It’s easy to forget advice isn’t just about retirement.
After realising dealing with pre-retirees and retirees wasn’t her speciality, Pursue Wealth adviser Julia Armstrong found she could have more impact with her work by helping younger women in accumulation.
“The best aspect of that is that we’re part of their entire journey…there from start to finish,” Armstrong tells Professional Planner.
“We’re able to not just set up their plan and advise on the products but we’re part of their entire life and planning for things that they haven’t necessarily thought about.”
Armstrong started in advice via administrative roles – her first position was client services officer at 4orward. Following this she started her degree in business and financial planning at RMIT University while working as a paraplanner at Argent Street.
“Studying full time while working full time, during Covid, that was very challenging,” Armstrong says.
“I guess it made the outcome so much more delicious when I did finally get there.”
After completing her degree, she started her professional year at Pinant Financial Planning but found their retiree clientele was not what she was most interested in advising, later moving to Pursue Wealth where the clients are much younger.
Since becoming a full financial adviser, she focuses more on cash flow planning and financial advice for women.
After meeting multiple female clients who she could relate to, she decided to specialise in delivering advice specifically to women.
“It wasn’t necessarily something that I was seeking out, but I ended up coming across more and more people who were young, single females, similar age group to myself, and really struggling with cash flow and how that was holding them back,” Armstrong says.
Armstrong says she is very passionate about helping female clients as she can relate to them.
“Being a woman, whether it’s an executive or managerial role, we have very different understandings and expectations of how we manage our finances,” she says.
“I was able to relate myself and my stories with them and sharing and being vulnerable is something that women are great at.”
Armstrong says that she is working with her director in areas of pro bono work, such as domestic violence.
“It’s helping women to come out of those situations and have some more confidence in their cash flow and what they need to know to get out in the world on their own,” Armstrong says.
As a woman, Armstrong has faced a lack of representation and diversity in the finance advice sector, having been one of the very few females in conferences or boardrooms.
“You kind of have to conform to the male expectations of the industry and pretend to fit in that way. You go off and you learn little sport lingo so that you can be part of the boys clubs.”
Pursue Wealth has been a breath of fresh air for Armstrong as the firm has a female director and most staff are very young.
There is still room for improvement as, being a younger woman, she is still often mistaken for lower ranking staff in boardrooms and conferences.
“If I walked into a conference room, they would refer to me as an EA, or the support staff…it’s always just there,” Armstrong says.
However, she thinks that the types of people entering the finance advice profession is much more diverse than before and for the better.
“When I first started, it was old white men, and now we’re starting to get a lot younger, a lot more females and a lot of people who have done economics degrees,” Armstrong says.
