One of the biggest benefits for Anne Graham of being involved in the AFA Female Excellence in Advice awards has been a chance to get a third-party perspective on her financial planning business.
Graham, managing director of McPhail HLG Financial Planning in Melbourne, says the application process has been “a really good exercise because you get to actually have a look at what you do and how you do it, from an external person’s point of view”.
“It’s a good way to analyse your business and find out the good points and the ones you can work on,” Graham says.
So her advice to any female planner nominated for the award is “you’ve just got to go for it”.
“Put your hand up and do it,” she says.
“There’s nothing to lose – there’s no downside risk.”
Ambivalence gave way to reality
Graham (right) says she was initially ambivalent about the idea of female-only awards, but recognises that women do face challenges that their male counterparts tend not to.
“The questions are very targeted at the female angle,” she says.
“I was a bit ambivalent at first, and I put in my application that one day it might just be called the Excellence in Advice Award. But the female part of it automatically gains attention in the media, and gets the message out to female advisers that they’re not alone and that there are other female advisers and professionals in financial services. It just brings it to the fore.
“I was involved in a panel discussion for young people looking to get into financial planning – a bit of a Q&A with uni students and people changing career. The people who came to me afterwards were the women, and I’ve since been in touch with them separately, just giving them clues on how they can get into planning and what they can look for.
“I recognise that for some people it’s easier to approach women to talk about these things. I’m very happy to help, and personally, I like talking to other female planners as well. But not to the exclusion of male planners – I’m married to one.”
Role models in the making
Graham says the finalists in the awards will inevitably be regarded as potential role models for other female advisers, and for people considering entering the industry.
“It gives an opportunity to the finalists, and obviously the winner, to have an impact on people,” Graham says.
“And whether they intend to or not, that’s what will happen. I’m a fairly positive, upbeat person and I like to get that through to people that there are always good things to look at. And also I believe that we’re a profession, and I want to promote that within the financial planning community and outside it as well.”
Graham has been in the planning business for 13 years, initially working with a trustee company before joining the firm in which she is currently a partner.
How she got here
Starting out, Graham says she had “no idea what I was doing”.
“I worked in banking and various areas – mainly banking and money markets. In the early 90s we came back from overseas and I couldn’t get a job. I thought, I don’t want that to happen [again]. So when I stopped work and had our children, I studied the CPA program part-time. I came across a financial planning unit in that, and that’s when I thought, oh, this is what I want to do.
It was a combination of problem solving, with tax and knowing strategies, and dealing with people.
“I went to a workshop to do one of the exams, and I met a planner there, who got me a job part-time when I finished the exam.
“There was no mentoring – I didn’t even know how you charged when you gave advice. I didn’t know what the fee structures were. I didn’t know about commissions. I just thought you’d be employed by someone, do a job and get paid. I had no intention of having our own business, nothing like that. So it was just an evolution.
“So as far as mentors, there were no direct mentors, but particularly within a dealer group there’s a lot of good networking, and just across the industry generally, people are willing to help. I think one tip would be that women have to be not afraid to ask for help and direction.
“A mentor would have been very helpful.”
As for being a mentor herself, Grahame says she would “love it”.
“I do it indirectly now, in informal settings, but I think that would be a fantastic privilege and a great opportunity,” she says.
“And a benefit of being a mentor is you get to learn from these young people as well.”