Hot on the heels of our recent announcement that Progeny has acquired Evolve Financial Planning, taking Progeny Wealth’s assets under advice to over £1bn for the first time, we’re thrilled to report that two of our new financial planners, Nicola Tait and Linda van Meurs, have been shortlisted for ‘Financial Adviser of the Year – South East’ at the upcoming Women in Financial Advice Awards.
Nicola, Linda and their colleague Caroline Hawkesley have now joined our two existing female financial planners: Anna Jones and Emily Marland. We’re very pleased to note that the gender ratio of men to women in our team is now approaching 50:50. Progeny is committed to ensuring this trend of equality continues.
There’s a reason that as a group we find this ratio so encouraging. It’s because it is far from being the industry norm. In fact, even in 2018, according to Forbes only 15 percent of financial executives are women. This statistic becomes even more shocking when you consider that 46 percent of the financial services industry is made up of women. This means that it isn’t a case of “women simply don’t work in the sector”; instead it shows a clear passing-over of many potentially talented female financial planners who lack equal opportunities in the sector.
Last year, in the 2017 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, it was said that ‘female talent remains one of the most underutilized business resources’. At Progeny we recognise this, and we are continually working to provide equal opportunities for equal labour. Despite the disheartening statistics, it is encouraging to see that some firms are starting to hold themselves accountable in the face of this disparity.
Progeny is just one firm within a large industry that needs to change, but we’re proud to be making a small difference. The acquisition of Evolve and the introduction of new team members like Nicola, Linda and Caroline is just the start. We hope to do much more in the future.
