WOMEN AND INVESTMENTS - AN FNB WEALTH & INVESTMENTS PERSPECTIVE
Two of our asset managers, Chané Klopper and Carla de Waal, who are also women, wives, mothers, and FNB Wealth and Investment team members, sat down with us to discuss their experiences as women in the asset management industry at FNB.
Asset management is the professional investment management of various financial products, such as unit trusts or individual portfolios, to achieve a client's financial goals. The investment profession, also responsible for asset management, researches the financial markets, analyses the performance and risks of various assets, and allocates a client's money in the most optimal way to achieve the best returns. Chané and Carla are FNB Wealth and Investments asset managers with different responsibilities:
Chané heads up the Wealth Portfolios for the Stockbroking and Portfolio Management (SPM) business, which entails making asset allocation decisions for the various model portfolios. Clients who invest in these solutions will directly invest in listed companies (equities), bonds, ETFs, and unit trusts.
Carla, on the other hand, manages the multi-manager solutions, which involves doing investment and manager research to select the best fund managers for their solutions. Her responsibilities include doing manager due diligence and blending the different investment mandates or funds as building blocks into one solution to give it the best chance of reaching its objectives.
We wanted to know what it takes to become a female asset manager, and what makes this career an attractive option for women?
Chané studied Investment Management at the University of Pretoria and obtained her CFA charter in 2018. Her career path started from a position in back office and equity dealing, to being a front-line client-facing Portfolio Manager, and then, after ten years in the asset management industry, she was assigned a management role with SPM. "It took dedication and hard work with a learning mindset to start from the bottom and work oneself up, which gave me the edge to understand the asset management industry. I believe that there are endless career opportunities for women in the investment field. The broader investment industry - including private equity, corporate finance, portfolio management, fund management, equity research, wealth management, financial planning, real estate, insurance, and more - offers a myriad of positions to explore."
Carla changed from studying actuarial sciences to focus on investments and obtained her CFA charter in 2010. Her original focus in the early 2000's was on the hedge fund industry, but she expanded her horizons to include local unit trusts when she joined the FirstRand group in late 2014. Carla says that she is grateful for this career path as it exposed her to a wide diversity of asset managers, investment businesses, investment strategies, and highly skilled investment professionals. The conundrum of ever-changing markets and the dynamic environment fuels her, "it remains enriching and motivating to be able to engage with multiple different managers and investment teams - from the large corporates like Allan Gray, Coronation and Ninety One, to the boutiques like Abax, Fairtree, Sentio, Aylett, Sesfikile, and many more."
Being a female asset manager at a bank is a challenging but rewarding career path that requires a combination of skills, knowledge, and passion. Women face some unique challenges in a male-dominated industry, such as the lack of female mentors and networks, gender stereotypes and biases. According to the Citywire 2022 Alpha Female Report, only 12% of the 17,500 portfolio managers in the Citywire database are women, and in South Africa, only 11% of local portfolio managers are female. Regarding the representation of women in the asset management sector, Chané remarked that "there is no question that while the number of women in the investment industry has risen over the last ten years, it's still nowhere near being equal to the number of men, which inherently means fewer female mentors. I can only share my experiences at FNB Wealth and Investments, where I experienced a supportive culture for women pursuing investment roles, especially on a manager level. At times, when there was no female mentor to guide me, my male colleagues were more than willing to support and inspire my career aspirations."
It is noteworthy that in the solutions the FNB Multi Management team manages, the number of women looking after our clients' money has increased significantly over recent years, and, in many cases, surpasses the South African portfolio manager profile. Carla shared that, for the FNB Multi Manager Balanced Fund, four of the underlying managers have significant female representation in their investment teams: 50% of the investment team at Perpetua are women, 38% at Truffle, 14% at Abax and 42% at Coronation. The FNB Multi Manager Equity Fund also has a large number of women making the investment decisions, for example at Fairtree 32% of the investment team are female, at Ashburton 38% are female, and at Ninety One 20% are female. She added that "it has also been encouraging to see our asset managers championing graduate programmes to encourage and equip female students to enter the investment industry. I believe this is not only going to benefit our investors, but also the broader society, in due course."
Chané believes that a diverse team including both men and women with varying degrees of experience, knowledge and opinions is a key differentiator in the FNB Wealth and Investments team-based investment philosophy. It is her opinion that this multi-perspective approach probably contributed to the excellent performance across FNB's product ranges.
A key question that comes to mind is whether women asset managers bring any unique characteristics to the investment world as a 2021 study by Fidelity Investments found that over the last ten years, on average, women outperformed their male counterparts by 40 basis points or 0.4% per year when it comes to their own self-managed portfolios.
Chané summarised her views on the topic by adding, "I believe that women have a unique perspective to bring to the table; perhaps it's an extra layer of discipline, or that we tend to be slightly more conservative."
Chané and Carla both believe that women can be encouraged to pursue careers in asset management by providing substantial mentorship and networking opportunities to the women in the finance sector. One such example is the Women in Finance Network (WiFN), which is a forum where women meet, share experiences, support, mentor, and learn from each other. (https://womeninfinancenetwork.co.za/). It is also vital for companies to create an environment that welcomes and supports women in the industry. According to a 2020 report by McKinsey named 'Diversity Wins', companies with greater gender diversity perform better, and companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to outperform on profitability.
Role-modelling in an industry is vital for the development of successful women in asset management as they serve as examples for other women considering a career in the field. Some trailblazer women whom Carla applauds are: Gail Daniel from Ninety One: "She has strong views and isn't afraid to speak out. She knows her strengths and sticks with them", Elmien Wagenaar from THINK Capital: "She used to be my competitor in a previous life; she manages a unique fund of hedge funds adding immense value for clients and the fund has been a standout performer", and Nomathibana Matshoba-Okello from Terebinth: "She has a visible passion for mathematics and macroeconomics and has delivered impressive returns in her area of fixed income speciality".
Carla also noted in closing that "FNB Wealth and Investments has to compete with more established investment businesses with well-known 'asset manager brands', but that women should regard such competition as opportunities to excel at FNB, as the FNB investment products are equally as good, if not better, than those large asset managers with the billboards at the airport!"
Chané concluded that each woman entering the investment industry will have to believe in themselves, be confident, resilient, and persistent, adding "I think it is our duty, as senior women (and men), to show our support to junior women by playing a mentoring and development role within the organisation."
From the above contributions, it is evident that women asset managers can positively impact the financial sector and society by bringing diversity, innovation, and inclusion to the investment landscape. These women managers need to inspire and empower other women to pursue their dreams and ambitions in the asset management field.
