Financial advisor: a job for men?

When you look at the entry-level echelon, women occupy roughly half of the positions of financial advisors. Interestingly enough this statement is true in most countries regardless of the wealth of the country. However, when you start to look at higher echelon, and more precisely in the executive positions, you find out that women occupy only 20% of the jobs. As McKinsey's stated recently in a very interesting study: "the more women progress in their careers, the more women lose ground to men: they are 24% less likely than men to be promoted in their firm. And this, even if they are as numerous as men to have ambition." Does this all mean that financial advisor is a job for men? Obviously not. It rather means that there is still a long way to go before equality can be reached between the two genders in this industry. We have had experiences with many financial advisors in order to compile our rankings tables and identify the best independent financial advisors in different countries, and it's true that overall we have been much more in touch with men than with women. Nonetheless, our experience and the clients' reviews that we could obtain show that clients do not rate their financial advisors differently depending on his/her gender. In other words, gender does not make a difference in being a good or poor financial advisor.

Requirements of the job of financial advisers

Today we are going to review the job of financial advisers. We will also try to understand what are the requirements to do this job properly. So, what does it mean and what does it take to be a financial adviser? Many of the financial advisers have a scientific background. Being good at maths is a requirement for this profession. Any financial advisor who manages a large portfolio has, of course, a (sometimes several) finance-related degree. These degrees or qualifications include CFA and MBAs from top universities for the best financial advisors. Even though there is no proper rule for this, an average financial advisor manages a portfolio of 100-500 clients. Here we are talking about clients with small portfolios. Therefore, even though the number of 100-500 clients may seem impressive at first, the overall amount under management remains relatively small. Of course, when it comes to the best financial advisors numbers are different. They tend to have far fewer clients, but clients with much bigger portfolios. A typical day in the job includes preparations of the interviews with clients. Meeting the clients and remaining in touch with their needs is of absolute necessity. Updating files and reporting activities also take a lot of time. The range of products that a financial advisor can propose to his or her clients can vary enormously depending on the company’s size and structure. These products can consist of short, medium and long-term savings real estate loans, property and casualty insurance, provident insurance but also stocks and bonds. These products can turn out to be extremely technical and it requires string educational background and continuous learning.

Women in the financial advisory industry

In the Financial advisory industry, men outnumber women not only in terms of the number of financial advisers but also in terms of the number of clients. Women do control roughly a quarter of all the wealth of the occidental world. Women earnings are also increasing at a higher rate than that of men and this is true in almost all the countries of the world. Women have also more degrees than men which could lead them to even faster earnings rise in the next future. It is also worth noting that 40% of women earn an income equal to or greater than their husband. So there is no doubt that the potential for more and more female clients for financial advisers worldwide is not a possibility but much more something certain. However, when we look at current statistics about financial advisors clients we see that a large majority of clients are males. But there is another interesting aspect of this topic: looking at the side of financial advisors themselves. What we find is that more than 80% of financial advisors are men. So basically we find the same proportion of men and women on both sides of the client/advisor relationship. These numbers mean that many women have money but do not use financial advisors but also that few women end up being a financial adviser. One of the reasons behind this lack of women in the financial advisory industry is that many more men study Finance in university.

Multiple ways to get access to equity investments

Many people in many countries have a lot of money to invest. The problem that many of these investors face nowadays is that making a portfolio growing at a respectable return is not as easy as it used to be. Savings interest rates are at the bottom or even in some cases negative. The question is then how to make money from your investments. Well, there is only one way: this is by taking risks. What about if you want to avoid taking risks? Well, you have only one option: put your savings in a bank rated triple-A by one of the top rating agencies such a Moody’s. However, if you go that way, you can be sure that you will find your money in your bank account but you can also be sure that the returns you would have made would be very close to 0%. Some people might argue that investing in real estate is not risky.. well when you hear someone telling you that you should just not listen anymore. Rates are certainly historically low, but property prices in most countries are also historically high. The risk of price correction in real estate is currently major. Therefore, if you are looking for real returns, you need to accept risks and the good news is that you do not necessarily need to have large amounts right now to start investing in stocks for instance. There are multiple ways to get access to equity investments with a small portfolio.