It’s no secret that the advice industry is bleeding. The pipeline for new advisers is thin, as previously acknowledged by then-financial services minister, Jane Hume.
And while the government is largely responsible for safeguarding the industry, something the upcoming Quality of Advice Review is expected to aid, advisers are being encouraged to buckle down and play their part in the much-needed advice replenishment.
Speaking to ifa, Sue Viskovic, managing director at Elixir Consulting, acknowledged the disinterest young professionals have shown the industry.
“I think there are several reasons for this,” Ms Viskovic said.
“One is historical – financial advice is a relatively new profession, compared to accounting and law, and so there is a lack of awareness of what the career actually entails. Those who have heard of financial advice may have only heard of it in a negative sense. Either through the public perception of advisers, compounded throughout the royal commission, or through the eyes of jaded advisers lamenting the increased level of paperwork, administration, and compliance burden.
“There’s likely also an element of the fact that if a young professional has had the opportunity to intern at an advice firm, they may not have experienced client meetings, and seen and felt the rush that advisers get when they see the positive impact they can have in their clients’ lives”.
In other words, their only experience of advice may be the copious amounts of “seemingly pointless” paperwork that they were required to administer, without understanding the context or purpose.
Ellie Fordham, a financial adviser at Verse Wealth, similarly put the disinterest down to a lack of knowledge of the industry.
“If I reflect on many of the great advisers I know, so many of them either fell into the industry, like me or changed careers with greater awareness of what advice is. During interactions with universities, I’ve heard many stories of students changing majors or adding financial planning as a second major when they become aware of what we do as advisers and learn more about our profession,” Ms Fordham told ifa.
As such, both Ms Viskovic and Ms Fordham are confident that advisers hold the key to attracting young professionals.
“Educating students and their educators about what a rewarding profession this is would go a long way,” Ms Viskovic said.
“It’s a unique role that blends both intellectual rigour with human compassion and a desire to help people. Helping people identify and live their best lives, through influencing their behaviours and decision making is incredibly meaningful and rewarding.
“If you have the pleasure of hosting an intern or work experience person, that can be great for your business, to have simple tasks completed by a low-cost team member – but please, take the opportunity to give them that dopamine hit that comes with seeing firsthand, the power and purpose of your profession. Once they see the incredibly valuable impact they can have on others, they’ll be hooked.”
Similarly, while acknowledging that advisers are juggling great, many hats, Ms Fordham encouraged her peers to get more proactive.
“If you do get the chance, reach out to your local university to see how you can assist them – be it speaking to high school students at open days looking to enrol, chatting to students about their career path post-study or guest lecturing a unit and getting the students really excited about their career path ahead. I’ve had the opportunity to do all three and it was an incredibly rewarding experience,” she explained.
Finally, Ms Viskovic noted, “our future advisers are closer than we think”.
“I know of many women who are currently working in the back office of advice firms as paraplanners and CSOs who are keen to step up and advance into an advice role, and just need the encouragement and support to do so,” Ms Viskovic said.
Interesting, but I cannot for the life of me see where Sue Viskovic has been a practicing Financial Adviser at all on her LinkedIn profile and experience.
i would think that if you create a business focused on working with adviser’s businesses, strategy, efficiency etc that you probably should have spent some time in their shoes before telling them they have their own shoes on the wrong feet !!!!
“As such, both Ms Viskovic and Ms Fordham are confident that advisers hold the key to attracting young professionals.”
I just can’t share your optimism given how governments have turned FP into the overgulated and costly red tape mess it has become today.
Given recent commentary from Michelle Levy about allowing advice to come from “all over the place” I think attracting new licensed financial advisers is going to get harder (like it is now) before it gets easier…
Typical experts again, who are not advisers , but living off the industry and continuing to tell advisers how to be an adviser or passing on the repsonsibility to carry the load of the industry. Please Ms Viskovic if you want to see more advisers and speak on our behalf how about you become one again, not be an ex adviser who is now an expert on all such matters. You are almost as bad as the product manafacturers who passed the repsonsibility of their products to the advice market telling us what we should do and not do , as long as we market their product solution.
I feel like everyone complaining in this comments section hasn’t experienced the wonder of working for an organisation (or setting up their organisation) to work for them. Enough support staff so you get to do the great work of changing client’s lives without all the background work. Flat fees that aren’t linked to FUM and come from client’s bank accounts makes ongoing fee arrangements less onerous. Bosses who truly care about your wellbeing as an employee.
