Women to swell ranks of big networks

Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corporation are targeting women as part of broader plans to grow their financial planner networks.

Westpac’s wealth arm BT Financial Group launched a new recruitment campaign, Stella Network, on Tuesday, announcing an ambitious two-year goal to double the number of females across its advice channels which include Securitor, Licensee Select, Magnitude, St George and Westpac Financial Planning.

Women account for over 25 per cent of Westpac’s salaried advice network. Of the bank’s 555 employed advisers, 143 are women.

However, women represent less than 20 per cent of Australia’s 16,500 financial planners.

As part of Stella Network, Westpac will host a number of events and workshops to inform women what it is like working in the financial planning industry.

Similarly, CBA has sponsored a number of breakfast seminars exclusively for women, as it aims to attract female advisers and clients.The bank’s wealth division, Colonial First State, has also been piloting a program to help its advisers engage specifically with women.

BT Financial Group’s general manager of advice, Mark Spiers, said financial services companies needed to be more flexible and embrace technology in order to attract more women.

“As an industry we haven’t done a great job of growing female numbers in financial planning. We have focused on traditional sources but we need to strengthen the understanding of financial planning as a career and work to develop the employment support that is right for women.”

“Australians need more financial advice than ever before and more planners to meet this demand,” said Spiers, pictured right.

“Technology is certainly going to play a role to facilitate this delivery of more advice to more Australians. Our rollout of tablets to planners will see advice being delivered at the pace of peoples’ lives.”