or WFAN has entered into an agreement with PGIM India Mutual Fund to launch a scholarship program for women. WFAN aims to focus on women with a decade or more of corporate experience, who are now ready to launch their second career as a financial advisors. The program kicks off on March 08 with acceptance for membership applications. The launch date for the training program is scheduled to begin on April 14, 2021.
As a pilot program, the partnership with PGIM India MF will help WFAN to offer partial scholarships to cover the membership fees for the first 10 women who join the program and this support is expected to be further expanded in future. This scholarship is the first of its kind in India with a rigorous selection process. The first cohort of members will receive a certification in Financial Life Planning and Investment Advice Practice from The Garrett Planning Network, PGIM India MF and WFAN along with its content and knowledge partner, Her Mony. In addition to the certification, members will be able to launch their advisory business within 3-6 months of joining the program.
The objective of the program is to help women become or remain financially independent. Research indicates that many women in India take a career break in the early years itself to start their family or in the mid stage of their career to look after their family or for other personal matters. These women are unable to find the appropriate career opportunities for their second innings. India has the highest gender gap of 26% in the workplace in the world.
“India has many good women financial advisors who are an inspiration to the community, and we want to make sure that this tribe increases. Supporting WFAN in this structured coaching program for fee only women advisers, and their partnership with The Garret Planning Network of the USA, is a small but significant start towards this goal. Launching the program on `International Women’s Day’ makes it special to all of us”, said Ajit Menon, CEO, PGIM India MF.
“We chose PGIM India MF as our exclusive partner for the Indian markets because of our shared values and practices and a mission to help women to be financially independent yet lead a balanced and meaningful life”, said Partha Iyengar, co-founder of WFAN, adding, “PGIM India MF and WFAN believe that going forward financial advisers need to become ‘Choice Architects’ for their clients as it helps them lead a healthy, wealthy, happy and meaningful life”.
Commenting on this partnership, Sheryl Garrett said, “I am delighted to partner with WFAN to bring The Garret Planning Network to India and help our vision and WFAN’s vision to make competent and objective financial advice accessible to all people”.
