The changing face of financial advice

“I think that more women will enter the industry and that working practices, enabled by technology, will become more flexible which will support working parents.”

This is the advice Victoria Seabrooke would give to a younger version of herself. However, what a 10-year-old Victoria might not be able to comprehend is in 2018 she would be nominated for ‘Financial Advisor of the Year’ at the Women in Financial Advice Awards.

Despite not winning in her category, Financial Advisor of the Year (South East), Victoria still feels incredibly privileged for the nomination alone.

“It is fantastic to be a finalist for this award and it was such a great surprise; I really was not expecting it,” she exclaims. “I feel really honoured to be shortlisted in such a hotly contested category with so many talented female financial advisers.”

However, such a prestigious acknowledgment in the financial world took years of perseverance and patience. Having begun her career in banking, Victoria struggled to see a long term future in such a male-dominated environment. Moving to an Investor Relations role seemed a natural progression and allowed her to still thrive within an equally fast paced environment, with more opportunities.

After giving birth to her daughter, Victoria had to undergo a double spinal fusion operation which forced her to spend months recovering. This allowed time for further thought about where to take her career next.

“I decided I really wanted to stay in financial services but change the nature of my role,” Victoria notes. “I wanted to help individuals and not corporations and ideally locally so I did not have to commute into London.”

Based in Hertfordshire and established in 1992, Lyndhurst Financial Management proved to be the perfect fit for Victoria. “The company is very forward thinking and has no gender bias. Mothers can have flexible working so that we can achieve a work life balance and our career whilst enjoying having a family.”

It is this balance of work and family that the firm allows her to have, which Victoria particularly admires. While many other businesses fail to be as progressive as Lyndhurst who ensure their female employees are able to have the same opportunities as their male counterparts, the tide is finally starting to turn. Victoria agrees, noting, “I know from friends that lots of city firms are running returnships to attract women back into the profession after a career break.”

In the world of financial advice, however, it is not just women attempting to be financial advisors that are struggling. The notion of the gender advice gap is one Victoria is familiar with. This is the fact that women seek less financial advice than men on average.

“We are doing quite a lot to encourage more women to come forward and seek financial advice,” Victoria claims. “We specifically market the services of our Focus for Women department through networking, events, presentations, PR and social media.”

A solution to this lack of female representation on both sides of the desk is to hire female financial advisors which, Victoria goes on to explain, will attract more female clients.

“It’s a positive thing for our female clients to have the option of a female financial adviser. I feel that they are likely to make assumptions that we will understand their challenges and empathise with them because we are women too which helps us to develop a rapport very quickly.” She is quick to add that “the men in our company are brilliant financial advisers and would be equally as understanding, but I think being a female in certain circumstances can actually be an advantage.”

Victoria cites this increase of women in the workplace and the use of technology to a successful future for financial advisors. “I think that more women will enter the industry and that working practices, enabled by technology, will become more flexible which will support working parents.” This question of whether financial advisors should embrace technology is a divisive topic but Victoria believes it is the only way forward for her industry.

“Technology has been of huge benefit to our industry helping us to do our roles more efficiently. There is a lot of press about technological disruption and in particular robo-advice but I see technology as an opportunity for us to continue to improve the client experience.”

Predicting where technology will be in 10 years is hard but what it will look like in 2050 is surely an impossible task. However, Victoria does not shy away from predicting what this technologically infused world of financial advice will hold. “There will be more interfaces with technology which will enhance the client adviser relationship from client portal apps on the phone, automation of some of the advice process improving efficiency of the service and video calls may become more convenient for clients as people work remotely.”

Far from being a less personable experience, Victoria actually believes that bringing technology to the forefront will enable the client/advisor relationship to flourish. “If more of the day-to-day repetitive tasks can be automated it will enable us to be more client focussed and add more value. It is hard to imagine technology replacing a human relationship and a trusted professional therefore there will always be a need for human interaction and personal advice.” This would mean that there is still space for humans to exist alongside technology in the financial advice industry, a world away from the ‘robot taking over’ apocalyptic dystopian that many fear.

While this future of more technology and greater representation of women in the world of financial advice may seem distant, change is coming and Victoria is ready for it.