In a statement issued by Synchron, Mr Trapnell said the industry needs to do more to communicate the importance of risk advice to younger people who are interested in financial services.
“Individuals coming out of university appear to be gravitating towards financial planning and investments and not considering risk,” Mr Trapnell said.
“Risk specialists play a very important role in protecting the lifestyles of their clients and I think as an industry, we have largely failed to communicate that,” he said.
Mr Trapnell said he also recognised Synchron’s adviser force was ageing and realised the company needed to attract younger advisers.
“We made a decision to make Synchron an attractive home for young advisers, a place where they could learn from the incredible experience of our more senior advisers,” Mr Trapnell said.
“As a result, the average age of Synchron advisers has reduced from 59 in 2006 to 48 today.”
“We have been able to achieve that reduction, not by losing our more experienced reps, but by encouraging younger people into the Synchron family,” he said.
Mr Trapnell also said he is supportive of “all initiatives offered by associations and institutions” created to encourage more people to specialise in risk advice.
“We offer our advisers access to numerous mentoring workshops as well as our NextGen conference, which is tailored directly to the young risk advisers,” Mr Trapnell said.
Doctors may have dreams about what their job will be when they start training.Then they find it is cleaning out dirty bowels and bladders when patients have cancer. It goes with the job if one wants to save lives. Financial advisers have a duty to provide risk insurance advice to Australian families and businesses for when things do wrong. If you donet like it link up with an adviser who does.
We hear very little about it at University. The only thing we are told is that we need to ensure they have adequate cover and are aware of any short falls if they are using a lesser level of cover. Yes investment is bigger, its a big and shiny machine. Many dramatic movies have been all about it. Wall Street and Wolf of Wall Street are prime examples. I haven’t seen the equivalent about the trials and tribulations of Risk Advisers. But I digress, after starting in the industry I have seen the great opportunity that risk presents. It is a great opportunity to provide clients with the reassurance they need. It gives them the piece of mind to know that if the worst happens they have the appropriate cover and an adviser that will help them make a claim and look after their best interests.