“That entry point, I think, is the greatest challenge to try and break that so future generations can come in and then there can be that space to have more women enter the profession, and have a more equal gender balance in it,” she said.
“Having your own finances in order to be able to do it and having the right mentor are key.”
What’s the one thing as an adviser that you can’t live without?
“Probably Microsoft Teams,” Meller laughed. “So I do everything virtually and so I'm super reliant on all of these systems, DocuSign to sign contracts, Calendly, to schedule appointments and Microsoft teams to have my meetings.
“All of these systems as it saves tons of time for you, but also for the client.”
That’s interesting, so no in-person meetings. Do you think that raises concerns in terms of being online and the risk of scams - especially with the trust issue?
“I find that that trust issue is more about things that you actually say and how you talk to people and how you listen to people,” she said.
"What really helps us is transparency and my fees so that's one of the things that people are always concerned about. And there is a risk when you have a percentage fee, as you show the client what it will be on X amount of money, but over the years, it changes what the actual monetary amount is.”
Meller said there was a risk consumers don't know how much they actually pay and that's a concern for people, especially during the cost of living crisis.
"That's one of the issues with trust," she explained, "and the second thing is independence.
“The consumer knows you can look at the whole market so that's definitely helpful,” she added.
“Also, I do some freelance work for Female Invest as well so that helps us because a lot of my clients will be members of Female Invest and they do some coaching with them and then they actually want to go on to financial advice.”
That’s really good and nice to hear about the females getting involved. My last question is whether you have a book to recommend for anyone starting out or considering starting out in the world of financial advice?
“I actually read a book while I was studying called Reinventing The Financial Advice Profession by a guy called Paul Harper.
“I found it so fascinating because it goes through basically like the last kind of 20/30 years.”
Meller said the book explained the profession and changes that occurred but also helped to understand the background to the industry and why there's a perceived lack of trust in it.
“Especially everything was originally commissioned and there wasn't a lot of focus on the client,” she said.
“To know the background of where you're going in is just extremely helpful.”
If you own your own advice firm and would like to get involved with the Coffee Corner interview series, contact deputy news editor Sonia Rach via email at sonia.rach@ft.com
