24th June 2025

Women Advisers Inching Forward

For those of you who track trends in financial services, you’ll know that one of the most striking developments in recent years has been the rapid growth in earnings among female financial planners. According to the latest edition of Paul Harper Search's Financial Planning - Fascinating Facts and Figures 2024/25, women’s total average earnings in the financial planning profession have risen by a remarkable 52% between 2021 and 2024. By contrast, men’s earnings have increased by just 14% over the same period.

It’s worth noting that men still start from a higher base salary. However, the gap is narrowing. In 2025, the average woman financial planner now earns £72,738, around 10% less than her counterpart, whose average salary is £78,934. But when it comes to total earnings, which include bonuses and other incentives, women actually out-earned their peers in 2024, with an average of £115,955, compared to £107,714, an 8% advantage in favour of women.

So, why is this?

Well, I would say a key reason is the growing recognition of the value of diversity within firms. Many financial planning businesses still employ significantly fewer women than men in client-facing roles. As companies strive to redress this imbalance, the demand for talented women financial planners has increased significantly. In many cases, this has enabled women to negotiate more substantial salary packages, particularly when they’re moving roles.

The reality is, for firms aiming to be more inclusive and reflective of their client base, hiring women into advisory roles isn’t just a tick-box exercise, it’s good business. Clients increasingly want to work with advisers who understand their unique circumstances and gender diversity within advice teams can help build better relationships, trust and retention.

Over the years, we’ve occasionally been challenged on our salary data, as is the case with most surveys. However, I’m confident in the robustness of our numbers. We’ve been analysing adviser salaries in the employed market since 2000 and began reporting earnings broken down by gender five years ago. Our insights are drawn from real-world conversations with firms and candidates, not just from forms and questionnaires.

The Number of Women Advisers is Rising… But Slowly

While pay for women in financial advice is climbing, representation still lags behind. According to recent data obtained from the FCA via a Freedom of Information request from FT Adviser, just 18% of regulated financial advisers in the UK are women. A marginal increase of 2% from 2022.

Although the FCA doesn’t collect gender data directly, it records the salutations used by individuals—giving us a reasonably accurate picture. Out of 35,715 advisers authorised to give retail investment advice, only 6,109 used titles such as ‘Miss’, ‘Mrs’, ‘Ms’ or ‘Lady’. Meanwhile, 28,387 advisers used ‘Mr’, ‘Earl’, ‘Lord’ or ‘Sir’, making up 82% of the total.

A further 1,219 individuals either chose non-gendered titles like ‘Doctor’ or ‘Director’, or left the salutation field blank. This group, representing just 3%, was excluded from FT Adviser’s gender-based analysis.

Back in 2020, when I wrote my book ‘Reinventing the Financial Advice Profession,’  I addressed this issue, commenting: 

“Financial advice, like many other professions, has always been predominantly male. Despite considerable progress being made in large companies such as asset managers and product providers, women only make up 17% of approved FCA individuals. This percentage has hardly changed since 2005.”  

It does finally look like we are slowly making small incremental steps forward.

The Road Ahead

There’s clearly more progress to be made when it comes to gender balance in the profession. However, I think we should be encouraged by the earnings data which suggests that when women do enter the field and particularly when they stay and progress, they are being valued appropriately, sometimes even commanding a premium in the market.

The long-term solution lies in encouraging more women into financial planning roles in the first place and supporting their development throughout their careers. That means more inclusive hiring practices, flexible working arrangements, mentorship opportunities and active efforts to create workplaces where everyone, regardless of gender, can thrive.

Business Development