Helping women be in financial driver’s seat
As a financial planner, Tracey Sofra is passionate about empowering women to take control of their financial future. For her, financial planning is about being forward-looking, visionary, a goal setter, a coach, mentor and impacting people’s lives. And her goal is to make a difference in women’s lives in the way they take control of their finances. She offers tailored solutions to her clients so they can be financially independent.
“The strangest thing for me is it’s 2017, and as women we’ve come such a long way. We can do just about anything we want to now and the choices are endless and society is so much more tolerant to anything that we want to do and want to achieve,” Sofra said.
“But having said that there’s one thing we’re lagging in and that’s our confidence in being able to make major financial decisions about our own financial future. Around 83 per cent lack in confidence in themselves and their ability to make these decisions and we’re still handing that over to our partner and assuming we’re either not smart enough, don’t understand it and really don’t like it so we just pass this responsibility on.
“I’m saying you can’t do that anymore.”
The drive to change this mentality led her to create the WOW Women’s Group (Women of Wealth, Women of Wonder, Women of Wisdom), a Shepparton-based network for professional and entrepreneurial women.
Established in 2013, the group holds regular networking events to educate women in areas of finance and personal development. It also allows businesswomen in Sofra’s local community to connect and network.
Along with workshops, the group has also established the Lift-Off WOW Women Scholarships. Collaborating with The Community Fund Goulburn Valley, each scholarship is valued at $2,000 and is awarded to local girls who have experienced financial hardship and wish to transition from secondary to tertiary education. Sofra also mentors the recipients.
Sofra has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, having started as a Certified Practicing Accountant. She was a founding partner of Sofra Partners Chartered Accountants but found her true calling as a financial planner. This led her to establish Sofcorp Financial Services, where she specialises in the areas of tax, superannuation, and investments, and as a partner is involved in the strategic planning and management of the firm.In 2014, she was appointed as a Consultum Financial Advisers Board of Advice committee member where she represented the needs of Victorian Consultum advisers and acted as a conduit for the strategic direction, management, and corporate governance of Consultum.
Consultum chief executive, Joe Botte said: “Her wins in 2016 for the 95 3SR Entrepreneur of the Year award, and in 2015, for the Greater Shepparton Women’s Charter Alliance Advisory Committee Award, is a testament to her outstanding work with WOW Women which continues to grow from strength to strength”.
Having survived breast cancer at 38, Heathcote and Kendall owner and financial planner, Sandra Bowley was commended by the judges for her commitment to helping other cancer sufferers work through this challenging time. They applauded her pro bono work while praising her work in helping graduates of the AMP Horizons academy learn from her experience.
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
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