Deborah Kent only needs to look around her to see how male-dominated the planning industry is.
“Only about 20 per cent of the planners are female,” Kent notes. “It’s something I am passionate about changing; and it is changing, slowly.”
While women planners are a small group today, they were practically unheard of when Kent was starting her professional career.
Growing up, she had wanted to be an architect, interior designer or some impressive combination of both, but there were numerous roadblocks in her path. She was a woman, and women at the time in Australia were still encouraged to place marriage and babies ahead of their careers.
“I left school and became a secretary because that’s what people did,” Kent reflects.
It turned out to be a fortuitous career move.
Kent worked for a life insurance company, where she was exposed to various superannuation products. Plus, her father ran a life insurance company.
After Kent married and had children, she took on a role as a branch assistant with St George Bank, then the St George Building Society.
“Around this time, they opened up a separate financial planning division and I was called upon to be the assistant,” Kent says. “These days, they would have called it paraplanning – it was essentially learning the ropes.”
After 12 months in the role, she approached the head of the building society’s planning division and asked him to make her a planner.
She had spent the past 12 months studying for her qualification in planning through the Securities Institute.
“He told me that they had never promoted someone to planner from my role,” she says. “And I told him that I would be the first.”
Kent spent eight years at St George, and while women in senior roles were rare in those days, she did her bit to make a difference.
“I held staff meetings with the assistant branch managers and made sure the young women were educated about shares and the various types of financial advice on offer, so that if someone came to the counter they would understand what they were after,” Kent recalls. “It made all the difference.”
Considering her large reserves of chutzpah, it’s little wonder Kent eventually went out on her own and established Integra Financial Services, which celebrated 20 years in 2016.
“I have a team of five. The word ‘boutique’ is used a lot these days, but that is how I would describe us,” Kent says. “I never wanted a big team because then my role ends up being compliance.”
Kent also founded the Association of Financial Advisers’ AFA Inspire program to help encourage women in the industry and has just released a series of “Dare to Dream” videos on her site, reflecting on why she became a planner, the lessons she has learned over the years, and the importance of certain planning skills.
Kent is clearly passionate about what she does, but says it can be extremely challenging to keep work and home separate.
“I become very close to my clients and sometimes they will be going through a hard time and it’s hard not to take it home with you,” Kent says. “But what I do is focus on the way I have actually helped them.
“In a lot of ways, what we do is similar to being a psychologist and that is why women make great planners a lot of the time, because they do tend to have that empathy, that high [emotional intelligence].”
Kent would love to see a time when consulting a planner is perceived as a fundamental part of life.
“Ideally, it will become as common as lodging your tax return and as important as buying a house,” she says.
To watch Kent’s Dare to Dream video series, go to: www.integranet.com.au/dare-to-dream/
| Planner profile
Deborah Kent
Name of firm: Integra Financial Services Name of licensee: Garvan Financial Planning Time in the industry: 28 years Academic qualifications: Diploma of financial planning Accreditations: Certified Financial Planner; studying to become Fellow Chartered Financial Practitioner Professional association memberships: Association of Financial Advisers, current national treasurer, former president; Financial Planning Association; Australian Institute of Company Directors Other: Most Trusted Adviser Network |
