Financial Changemakers

Welcome to the Financial Changemakers podcast with Gretchen Betts – Managing Director at Magenta Financial Planning and Olivia Parnell – Trainee Financial Planner, Ascot Lloyd. This podcast series is for you if you are interested in learning about diversity and inclusion and are keen to embrace and make positive change in your life, business, management style or company ethos. In this second episode, hosts Gretchen and Olivia, discuss the importance of Gender diversity in the Financial Services Profession with their guest:  Anna Sofat, Associate Director, Progeny Wealth Anna has been a passionate advocate and tireless campaigner for greater diversity and inclusion in the financial services sector. Currently 15-17% Financial Advisors in the profession are women (2020). This has not shifted significantly in the past 10 years. As an profession, there is a need to accept that the number has not changed and that something must be done. Research shows that diverse teams perform better. Our conversation includes discussing how we can encourage more women into financial planning roles. In a profession which was originally designed for men, by men, a cultural shift is needed. We discuss how we can retain women in the profession. Anna describes her view of the ‘sticky-middle’. Where middle management culture quite often requires careful navigation and sometimes forces women to sacrifice their own values and often when this becomes too difficult, we see women choosing to ‘opt-out’ of the profession. Measuring progress, having good data and holding businesses accountable can make a real shift and change. Senior Management need to drive behavioural change, to lead cultural change. Each business should re-assess their Business Model, Product Design, and Culture and Language. Statistics and research show that women (who make up 50% of the population) will control more than 60% of the wealth within the next 5 years. If the profession wants that female wealth to manage, women need to be more represented in the profession. Anna’s Key Take-Aways for the subject of Gender within the Financial Services Profession are: As individuals, within a team in a business, do not hide, do not follow the heard. If something is wrong, speak up. Be positive about what can be done to make change. Start to show up, speak up, and make those changes. We forget how much we each have in us, to make change. If we all commit to change, and make small changes, we can create a ripple, and hopefully the ripples will create waves. This podcast series is about creating a safe place for discussion and ultimately enabling you, our listener, to be a Changemaker. Let’s listen. Let’s Discuss. Let’s Learn. Let’s Implement Positive Change.