Award aims to encourage female planners

The award is not only designed to highlight achievement by female planners but to encourage more women to enter the profession and therefore spurn the uptake of advice by women in the community.

“Recent studies show that over 90% of women believe they need to be more involved in financial planning, but only 38% are currently using a financial planner. It’s crucial we take steps to bridge the gender gap in our industry,” TAL Life chief executive Brett Clark said.

“It is critical we create more diversity in corporate Australia and in the broader adviser community.”

“In that way we can reach more Australians on their terms and help people from all sorts of diverse backgrounds secure their financial future.”

The 2013 winner of the award will be announced at the AFA National Conference on 15 October, and will receive a full scholarship for an executive leadership course at the Macquarie School of Management.

AFA chief executive Brad Fox said that while strides have been made in the industry to close the gender gap, greater female participation is still important.

“Financial services would benefit from more women holding leadership positions, and more females taking up financial advice as a career,” Mr Fox said.

“It has gone a long way already to creating this groundswell of awareness and change.”

Nominations for the award close on July 31 and need to be made on the FEIA website http://www.afafemaleadvice.com.