As an adviser with 6 years under my belt (fully FASEA qualified) I would highly recommend new entrants into this amazing career. I just caution them to choose their employer wisely – one who truly supports them to provide quality advice.
Agree, that so many people that comment here are glass half empty people.
There was a great article I read recently about Thrivers in the FP industry. These people have the same frustrations as everyone else re the over and bad regulation, but they choose to turn it into a positive.
Are you kidding me…? I wouldn’t recommend this career to any young person at the moment.
Truth is there are way better career opportunities out there that have less stress, less hours, less risk, less uncertainty, less hoops to jump through, higher pay and greater professional esteem.
In good conscious I simply couldn’t recommend financial advice as a career because the future pathway remains too uncertain.
In my opinion there is too much tail risk due to legislative and regulatory uncertainty.
If you don’t believe me, have a read of some of the submissions to the Royal Commission in 2018 and more recently to Treasury.
You know it’s like in the Movie – Chopper, with Eric Bana, where Chopper says, “Why would I shoot a guy, then drive him to the hospital, it defeats the purpose of shooting him in the first place”, very similar behaviour here from the former Govt minister..
Hume stated repeatedly she wants to help and that they’ve identified a structural issue with recruiting new advisers, they do a few poorly implemented and polarising reforms that do nothing to change the actual structural issue with the industry, plaster the entire industry with red tape and make it impossible to service retail clients, and then wonder why no one wants to join -> yet know that there’s a problem.
Why not sit down and do a root cause analysis of the issue.
The issue is that the people who really need financial advice the most cannot really afford to pay for it, those who have enough money to be considered wholesale clients who have over $2.5m but may not be sophisticated enough to comprehend the ramifications of their investment recommendations implemented, could still get skinned, but real professionals who have over a decade of experience working in financial markets need to invest so much money and time in further education. There are entire firms built on the Wholesale Client Certificate that don’t even touch retail because of the regulatory burden. The time thing as a professional you will understand that’s fine, you would do it, but the cost thing, it’s just a barrier to entry and those barriers to entry are what keeps the pipeline of prospective advisers to 0.
The reality is that if Governments can sponsor and support TAFE in Victoria, NSW for essential trades, they should have made the FASEA qualification like the CFA or CPA – you merely need a Business related Undergrad or Postgrad degree (this means anyone with a BComm, BEc, MBus, MBA), and create a FASEA course that is run by a University or independent association that anyone who has some form of Undergrad or Postgrad Business related degree can sit and pass – there’s no fees, there’s no gotchas – there’s no suprises and then you have a centralised CPD workshop thing that everyone has to attend.
Once you pass that course, everyone sits with ASIC on the financial advisers register and every single adviser even if they only advise Wholesale Clients needs to be on that register.
Get rid of the Tax Practitioners Board certification and registered tax adviser stuff. Simplify everything.
If accountants want to get registered with ASIC they can complete the FASEA approved course.
I finish in the industry Friday. FASEA accredited. Thats not the reason. I have just decided after 26 years in the Industry that I no longer wish to continue the decline of both my physical and mental health. I am done, cooked.
There is no way that I would recommend anyone join this Industry in its current state. I will have an income reduction moving forward changing employment role to something completely different. I am also saddened to be leaving the clients and do feel some what responsible in doing so.
Alas I am out. I wish everyone well and hope you can navigate the rapids safely ahead. Be kind to yourself but most importanlt Advisers need to go back to being kind to each other. The education requirement discussion over the years has destroyed that kindred friendship.
All the best and to be honest – I feel the same. If I could – I would be out as well.
Qualified Chartered Accountant, 22 years in the Industry, FASEA accredited……but – it is too hard now and not healthy to be involved in such a stressful environment.
So – I wish you well and I will be not far behind you.
It won’t get any easy under the Albanese.
Yes, Mr. MoreThanQueasy is definitely a concern. Just like Biden but without so much memory loss but nearly the same level of confusion!
How laughable! Advisers have been the unfair whipping boy for just about any inept, conflicted and unethical politician who ventured into the financial services industry space – despite every effort we made to educate these people on the impact that their decisions were having on us as advisers and consumers across Australia.
Now that the industry is completely decimated, you want us to help you rebuild the industry. You must be joking!
