Dianne Charman

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA)’s powerhouse for women in financial advice, AFA Inspire, is calling on the financial services industry to #BeBoldForChange, in support of International Women’s Day (IWD), with a series of events to be held across Australia.

Celebrated globally on 8 March, IWD is committed to driving change for women, helping them to move closer to gender parity and encouraging the creation of more inclusive cultures.

AFA Inspire Chair, Dianne Charman, said the AFA Inspire #BeBoldForChange events in support of IWD represent an important opportunity to be a part of a global community striving for change. “Research has shown that closing the gender parity gap could take 170 years – we have to do better than that and as an international community, we can,” she said. “I encourage everyone who attends one of AFA Inspire’s nationwide events to take a moment to pause, look around the room and realize they are part of something bigger and that together with others around the world, they really can make a difference.”

Ms Charman also said the financial advice community can play a crucial role in improving outcomes for women. “AFA Inspire has dual objectives – to encourage more women to become advisers and, more broadly, to encourage women to be more involved in their financial future,” she said. “If we can meet these two objectives, it will help us address the retirement gap. Closing the retirement gap is critical for all Australians, particularly women who generally have lower superannuation account balances than men, and the financial advice community has the expertise and experience to do it.”

The AFA Inspire #BeBoldForChange events will kick off in Melbourne on the eve of IWD on 7 March with special guest speaker, Sadhana Smiles, CEO of Harcourts Group Victoria.

Breakfast events will be held on the morning of IWD in both Perth and Adelaide, with the Perth event hosting self-made international business woman, Marnie LeFevre. Adelaide will host two prominent South Australian businesswomen – Genevieve Theseira-Haese, Lady Mayoress of Adelaide and gold medal paralympian, Katrina Webb.

Sydney, Hobart and Brisbane will all host lunch events, with the Sydney event featuring a panel of leading Australians, including Libby Lyons – Director, Workplace Gender Equality Agency; Kerry Chikarovski – Government Relations and Former NSW Opposition Leader; Philippa Sheehan – Managing Director, My Planner Australia; Brad Fox – AFA CEO; Jonathan Hoyle – Stanford Brown CEO and Julia Newbould – Senior Marketing Specialist, Customer Communications & Stella Network Lead at BT. Aleks Vickovich, Managing Editor, Wealth and Innovation at Momentum Media will facilitate the session.

Two special guests will speak at the Hobart event – Gill Berriman, an advocate for transformational leadership at all levels of the educational system and Bernadette Black, CEO and Founding Director of Brave Foundation and Telstra’s 2016 Tasmanian Business Women of the Year. Dr Jane Thomason, CEO of Abt Associates (Australia) will be special guest at the Brisbane IWD lunch.

Register for AFA Inspire’s IWD events.

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LinkedIn is a powerful marketing tools.

Using LinkedIn to help you with your marketing is a strategy for both your business and your career. Here are some tips to help you.

The Stella Network started as a LinkedIn group to support women in financial planning through an interactive discussion forum through LinkedIn. Of course that makes me a little biased towards the social networking group – which has been described as Facebook for business – but I believe that LinkedIn is an essential part of your career success today.

Any business today without a web presence is doing itself a disservice. The first thing we do when looking for any business is turn to the internet – we search for restaurants, recruiters, car sales and a myriad other things. When it comes to checking out someone for a role, again we turn to the internet to find out what we can about them. To make it easier to have the right information presented in the best way, we need to spend some time compiling our internet profile – and currently LinkedIn is the best platform for this.

To check this, Google someone you know and if they have a LinkedIn profile this is likely to be the first thing that appears in the search engine.

So to make sure you are making the most of yourself and your talents make sure your LinkedIn profile is doing the best job for promoting you.

For those unfamiliar with LinkedIn or just starting to update their profile here are some tips to help you reach Best Practice standards with you profiles and use of the social media network.

