Women need to take more responsibility for their financial situation, according to the finalists in this year’s AFA Female Excellence in Advice Awards.
Speaking to riskinfo ahead of the final round of judging this week, the finalists all agreed that one of the primary challenges facing women in terms of their finances was a lack of confidence in their own abilities.
“Part of my approach is asking women to step up to the plate when they’re in a married relationship,” said Catherine Robson, who deals primarily with high net wealth clients.
There’s a really surprising abdication of responsibility among women
“There’s a really surprising abdication of responsibility among women. Regardless of education and intelligence they seem to get married and then check out of that (financial) responsibility. And I think that’s to the detriment of their relationship. It can be really quite lonely and stressful for men to be the prime breadwinner and the sole decision maker with the expectation that they have all the right answers financially.”
“I think women tend to underestimate themselves,” added Anne Graham, who was also a finalist in last year’s AFA Adviser of the Year Awards. “Female clients are a bit inhibited by what they don’t know, but they’re always willing to learn.”
Dianne Charman, who runs an all-female team in Queensland, agreed, saying that it was important for women to deal with an adviser who focuses on education. “Knowledge is power. The more everybody knows, the better it is,” she said.
This is the second year the AFA’s Female Excellence in Advice Award has been open, and once again six finalists have been chosen from the field of more than 100 nominations. The 2012 finalists are:
- Dianne Charman, Jade Financial Group, Qld
- Anne Graham, McPhail HLG Financial Planning, Vic
- Christine Hornery, Financial Management Solutions, NSW
- Deborah Kent, Integra Financial Services, NSW
- Catherine Robson, Affinity Private, Vic
- Christine Swanson, Prominent Financial Planning, SA
The Awards, sponsored by TAL, are designed to promote positive change and encourage more women to enter and take leadership roles in the advice industry.
Ms Charman believes that in order for this to occur, women’s voices need to be louder.
“We need to embrace this industry and take it to the next level, and I think women have got a critical role to play in that,” she said.
Ms Robson agrees: “There’s not been a voice to say that women bring something really special to the advice process, and that women have an important role in making money something that we feel comfortable as a society talking about.
“This Award is a fantastic megaphone for getting airplay for what I think are important issues,” she added.
The winner of the Female Excellence in Advice Award will be named at the AFA’s National Conference, to be held at the RACV Royal Pines on the Gold Coast from 28-30 October.