Like many others advisers, I’m about six weeks away from leaving the personal advice space either occupied for the last 15 years without any blemishes. In that time, I’ve helped hundreds of clients and assisted many to receive millions of dollars in claim payments – without any issues. I admit, I wasn’t able to pass the FASEA Exam despite two bloody good efforts to do so – but I’m a risk insurance specialist. I’m not engaged in Superannuation, Estate Planning, Managed Funds/Investments. I just wasn’t able to pass an exam that I felt was geared for me not to pass – which it successfully did. I refused to bow down to a regulator who sought fit to make money out of advisers by increasing its fee to almost $1000 and which manipulated the exam to the point where only 4% of advisers first past this years first exam under their watch.
I congratulate every adviser who has managed to weather the storm and stay on – but I’ve had it after 15 years. My clients are happy and my claims get paid, and my audits were all low risk. I hope you are happy ASIC with the damage you’ve done. I will not assist you to rebuild this industry after the carnage you’ve caused. That’s on your head!!!
As an ethical person I can’t recommend to anyone to enter the financial planning profession. It would be wrong to wish this level of stress, persecution and regulation on anyone. You don’t have to pass a useless ethics exam to work this out either.
I haven’t passed the ethics exam yet but even I know, without the paid training I need to complete, that encouraging someone to enter this cesspit of a profession would be unfair on that person.
As I’ve just had to cancel Monday’s client meeting because the clients Anniversary Date is on Tuesday and I can’t get them to resign or provide them a FDS on Monday otherwise I’ll go to jail…..I would have to say anyone thinking of joining this industry has rocks in their head. Once a fantastic industry but the risk reward pay off is no longer there.
Why bother? They already think they know more about eveything already and expect to be thanked for even turning up to work. Business is already hard enough, let alone being asked to become adult day care centres!
Who’s got the time?
Starting a financial career will not be easy under the Albanese.
I speak to two financially savvy and smart young adults just about every day. One is in hospitality and the other running his own business in cyber security. Both would have made great additions to my business and I may have even harboured thoughts of them running my business when their father stood down and retired. Why are they not involved?
My son quit after the royal commission report…I advised my daughter to follow another career path when she left school. She loves working with people so hospitality seemed a good alternative.
Both my children would have made great financial advisers. I don’t want them any where near the bullies, the
incompetents, the political interfearance, the condescending media or the mental strain placed on financial advisers.
Why would I encourage anyone else to become an adviser if it’s not an industry I can encourage my kids to enter. And, in case you’re wondering I have the quals in place already to go beyond 2026…and will do so unless the “last resort’ ends up taking what little is left of our income…
[quote=Anonymous]I can’t, in all good faith recommend being a Financial Planner to anyone in the current circumstances![/quote]
Let me go one step further – I would actively warn off anyone remotely contemplating becoming a financial adviser with the insane compliance regime and rules in place.
It would be negligent to not give people an appropriate heads up on the insane compliance as it stands.
Why would I recommend financial planning to someone when I’m trying to get out?!
What about the big insto’s who bring advisers on to begin with, train them, absorb the cost and firms pick them off after they are fully trained? Oh wait, the insto’s are gone so now we need the firms to do it. All the best!!!!!!
Was always going to be the big issue. For all of their faults they were the breeding ground of the next gen.
Yes – they may have been the breeding ground for new Advisers. However, they almost single handedly destroyed the Industry.
Most of them are retired to their Southern Highlands farms or working for Twiggy nowadays.
I can’t, in all good faith recommend being a Financial Planner to anyone in the current circumstances!
“if you do get the chance, reach out to your local university to see how you can assist them”.. Like advisers have any spare time lol.. Everyone now coming out with their myriad of solutions.
The govt must step in urgently and provide funding for younger entrants, and allow experienced advisers to operate on a profession-basis. Those drop-out forecasts are optimistic imo – the exodus will be far greater over the next 3 years.
100% agree with this. Michele Levy are you reading these comments?
But, but, Michelle wants people to be able to get advice from everywhere !
We don’t need funding for younger entrants. We don’t need careers advice or awareness raising. What we need is for government to fix the mountain of bad regulation. Bad regulation is the primary cause of every single problem in financial advice. Whether it’s a lack of new entrants, the excessive complexity and cost of professional advice, or the proliferation of technology driven rorts and scams. All are underpinned by bad regulation. Fix the bad regulation first, otherwise everything else is like a new paint job for a teetering building.