5 LinkedIn essentials

• Your profile photo. A LinkedIn profile without a photo looks dodgy. It looks like you’ve set up in a hurry, there’s something you’re trying to hide, or you couldn’t be bothered completing it. Choose one that looks professional, not with other people, or in very casual attire or at clearly non-work activities – such as a ball, or at the beach. Just something simple is best.
• Your professional headline. This is very important – and what you say here is searchable. This means that if people are looking for someone with your skills you should make sure that your profile is included in that search. Your current position is not necessarily the most descriptive of who you are or what you do. So if your title is marketing manager BT financial group you might be picked up in a search but if you are a superannuation expert   in marketing – you’d be better putting that in your description, or whatever specialities you think are relevant for you.
• Your summary. This is a searchable area also – so make sure you add in as many relevant terms as possible to describe what you offer. This includes specialities – if you are proficient in accounting systems, or IT systems or design programmes or financial planning specialities – or anything that might set you apart – list them in this section to potentially expose your profile to clients or anyone who is seeking your talents.
• Complete your job histories. When you are adding in different jobs, especially with your most recent, remember to put in enough detail to give someone looking at it a good picture of what you achieved in that role. If you won awards, achieved, particular goals, mention it. Add video/ photos/screengrabs/links to make your profile look as good as it can. This is often the best chance you have of winning someone’s attention for a role or for work if you are using it as a marketing tool. In essence, you are marketing yourself so take it seriously.
• Ask for recommendations. To complete your profile ask for recommendations – from people from different roles where you’ve worked and those who are going to be most relevant to the profile you’re presenting. There is a simple tool to use when asking for recommendations (and those people must also be on LinkedIn). They are not compelled to provide a recommendation but most will.

Other tips

• Look at other colleagues to see how they present themselves to give you an idea if you’re not sure what to put up.
• Make sure you switch off notifications when updating your profile – as you add to it bit by bit, if you don’t have this switched off, all your contacts will be alerted, which will be annoying for them and not professional for you.
• Keep it up to date. When you change jobs, you might not want to put all the details of your new role in until you’ve perhaps passed probation, but it looks odd if you’ve still got your old role featured as a current one six months down the track.

Julia Newbould is lead for The Stella Network , which is an initiative of BT.

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How to help your clients through divorce and beyond.

Breaking up is hard to do and divorce is a difficult topic for anyone experiencing it or helping others through it. For financial planners there are ethical questions such as who is the client – can you keep both parties through this time? How do you approach the necessary discussions? What type of other professionals do you need to work with to achieve the best results and in what way?

The Stella Network has chosen “Divorce – Breaking up is Hard to Do” as its topic for a panel discussion this week in Melbourne (with live webcast) on Tuesday August 11 and in Sydney on Thursday August 13 because of overwhelming interest by members.

Australian statistics now claim 30% in marriages will end in divorce, which makes the topic one of great relevance for advisers as many client’s marriages will end in divorce.

Because most advisers will see their clients as a couple and discuss joint goals and financial positions having a breakup will impact the relationship greatly.

Many advisers will say that they are able to retain both parties after the divorce – at least within their business although they will have different advisers helping them through the actual divorce and division of property.

The emotions that come out during a divorce make it more difficult for many people to deal with their professional advisers – even more difficult than death, advisers said. This is often because divorce (unlike death) often brings with it feeling of shame and guilt and people feel that it’s their fault and they will be judged. It is, therefore, very important to try to minimise the involvement with the emotion.

You need to listen to your clients, and hear them out but then offer what you can do – which will not be to sort through their feelings but give them the ability to focus on their financial position so when it is all over they can start again in the best way possible.

One financial planner said that when clients are in the depth of the emotion they are often unable to listen and focus on what the planner is saying and there is a risk that down the track they will not remember why they made the decision so it is often better to talk to clients who have someone with them

Another adviser said that from his perspective, one of a couple is often more through the process of divorce than the other. One person has probably been thinking about it longer and has mentally processed more of the separation than the other. You just have to give them time to process things at their own speed. And remember, often people going through divorce are lonely and vulnerable.

There will be time to network with other planners and aspiring planners at both the Melbourne and Sydney events and ask questions of the panel. The session has 1.5 CPD hours accredited.

To register for the Melbourne event click here.

To register for the Sydney event click here.

The Stella Network is an initiative funded by BT Financial Group to support women in financial planning. Currently the industry has only around 20% of female financial planners and it is the belief of the network that more diversity will be better for everyone – both men and women working within the industry and those seeking financial advice.

Previously, the network has run events on “You had me at Hello”, focusing on how to make sure your discussions with clients are a call to action. This is something that women in our network expressed they’d like help with. These sessions were successfully run in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and involved a group of actors performing real scenes from adviser meetings.

“Doing good, and Giving Well”, was another panel discussion held last year on philanthropy with a focus on how important the connection could be with clients on this topic.

By Julia Newbould

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Anne-Marie Humphries

The Stella Network has awarded a Masters in Financial Planning to Anne-Marie Humphries from Huon Financial Planning in recognition of her support to women in the financial planning industry.

Ms Humphries won the Masters course from Kaplan Professional Education for her entry into the Stella Network’s one-year anniversary competition asking entrants how they have supported a woman in financial planning industry in the past 12 months.

Ms Humphries’ entry was identified by Kaplan as the winner because of her willingness to identify women who would make good financial advisers and business leaders, her focus on quality and sustainability and her desire to support women keen to go out on their own.

