Mother of NINE on a mission to help women look after their money
IT IS 30 years since the movie Working Girl hit our screens, describing to hilarious effect how an astute working class receptionist Tess McGill (played by Melanie Griffith) makes it in Wall Street investment banking despite her modest beginnings and duplicitous boss. It is also 30 years since Helena Morrissey (now Dame Helena) walked through the doors of investment bank Schroders in London as a graduate trainee. It was the start of a career that led her to become one of the country’s most successful female fund managers. These days, she does not manage money but is head of personal investing at Legal & General Investment Management. Her overwhelming mission is to prod the nation – particularly women – into investing.
As a celebration of her milestone, 52-yearold Morrissey has requested a ‘proper briefcase’ for Christmas. She says: ‘Recently I have been carrying around a bulging Planet Organic bag full of papers. I have decided to try to start a new trend of old fashioned briefcases. It is my “Working Girl” moment.’
This is a nod to the McGill character who transformed into executive mode whenever she picked up her sturdy leather briefcase.
Morrissey hardly needs transforming after a lucrative career both for her and her main former employer, fund manager Newton. She was its chief executive, taking assets under management from £20billion to £50billion.
Her journey to the top of the fund management tree may not have started from working class beginnings but it was relatively modest – her parents were both teachers, she went to a comprehensive school and holidays were spent at an aunt’s cottage.
But hard work and a philosophy degree from Cambridge University gave her the momentum she required. A stay-at-home husband Richard – taking care of their nine children, now aged nine to 27 – has also allowed her to pursue a high-octane career.
She recognises her good fortune as a woman making it in a pinstriped man’s world and has been busy encouraging more gender balance in the boardroom. She started the 30% Club five years ago – a campaign to ensure the boards of FTSE 100 companies comprise at least 30 per cent women. Back then the ratio was 12.5 per cent. It achieved its target for the first time a couple of months ago.
From helping working girls get on in their careers she is now turning her attention to doing the same for ‘investing girls’. Her quest is to encourage more women to put money aside for their future.
It is an almighty challenge, given that many women, especially mothers, neglect saving of any sort – never mind delve into the dark arts of the stock market.
WOMEN ARE FAILING TO SAVE
A JOINT survey conducted by L&G and parents network Mumsnet published today reveals that one in four mums actively put off planning for their financial future – while a similar proportion say they do not want to invest. All rather dangerous considering so many relationships now end up hitting the rocks.
The most alarming statistic, says Morrissey, is that three in five women fail to save for more than five years in the future – putting both their own and children’s prosperity at risk. The survey found just seven per cent of women have money in a tax-efficient stocks and shares Individual Savings Account. Even fewer (five per cent) have taken out a Junior Isa for their children.
The nub, says Morrissey, is that often women simply ‘don’t have the money’. The struggle starts as soon as women embark upon their careers and suffer from the gender pay gap. This cascades into a gender investment gap and finally a gender pensions gap.
Morrissey adds: ‘There are some shocking figures from Insuring Women’s Futures, a campaign by the Chartered Insurance Institute. It shows that by retirement, married women have an average pension pot of £35,000. That is the size of the pot, not the annual income it will produce. This is one fifth the size of a male’s average pension pot.’
While recent Government figures show some six million women have Isas, just 900,000 have directed their contributions into the stock market. The rest have put them in cash – condemning the money to shrink in real terms over time.
Morrissey says: ‘People have an emotional relationship with money. But we need to talk more about money even if it’s not that cool a subject.’
Making investment material more friendly would help. Morrissey has an artwork in her office that represents the holdings of an index tracker investment fund. The pictogram shows the logos of brands belonging to companies held in the fund – from Apple computers to Marlboro cigarettes – with their size dependent on the percentage that each represents in the index fund.
When first put on display, Morrissey says it got people talking about what investments they would rather not invest in such as oil and tobacco.
Passing on good financial habits to children is also key. Morrissey’s father taught her, aged four, to count using pounds, shillings and pence. She adds: ‘I was frustrated not long afterwards when Britain converted to decimalisation and I