FAAA to continue successful female mentoring program in 2024
Anne Palmer
The FAAA is set to continue with its Women in Financial Planning Mentoring Program in 2024, in recognition of the important role such programs play in attracting, and retaining, women to the financial advice profession.
The initial program, which was launched in February 2022, was deemed an outstanding success by the mentors and mentees who participated in the initiative. It was run by the FAAA through a $2.2 million grant from the Office for Women in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The program aimed to support women to further their careers in financial services by matching eligible women in seeking guidance and support with more experienced mentors.
The first program paired 96 mentors and mentees from February to August 2022, while the second program paired 36 mentors and mentees from March to October 2023.
Although the government funding ran out in late 2023, and was not renewed, the success of the program is such that the FAAA is aiming to continue it in 2024, and is in the process of looking for sponsors, says Anne Palmer, general manager, education and professionalism, at the FAAA.
“With women only accounting for around 22 per cent of financial planners and around 28 per cent of the FAAA membership, initiatives such as this one are incredibly important to encourage more women to not only consider financial advice as a career but also remain in the profession once they are fully qualified.
“This program shows that demand for female financial advisers is there. We need more of them coming into our profession to ensure we have enough advisers to serve the needs of the growing number of Australian consumers seeking advice.
“There is no reason that we can’t reach more than 100,000 financial advisers in Australia, with a goal of half of those being women. There are around 200,000 registered accountants in Australia, and the need for financial advice is just as significant.”
Ms Palmer says mentoring is a valuable tool to help an advice career flourish.
“It’s important when starting out in a career to find a great mentor who will both support and challenge you, and a great group of peers who are working in the areas you want to focus in.
“It’s a real positive of this profession that it abounds with advisers who genuinely love to help each other and who get great satisfaction from seeing the success of their colleagues.”
The FAAA Women in Financial Planning Mentoring Program is a six-month program that matches female FAAA members with another experienced FAAA member in a mutually beneficial development program.
The program involves:
- Online training, reading material and workshops
- Three scheduled program webinars to track progress
- At least monthly contact between mentor and mentee
The FAAA is currently seeking sponsors for the next round of the FAAA Women in Financial Planning Mentoring Program.