“Our business is built on a foundation of education and professionalism, so we are thrilled to work with The Stella Network to recognise and encourage more women to join the financial planning industry,” says Brian Knight, Chief Executive Officer, Kaplan Professional Education.

“Anne-Marie stood out as someone who aligns with the focus of not only The Stella Network, but of the industry as it strives to be better.”

Four finalists were also awarded a prize of $1000 each by BT Financial Group to go towards professional study – Emma Arthur, SHB Business and Wealth Advisers, Amanda White, Skilled Paraplanning Services, Nga Vu, Kearney Financial Planning and Werner Watzdorf, McLeod Watzdorf Financial Planning. Launched in October 2013, The Stella Network aims to enrich, develop and connect women in financial planning.

To date, the network has focussed on building a membership base, now close to 1500 members, through a number of networking events. However the future of this inclusive male and female network is much broader.

“The Stella Network is a real game changer in our industry,” says Mike Chesworth, General Manager of Bank Financial Planning, BT Financial Group.

“Already with such a large membership base in such a short period of time, we can see the interest and desire of our profession to better reflect the customers that we service.

I believe The Stella Network will help broaden out the appeal of financial advice and truly change the face of it.” The Stella Network now has 15 ambassadors who work to promote, encourage and educate members in the network. This number will grow nationally and ambassadors will also host their own educational and networking events throughout the year.

Head of the Stella Network Julia Newbould says the future of the network is bright given its members are so motivated and willing to lean in, get involved and make a difference. “We have such a great membership base of women and men with varying experiences but who have a common desire to make a difference and to change how the financial planning industry presents itself to consumers.

The Stella Network is real step forward for the industry.” The next Stella event ‘Divorce: breaking up is hard to do’, will be held in August in Sydney and Melbourne. For more information on The Stella Network or events go to www.stellanetwork.com.au

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Julie Lea Goodwin performs at the Stella Network’s “A night behind the scenes” at Opera Australia.

The Stella Network’s A night behind the scenes at Opera Australia’s Joan Sutherland studios in Surry Hills, truly did hit the high notes last Wednesday night.

Welcomed by BT Financial Services’ Julia Newbould, Leader of the now 1400-member strong Stella Network, into a room which made us feel like we were on set, the 64 Media team joined over 100 women and a few men in financial planning, to celebrate Stella’s first birthday and to introduce Stella’s new Ambassadors.

64 Media’s Julie Bennett was honoured and excited to be named, along with Fiona Harris, BT Financial Group Media Relations Manager, as Stella Media Ambassador. Stella Ambassadors promise to support women in financial planning with their time, experience and respect and help change the face of financial planning by supporting high educational standards, ethical behaviour and care of clients.

The evening opened dramatically, with Opera Australia’s Julie Lea Goodwin bursting through the doors with a beautiful rendition of Musetta’s Waltz from La Boheme, accompanied by the hugely talented Tahu Matheson on piano. Julie Lea and Tahu later treated us to a performance of I Could Have Danced All Night from The King and I.

Julia, whom we have now affectionately dubbed The Queen of Stella, interviewed Julie Lea about her experience as an Opera Australia young artist. Julie Lea said the most important advice she was ever given was to strive for excellence. “It encouraged me to really try hard in everything I did. It also helped me to deal with setbacks; to dig deep and try even harder.”

Julie Lea said she also had a strong sense of direction. “Having a five year plan, a 10 year plan – it helps in day-to-day life,” she said.

This is Julie Lea’s first year as a full time member of Opera Australia and her big role is Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

Mike Chesworth, BT General Manager of Bank Financial Planning and sponsor of the Stella Network said, “If we can have more females in financial planning and rectify the balance that’s not there at the moment, I think the industry will be better off and we will be able to provide sound advice to more Australians. I think the Stella Network is giving us the framework to do that. It’s a cohort that is coming together to talk about education, learning and where we need to be in this industry. This network is going to be a big voice in the future and it’s a voice that is going to be listened to. One year on, happy birthday, Stella.”

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The good news was that general insurance covers motor failure in fridges and dishwashers and the like.

The really bad news was that my policy did not cover motor breakdown.

The good news is that now I know, and now it does.

I’m not covered this time, but next time I will be and I’ve now learned that reading my insurance policy is a good idea.

But it’s not just about reading the policy, it’s about knowing what to look for and what the small print might include.

And that’s where, in this new environment of advisers proving their value proposition, that little tips even on things like general insurance – which advisers are unlikely to sell – can prove valuable to clients.

