“There’s not enough education out there, there’s not enough women in the industry, there’s not enough diversity in the industry, there’s a lot of gaps.”
To address this issue, Rabbets stated: “I think financial advisers themselves could do a little bit more.”
She emphasised that “even the simple things like putting out blogs and podcasts” can be beneficial to addressing these issues.
“Every single person can do something and, if every single person did something, it would have a huge impact on the industry.”
She went on to explain that “there’s lots that can be done”, mentioning delivering workshops, offering services pro bono, raising awareness, and helping organisations like the Verve Foundation.
However, Rabbets additionally stated that, while the advice gap “is definitely a problem now” there are other issues that will need to be addressed in the future.
She additionally stated: “Once we get enough people in to finance, it’s about keeping them.”
She outlined the way to do this was to support new entrants' growth, and be “more noisy” about the roles that are available so potential applicants are informed about the variety of roles that exist within the industry.
“I know we’ve come leaps and bounds with even the paraplanner role. There’s a lot more people who know what a paraplanner is but not in the general public,” she added.
Rabbets also suggested that a lot more could be done to “showcase” the industry in a much better light.
Current initiatives
Rabbets additionally spoke about the Verve Foundation's current efforts to break taboos associated with finance such as “you can’t be an adviser because you’re young or a women (both of which I’ve heard)”.
She outlined two current initiatives being undertaken by the foundation to address similar issues, including We Are Change and the Adviser Incubator programme.
Rabbets explained that the We Are Change initiative was launched back in 2021 following the Covid pandemic to help people get into the financial services industry.
She outlined the initiative offers a two year, fully funded programme which provides a diploma in regulated financial planning at its conclusion.
Rabbets added that the Adviser Incubator programme was launched in June of this year as a pilot and is aimed at new and early stage advice firms.
This initiative includes a series of sessions each week to help the new firms “start out on the right foot”.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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