The industry suffered another major exodus in the week to 6 October and dropped below 16,000 advisers for the first time, but according to the National Skills Commission, advisers are experiencing ‘no shortage’ across most states.
The Skills Priority List claims that financial investment advisers are only lacking in Western in Australia, and that advisers are likely to experience ‘moderate’ future demand nationally.
Commenting on these findings, Phil Anderson, AFA CEO, told ifa that he is not surprised given most advisers are now self-employed.
“This is not to suggest that we do not have a major issue with a shortage of financial advisers, and there are, no doubt, many practices who are trying to recruit new advisers,” Mr Anderson said.
“We are also hearing that staff shortages is a broader problem in financial advice, with many practices struggling to fill other roles in their teams, including customer service and administration,” he explained.
“This seems to be a particular problem in some of the regional and remote areas, where people with the required skills just do not exist. This issue of skill shortages is one that we will need to keep an increasing eye on over the next couple of years and think hard about how it can be addressed.”
‘Confused and perplexed’
Also speaking to ifa, Peter Johnston, executive director at the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals, said he is rather “confused and perplexed” by the findings.
“The latest AFCA complaints data demonstrates that advisers are held in high regard within the general community and their services are in demand,” Mr Johnston said.
“Common sense suggests that the 50 per cent reduction in adviser numbers over the past three years and a reluctance for new talent to choose advice as a career path can only mean there is a profound current shortage of advisers, and the future looks problematic to meet increasing consumer demand”.
Last week, Wealth Data reported an exodus of 295 advisers in one week driven by the adviser exam.
Over the last fortnight, there was a net loss of 444 advisers, bringing the total of registered advisers on the Financial Adviser Register to 15,908.
There is no shortage of financial planners, there is a shortage of financial planners who are prepared to destroy their mental health whilst generating a sub-standard income and risking their personal assets. Basically people who can do the job are choosing not to do so.
No Adviser shortage at all.
[b]Industry Super & the Banks can’t wait to flog loads of product under the QAR proposal via
– Uneducated,
– Unqualified,
– Unlicensed and
– Unregulated
call center jockeys.[/b]
Who needs Advisers when Advice / Sales can be provided without them : – /
or pick up experienced planners that give up because they can’t compete. “Mr Client I could charge you $4,000, and we could do 3-5 appointments, a whole heap of paperwork, but under the code, I have to act in your best interest and also charge a fair fee. The issue I face is your super fund can do it for free and over the phone in 30 minutes, due to special carves granted in 2023”
I continually advertise for the admin person but have completely given up on hiring a planner. I had an new planner lined up….but they were a young Accountant, Degree qualified working in SMSF and they said the requirement to have the equivalent of a Masters has made them not to enter the FP industry…. most self-employed planners (especially with the new PY year) have given up recruitment and are just decreasing client numbers and increasing fees to compensate. …… The FPA stuffed this up with their recommendations and FASEA accepting this, but a Commerce, Accounting, Finance Degree should be the minimum with the ethics bridging course and the exam and an PY year. Or no exam with a Legal course.
The cost of licensing, compliance, software, asic funding levy, CSLR, PI and additional staff capacity adds a significant impost on the single operator self employed adviser…this means that there is little demand and desire to add layer upon layer of costs employing another adviser to the practice. And, the moment you do so, you need to apply time to check that they remain complainant…the position is different if the adviser to be added is already qualified, has a strong practice and their inclusion in the practice is as a partner…or as a future owner of the practice.
I think you meant remain “compliant”, not complainant!
Although they would probably complain about the amount of nonsense to go through to remain “compliant”!
I am not sure I agree with this , we have been looking to employ a risk adviser in the outer Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne now for over a month. With so much opportunity for advisers at present under the self emplotyed space it is diffiicult to find an experienced adviser who prefers to be an employee. I agree there is a lot of non adviser empoyees available, but the lifeblood of our industry, the adviser numbers are shrinking. I am happy to beproven wrong, if anyone is aware of someine looking for an opportunity to join us an employee with specilty in risk insurance with a reasonable understanding of mum and dad super advice we are on the lookout at InterPrac