For life insurance, which you of course are more likely to sell, there are plenty of ways in which you can prove value. Often it won’t be appreciated until claim time, but you can explain to clients what their lives would look like without insurance.

How would a couple bring up two children if one of the couple was no longer there, working or taking care of them? If the non-working partner was no longer there could the working partner continue to work? Would they need a break before working again? In some ways would it be more difficult if one partner became severely disabled.

It’s difficult sometimes for clients to see past the potential accident or illness or death to the life beyond that. This is where you, as an adviser, can truly enlighten them.

Don’t feel that it’s obvious. Don’t feel that the small print – does not need explaining and the consequences of all the insurance options are not detailed.

Once you have really enlightened a client, I would find it difficult to imagine that clients would choose not to be insured.

And beyond proving your value to the client, you are securing a revenue stream which will hopefully diversify your business. Even in a fee for service environment, the insurance piece will win you clients even when they’re not looking to invest.

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The opt-in/opt-out debate is still top of the list for most financial advisers. Industry is quite divided on the issue.

The theory behind the opt-in service is that if clients feel that they want and are receiving value from a service provided they will opt-in to pay. Too often we have found people are apathetic towards their superannuation and other financial products. They do not realise the fees and charges and for too long have paid for services they have not had or known they were entitled to.

However, for advisers earning a good part of their income that way, this is a huge financial blow.

Many advisers believe that not only are their livelihoods affected by the new legislation but also their clients’ best interests.

Research recently undertaken by CoreData on behalf of the AFA has backed advisers in this argument, stating that during the financial crisis investors largely acted in two ways – exiting the market and storing their assets in cash and those who saw the market freefall as an opportunity to buy discounted assets.

The CoreData research on the high net worth investor segment clearly showed that those who remained in the market, and even used the crisis as a chance to buy new assets benefited significantly from the recovery while those who exited are in no ways better off than 12 months ago.

Extrapolated from this is that many advisers’ clients would have likely chosen not to opt-in, had the rule existed during the financial crisis, and as a result would have been worse off for their decision.

This is clearly another area of opportunity for advisers acting in their own best interests to make sure they are able to articulate the value of advice and their own offering to clients and potential clients.

If a client is sold on the need of an adviser’s service they are more likely to choose to stick with them in good times and bad. However, if a client does not feel they are receiving value for the service that they are receiving they will not choose to opt-in. It’s similar to an adviser’s own behaviour should they feel they were not receiving value for something they were paying for. They would choose not to opt-in.

What is your value proposition? Is it a good one? Are people going to choose you and what you offer? Spending the time developing that proposition now is going to see you reap the benefits later.

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It made me focus on an important message that still seems lacking in some areas of the financial planning world.

I cannot recall the number of times that I’ve heard business coaches and consultants tell financial planners that checking in with their clients – by calling them once a quarter or when the market is experiencing swings or when their situations change is returned several fold to the business.

It’s such a simple win that I assume the message has gotten through.

And it’s not a new idea. In the decade or so I’ve been involved in the financial planning world I’ve heard it said again and again. Call your clients!

The business of financial planning is about building relationships and trust so keeping in touch is vital.

This week I heard that one of the reasons clients give often for leaving their planner is that he or she didn’t return my calls.

I find that amazing. What an easy win. During this time, when it is more than usually important to justify the cost of advice and demonstrate the value – a phone call is surely a small ask.

Over three months’ ago, I contacted my financial planner about my changed circumstances. I’d put my investments on hold and said I’d call when I was ready to start reinvesting.

Since then, I started a new job, circumstances again changed and I hadn’t called. But I’ve had no call from him either.

I’m now ready to restart my investments. Do you think I’m going to call?

When circumstances change, often there is a cleansing moment. Cleaning out my wardrobe was one of my actions, redoing my financial plan was another.

If my financial planner had run to ask how I was doing, show empathy with changing circumstances, ask if there was anything he could help with I would have made an appointment to talk strategy.

As he didn’t and I was keen to change strategies I found someone else who has already demonstrated greater understanding.

It’s a personal relationship and financial planners should never forget this. The argument that the planner owns the client can only work if the relationship between the client and planners is solid and maintained.

Business Health has crunched the numbers on how much difference being in touch with clients can positively affect a business’s profitability.

These are sobering stats for those who haven’t picked up the phone but encouraging for those who keep in touch.

Remember, as Blondie said, Call Me. Call me on the line, call me anytime.

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The FPA previewed its new advertising campaign to conference delegates on the Gold Coast last week. Its focus is on the professionalism of its members. It comes mere weeks after the AFA’s own advertising initiative was launched at its conference also on the Gold Coast. Its message focuses on the need to plan. Both associations have recognised the need for the public to be made aware of professional financial planners and financial planning. They both see a need for the public to recognise their own members are operating under strict ethics and standards – as opposed to financial planners not members of the associations.

