised the issue of female representation, stating the percentage of females within his organisation is also 23 per cent.
He also said the AFA has a goal in place to see that figure rise to 40 per cent by 2015.
“We know that the number of women as authorised reps or financial advisers in their own right well under represents the 50 per cent of the population or 51 per cent of the population they make up,” he told ifa.
“And yet we also know that females are over represented in the back office support roles, particularly in advice practices.”
From reading this, my initial reaction is ‘So what?’ Women are adults who are perfectly capable of making their own choices, re: their careers. If they are not joining the financial planning community, then that is a choice that each woman makes as an individual, not as a collective.
The relevant associations should be focussed on attracting the best *people* to financial planning, not making decisions based on gender. If women want to become advisers, then they will become advisers.
If they don’t make up half of the financial planning community, that is not a ‘problem’, that’s merely a statistic. Women are the majority in a number of professions, yet this is not seen as an issue. They are adults, they don’t need to have their hands held as if they are five years old.
Let them be responsible for their own choices.