Had her life all planned out even before she was a planner

Dianne Charman was 26 years old when she first sat down in front of a financial planner.

To point out that she wasn’t your typical client is an understatement.

Not only was Charman unusually young to be seeking financial advice, but she had brought to the meeting a forensic level of financial detail: spreadsheets on projected earnings, a diversified portfolio strategy, and precise information on when she and her husband planned to have children.

“I remember the planner looking at me and saying, ‘You should do this for a living’,” she recalls.

“He was basically telling me that I had done his job for him.”

Until that point in her career, Charman had been working in various administrative and secretarial support roles, but was itching to do more than “make everyone else’s tea for them”.

“As a child I had always had an affinity with money,” she says.

“I was fascinated by it. Not so much in the sense of what it could buy you, but I always wanted to know how it worked.”

Life on the farm

If her childhood in Toowoomba taught her anything, it was the value of working hard for money and the importance of being business savvy.

“My parents owned some cattle properties outside of Toowoomba that I helped muster cattle on, during the school holidays,” she says.

“So I saw how to run a small business and I saw my father’s determination and how you have to surround yourself with really successful and vibrant people.”

Charman was also a star ten pin bowling champion during her teens and was even a Queensland state champion at one point.

While mustering cattle and playing ten pin bowling may seem unrelated, Charman believes they both taught her valuable life lessons from an early age.

“I learned that if you want to succeed at anything, you have to work hard,” she says.

“It doesn’t matter if you are the most talent[ed] person at something, you need to have that discipline to be the best.”

It was this very rigour and discipline that Charman, who is the AFA’s Queensland state director, applied when she bought Jade Financial Group in Ipswich some seven years ago.

“I really haven’t looked back since I bought the business,” says Charman, who won the 2015 AMP Financial Planning (AMPFP) Adviser of the Year.

Leaning in

Charman has been hugely influenced by Sheryl Sandberg’s polemic, Lean In, and believes women need to step into leadership positions within the industry.

“The thing that I took from Lean In is that if I don’t lean in, men don’t get a chance to take a break,” she says.

“We need to work together on this. And I remember saying to myself, ‘You keep looking around for a leader, Di, and you’re one of them’.

“So now I take on those roles. We need to mentor other women, as well as challenge them to take on a more visible role in the industry.”

Charman is also optimistic about the future shape of the industry, and believes the scandals that have plagued the sector will lead to a stronger community of advisers.

“The legislative beast has pretty much done what it needs to do,” she says.

“I think there are a few things we need to work on, such as professional standards and education, but the fog is lifting.

“We need to remember that the industry is only in the headlines when a few bad advisers stuff up, but we are not in the headlines during all of the times that we help people.”

Charman believes it is also a great time to be a planner.

“We have an aging population, we add a lot of value to the community and I think that value is better understood now more than ever,” she says.

“Sure we need regulation, and there have been a few bad advisers, but this has by far been outweighed by those doing their best for their clients.”

Planner Profile Dianne Charman Name of firm: Jade Financial Group Name of licensee (if not self-licensed) AMP FP Years in the industry 18 Academic qualifications: Diploma of financial planning and currently studying for a Masters in financial planning. Accreditations: CFP Professional association memberships: Most Trusted Adviser (MTA) network, FPA and AFA board member, member of the Business and Professional Women’s association (BPW).