Selling the value of advice is almost 20 years in the making, with promises from the FPA of promoting the brand to consumers emanating from its very first conferences. And it follows the cringe-worthy Dazza campaign of some years ago. Its current idea is to promote planning so that at a local barbecue, a FPA member can talk with pride about his profession among his mates.

The FPA stated its mission is to focus “on the things that will elevate our industry to a universally respected profession”. “Financial planning is a young profession, still in its infancy. We may feel a tad envious of the respect that some other professions command, but they’ve been at it for a lot longer – the medical profession first pledged the Hippocratic Oath 2500 years ago.” (from the FPA’s new brand marketing document). Again, the association compares itself with doctors. Is it perhaps a tad arrogant, and certainly not doing itself any favours by perpetuating the comparison? Despite this, the aim of the FPA becoming an association of which its members “adhere to the highest standards of professionalism, inspiring trust and confidence in the community” is certainly achievable, admirable and aspirational.

The FPA has priced its advertising offering on behalf of planners at $220 a year from each member (or $20 a month). The AFA has asked its members for voluntary donations to its “Make a Plan” campaign. It is estimated to be looking at raising over $2.5 million, with firms contributing what they can and some pitching in up to $10,000. While the AFA is looking at a $2.5 million ad spend, the FPA has a large war-chest of its own and is going to claim an additional $1.76 million from its members each year of the 5-year campaign – so its spend can be much larger.

Running dual advertising campaigns will confuse the consumer in an already acknowledged over-complicated industry.

Perhaps to really promote financial planning in the community some more co-operation is needed.  The associations need to agree ethics, educational standards and promote professionalism in tandem.

It is, after all, a single profession no matter which industry Association one supports. Many financial planners are members of both associations from which they derive different value. How can we expect to capture the public with fractured industry campaigns? The industry funds were able to successfully express their message because they were united. At this time, surely we can all see the benefits of a united front?

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Things haven’t changed since the 1960s. The Sex Discrimination Act might have been enacted in 1984 but not a great deal had changed since then.

And smart, savvy women wanted to know how they could encourage change in their own businesses. On Wednesday FINSIA held a managing your career session for women in business and on Friday Sphinxx held its fourth Ascend day also focused on promoting women in business.

Why is it so difficult? Because men and women speak different languages in the workplace.

Financial services is dominated by men, and as a result, the business culture has adopted the male forms of communication. Women need to translate their communication to one that is easily understood by the male mind.

While it was agreed there was no need to emulate men – and discard their femininity there was a message that men do business in their way and women do it theirs but when most of the decision makers in management remain in male hands then women need to be aware of “playing the game” in the same way.

Top tips

• Be visible. Too often, women remain invisible in the organisation. Many focus on their work and getting the job done to the exclusion of promoting themselves and the contribution they are making to a business. This can easily be rectified by working a little less and promoting a little more. It’s the way men have been doing business for some time.
• Take risks. They were afraid of taking risks. Whether this was to do a new job in which there were aspects they had not taken before, or leaving a company when they were not receiving the promotions they believed they deserved. According to Sphinxx Ascend guest speaker and managing director of Cameron Ralph Lynn Ralph, we shouldn’t worry so much about what could go wrong because, chances are, they won’t.
• Ask for what you want. Women are largely not demanding pay rises and promotions the way their male counterparts are. Sphinxx principal Jen Dalitz said, we should approach what we want like children focused on the Christmas presents that they want. Be tenacious. Don’t stop asking.
• Focus on return on effort. Women do not pay enough attention to the ROE (return on effort) when they strive for perfection in their work. Is the extra 20 per cent worthwhile when 80 per cent was already working to achieve your work needs so you could spend the additional 20 per cent focused on other business goals – like having yourself move up the corporate ladder.

Australian business seen as macho

According to business coach and researcher Dr Margaret Byrne, anthropologists around the world are agreed that Australia is between 10-12 of the countries rated the most masculine in the world. Japan ranks top of the lists.

We can see this translated into business by the use of language that is used. It is often based on sporting analogies, such as “track record”, “runs on the board”, “let that one go through to the keeper” and many more. As women we do not make a contribution that other people listen to? How impactful are you in a meeting setting?

“You are judged more and more in that than other parts of the job where you work alone.”

“As women, we are not yet at the starting line. It’s not Denmark or Norway,” Byrne said.

“If you can’t deal with meetings in Australian workplace culture you will never make it past the top of the middle,” Byrne said.

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