How a ‘love of financial advice’ led an adviser to pursue a PhD

Education standards for financial advisers have been a contentious topic over recent years, with the bar being raised to and a large cohort of advisers pushing back, eventually resulting in the experience pathway being passed to exempt those with a decade of experience and clean records.

Much of the issue surrounded the strain that returning to university to obtain a relevant degree would put on these advisers. Why, then, would an adviser go further beyond the requirements and put in the huge effort required to obtain a PhD?

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Speaking on a recent episode of The ifa Show, Dawn Thomas, a senior wealth adviser at The Wealth Designers, argued that having financial advisers in academic spaces can help promote advice as a profession.

She explained that while her clients are supportive of her goals and “like my cheerleaders”, the general public that has not engaged an adviser “don’t take financial advisers and their expertise seriously”.

“In terms of the public sentiment, we’re chasing this idea of being seen as a profession. But one of the criteria of being seen as a profession is that the public has to recognise you as such and that hasn’t happened yet,” Thomas said.

“Even though we’ve all worked really hard, we’ve done our qualifications, there’s so much of legislation around how we need to do our job, but we haven’t been recognised by the public around it.

“I feel that having an academic background to the experience of a financial adviser just helps us make impactful actions in areas where maybe we wouldn’t be allowed in. So, am I speaking from an academic perspective or am I speaking as a financial adviser? Well, it’s probably both.”

However, while she stressed that there is nothing “glamorous” about taking on a PhD, it could be something advisers transition to more closely after completing their initial degree qualifications.

“A lot of advisers, because of the minimum requirements, have gone on to do their master’s instead of the grad dip in financial planning, for example, because they knew with a few more units they’ll be able to get a master’s qualification,” Thomas said.

“Some people are in a study mode and they’re going, ‘I’m already on this course’. And in a way that’s how I felt as well. When you’re so used to being in an assessment/exam kind of routine, funnily enough, it feels like something’s missing in your life. Like free time. Free time was there, but you feel like something else was missing once you come out of that study zone. So, that’s why you’re thinking of what’s next.”

Adding that despite her work towards a doctorate not enabling much in the way of work-life balance, she believes there will be an increasing number of advisers going down a similar path.

“A lot of people in financial advice don’t understand why I’ll be doing it, but there is actually a small cohort who do understand, and I think we’ll be seeing a lot more financial advisers, maybe not a huge amount, but there’ll be more financial advisers that are embarking on this PhD journey,” Thomas said.

“Just because of the people who reach out online asking about it, I know that there are more people to come. So, balance is maybe not achievable. It’s more that I have a lot of cheerleaders, and we kind of understand why we’re doing it.

“But if you’re doing this as well, you just have to understand that you can’t expect a lot of people in advice to understand what you’re doing, because they might think that you’re not committed enough as an adviser. And that’s the opposite. It’s because I’m fanatical as an adviser. I want my reach to go even further than what we can do. It’s my love of financial advice and seeing the impact that has really motivated this.”

To hear more from Dawn Thomas, tune in here.