Alvarez & Marsal (A&M)’s Financial Services Industry practice recently hosted a roundtable discussion with senior leaders in the wealth industry in the UK centred around our recent paper – “Women In Wealth: Moving Towards Equity”, which highlighted the gender investing gap and women’s underrepresentation in the wealth management workforce.

Research shows that women still invest considerably less than men, despite them controlling an increasing share of the wealth globally and largely overseeing household purchasing decisions. The so-called gender wealth gap undermines their financial independence and has serious consequences for their long-term financial health, including retirement.  

The roundtable, moderated by Nneka Orji, A&M’s Senior Director and UK Wealth Management Lead, focused on the primary reasons behind the persistent underrepresentation – both in the profession and across the investor demographic – and concrete actions that industry stakeholders can take to engage women to the same degree as men.

The participants, ranging from COOs and senior leaders at UK-listed companies to wealth managers and leaders in wealthtech, also shared their personal experiences on how they navigated – and thrived – in a traditionally male-dominated industry, and practical learnings on how to advance inclusion across the wealth sector as a whole.

Here we outline some of the key takeaways from the session:

• As women’s wealth increases, female financial advisors and fund managers are more in demand than ever before, presenting an opportunity for companies and women professionals alike. However, barriers including perception of the industry, are proving a challenge to improving diversity in talent pipelines. Stereotypes around “being a math genius” is one of the key factors holding young women from pursuing a career in wealth, according to the panellists. They agreed that, whilst numerical literacy is certainly important (and much is being done by the organisations and individuals in this regard through several financial education initiatives), there is much more to the role, including the ability to create trusted relationships with clients and other interpersonal skills. 

• The attendees also discussed current corporate initiatives to improve the retention of women and support career progression. While gender diversity targets are often a contentious and emotionally charged topic, some attendees shared the importance of targets to focus the mind and accelerate progress. To be able to drive meaningful change, commitment to diversity needs to come from the top, the panellists added, with senior leaders deeply engaged in the conversation and supporting strategic initiatives in areas such as recruitment, performance and development, and mentoring.

• Changes in the competitive landscape, including consolidation and the growth of fintechs and wealthtechs, are indirectly helping the industry to move forward when it comes to tackling gender imbalance. The improving but still limited adoption of flexible working policies remains one of the primary barriers to women seeing the industry as an attractive option progress their careers. Fintechs and other young, leaner companies often offer more flexible work arrangements, a trend that is pushing traditional players to embed flexibility in their culture, especially in a jobs market whereby employees still hold the balance of power.

While there was acknowledgement that there have been improvements over the past few decades, there was consensus that progress remained glacial. Sharing best practice and experience in forums such as the roundtable and others, will continue to play a notable role in ensuring we continue to move towards equity.