The Women’s Wealth Alliance (WWA) has launched a landmark survey of women in person finance to build a picture of the career journeys and lived experiences of women working in the sector.

The recently formed WWA is a working group of independent professional body the Consumer Duty Alliance.

It aims to attract more women into personal finance and into Financial Planning in particular.

With only 18% of regulated financial advisers in the UK being women, according to FCA records, the survey also looks specifically at whether it is a role that respondents would consider in the future, or if they are currently a financial adviser whether it’s a role they would recommend to other women.

The WWA hopes the survey, managed independently by YouGov and with the support of IBOSS, will be completed by women in a wide range of roles across the sector, including Financial Planning, mortgage and protection advice, financial coaching, academy members, paraplanning, compliance, T&C and support roles.

Chartered Financial Planner Vanessa Barnes, chair of the WWA, said: “One of the key aims of the Women’s Wealth Alliance is to help foster a diverse sector that better reflects the needs and perspectives of clients.

“This is especially relevant when you consider that 60% of the nation’s wealth is expected to be in female hands by the end of this year, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research.”

She said that before looking at potential solutions to the challenge, the WWA felt that it was important to gain some proper data and insight on women’s current career journeys, looking at how they entered the sector, where they are now and what their ambitions are, along with any barriers or challenges.

Ms Barnes added: “We can’t wait to hear what women have to tell us.”

She said the findings will inform the future work of the WWA, and allow the sector as a whole to better tackle the enduring gender imbalance in certain personal finance roles, as well as informing meaningful strategies to attract more women into the talent pipeline.

The survey is open until 23 June and takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. Responses are anonymised and strictly confidential. 

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