In the latest episode of The ifa Show, Matt Hale, senior financial planner and director of Rising Tide Financial Services, discussed the barriers hindering young people from considering a career in advice.
“It literally is the million-dollar question for the advice industry. I think we’re ageing. I think more people want and need advice and the more great quality Aussies that we can get into the advice seat will serve everyone really well,” Hale said.
“I think for young people to know that the industry that they’re potentially getting into has a strong foundation works wonders. For advisers and business owners like myself, I think for us to be real advocates around the type of lifestyle that financial planning can provide, but also the really intrinsic joy that it can provide by helping people to achieve their goals.
“In a world where so many people, I feel, like are just ticking the box when it comes to work, we get the opportunity to really change people’s lives, which I don’t think, you know, many others do.”
Hale argued that advisers need to become more prominent to attract the attention of young people by highlighting both the profession as a whole but also drawing attention to the positive impact advisers have on the community.
“I’m really wary that, I don’t think a lot of younger people in the high school and tertiary education systems know that this incredible job even exists. So, I think for us to be more visual, to do more advocacy, I think that is incumbent on us,” he said.
“But also to share some of the great stories that come from advice and also probably some of the deeper parts of what advisers do, you know, it’s not the boiler room. It’s not just updating beneficiaries or putting life insurance products in place. It can be a really diverse and gratifying place to be and to spend your time.”
He also highlighted the importance of achieving regulatory and legislative stability, allowing potential talent to see the positive aspects of the career, rather than the dissatisfaction currently permeating the profession.
“In a perfect world, if we could simplify the legislative and regulatory space, that can mean that, you know, the FAAA can focus more of its time on selling the good stories, not just always fighting wars. That will help,” Hale said.
“Then also, I think for advisers to really get behind them and let people know that the role is great, it is rewarding in a whole lot of facets, but particularly to help people achieve their amazing ‘Yes’ moments and their financial goals. It’s something pretty incredible.”
Bringing new staff into your practice
When looking to bring in new staff, Hale argued that business owners need to be looking for people that have skills to complement the existing team, filling the gaps and allowing the business to grow.
“I always think about it in more of a sporting analogy. If you’ve got a certain type of people in abundance in your football team or in your basketball team, you’re not going to try to look for more of them. You’ll look for complementing players,” he said.
“I think in a work context, there’s a whole lot of profiling we can do to understand what makes people tick, but also how they’re going to be under pressure, who they’re going to work well with, how they might look at compliance, how they might look at sales.
“Get an understanding of that old school, you know, are they a hunter or a farmer, or are they better in an [operations] role? I think it’s just about being really conscious and not just taking on someone because you like them.”
To hear more from Matt Hale, tune in here.
I have told at least 5 people in the past 18 months to not consider becoming a financial planner because I like the kids who asked. Until the industry is treated like a profession (which I think it is close to being) and the red tape is reduced to a reasonable level then the number of advisers will continue to decrease. I’d love to see the mental health statistics of exiting planners over the 5 to 10 years but realistically this information isn’t held by ASIC, who are responsible for most of the problems, because they don’t care and “our” organisations don’t want to know.
I could not in good faith recommend to anyone that become a financial planner. The best I have been able to come up with is “its completely crap at the moment but it can’t get worse so might be a little bit better in 5 years”. This was prior to the QAR fiasco so I was overly optimistic with hindsight.
Exactly what i said to my daughter “If you have to go into financial services at least go into the profitable part of the distribution chain” ie. fund manager or investment banker etc
Start off in a psychiatric ward… you’ll find us hiding there.
The ward that is run by those ASIC muppets… Mayhem reigns!
Make it an environment people want to work in as opposed to a dying profession choked with red tape over regulation and eitchunting which led to the suicide of multiple small business owners. Stop pandering to industry funds who only want advice to be a sales tool with the lowest overhead possible, there’s a start!
Change the CSLR by making it transparent and stop ripping advisers off ala the Dixon fiasco might be a good start…
Teach the young folk to hunt and sell risk. The true hunter is never unemployed. The rest you can find in the telephone book.
That equation is long gone given the current red tape regulations coupled with the LIF decreased brokerage rates and increased claw backs means it has not been commercially viable for most planners to write risk for quite some years now…
That is a real shame but the people who make the rules (who acted upon those with agendas like insurers and consumer groups like choice) both don’t know but sadly also don’t care.
The answer doesn’t cost a million dollars, it is obvious and all advisers have been screaming it for a decade. Remove the ridiculous levels of regulation and stop the continual persecution of the advice profession. Once there is respect for the important role financial advisers play then new entrants will come. The concept isn’t hard, what is hard is removing the inbuilt hatred of the advice profession by the likes of ASIC, APRA, Choice, Union Funds, ALP etc. Why would anyone join the advice profession when so many parties put a target on your back to push their own ideology.
I don’t think theirs a shortage of talented young people willing to work in financial planning. The issue is there’s a lack of financial planning businesses willing to take on the expense, risk and investment of time in young talent and providing jobs. The regulatory environment is the main cause of this due to staff retention risk followed by the lack of visionary practice principals taking a longer term view.
Absolutely – it’s way too expensive. It’s not just salary. Its dealer group costs circa 33k, PI costs 8,500 p.a. CSLR costs going up, software Xplan costs, there is no change out of circa $150k and new entrants come in like they know everything turning off clients. It’s not always the case but it happens. Rather than support you they want to run the show!