What can the profession do to encourage more tertiary and secondary students to choose financial planning as a career? Five planners provide their views on student engagement.

Associate Professor Adrian Raftery CFP^®

Financial Planning and Superannuation

Department of Accounting, Deakin Business School

There is no doubt there is going to be a shortfall in the number of financial advisers in Australia very shortly, with so many of the current crop – in my estimation as many as 8,000 – publicly nominating 1 January 2024 as the first day of their retirement!

As we approach 2018, time is running out for us to fill the gap. In fact, by my estimates, Australian universities need to recruit on average 5,000 students in each of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 intakes, given that a Bachelors degree takes three years to complete full-time and there will be another 12 months lost for the professional year.

This figure incorporates the replacement of the shortfall but also factors in:

1. historical university completion rates;
2. employee retention in their first year in the workforce; and
3. the paradox that as the public gains a perceived greater confidence/trust in the financial planning profession (given they will be degree qualified), there will be an even greater demand than ever before for financial planning advice!

With current recruitment levels across the nation at Bachelors level approximately a quarter of that mark, this is no small task.

So how can the profession help?

1. Stop the bagging! There have been plenty of NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) that have been talking down the quality of financial planning degrees in the various trade and social media platforms for their own personal agendas. This acts as a deterrent to attracting potential students.

2. Offer internships and scholarships – and plenty of them. It’s going to be a hot employment market in a few years’ time. To attract students from traditional disciplines, such as accounting, economics and finance, we need to entice them. Otherwise, expect to pay substantially more for enticing financial planning graduates and retaining existing staff. Internships not only help with long-term retention rates but may help with satisfying part of the professional year program requirements (subject to FASEA).

3. Start teaching. If you truly want to put back into the profession, then universities will need those people with degrees to help cope with the extra demands of not only all the new intakes but also the 10,000 plus current crop of advisers who will need to update their own qualifications beyond the current RG146 benchmark. In a perfect world, it would be great for older advisers to act as mentors to young uni students in our classrooms in the future.

4. Make it easier for more mums to enter. With clients generally feeling more comfortable talking to advisers either younger or older than them, we don’t just want 21-year-olds entering the profession either. Financial planning needs to be made more attractive to those contemplating a career change. Flexible work hours, scholarships, in-house creches and other family-friendly conditions could make such a change attractive, particularly for those with young families. Plus it’s a great way to correct the 4:1 male to female adviser ratio that is sadly prevalent today.

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Charles Badenach CFP^®

Principal and Private Client Adviser, Main Street Financial Solutions

Licensee: Fitzpatricks Private Wealth

Financial planning is going through an exciting transition phase as we move towards being recognised as a profession, and for that to happen, education standards needed to lift. With this increase in education standards, the likely fall in adviser numbers during the transition period and the increasing demand for financial advice, the profession is likely to become a more attractive career option going forward.

With the changing world in which we all live, the jobs of the future are changing and one of the key strengths of financial planning, which will become apparent to the broader community over time, is that you cannot outsource or automate strong inter-personal relationships. Financial planning is a people business and if you like being able to make a meaningful difference to your clients, this will become a very attractive option.

Financial planning as a career option will be encouraged through the increasing demand for high quality staff (as a result of a higher demand for financial advice), broader course offerings from educational institutions, and the industry becoming recognised in the same way law, accounting and medicine are currently.

Demand inevitably follows growth industries and we all need to ensure that we can show the Australian community the value that we provide to the lives of everyday people, enabling them to live the lives they want.

Our challenge is not each other but the broader public perception of the old style ‘financial planner’, that is unfortunately portrayed in the media from time to time.

As an industry we need to work together to grow the financial advice market from current levels of around 20 per cent of the population, and from that growth, the demand from students to enter the market will follow.

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Anthony Poci CFP^®

Financial Adviser, A & T Financial Services

Licensee: Charter Financial Planning

As a profession, it is our role to encourage and promote the value of financial advice to clients and strengthen our professional image, which should attract and encourage a fresh breed of entrants into choosing financial planning as a long-term career path.

As time goes on, and with the work that the FPA undertakes to promote our industry, this should translate into greater awareness and understanding of what a financial planner actually does.

We are fortunate that our work can be both financially and personally rewarding. We have the ability to positively impact the lives of our clients, while having the opportunity to start a small business and participate in its growth and the challenges of doing this.

With the numerous changes occurring within the profession, including the work being done to promote and strengthen the experience, education and qualifications of planners, it is likely that more people will chose financial planning as a profession to those more traditional ones, such as law and accounting.

In terms of my own experiences, having completed a year of co-op offered as part of my university degree, I found this to be such a valuable experience and great preparation for my future career. As a profession, offering these types of positions can be mutually beneficial and allow prospective entrants to gain real hands-on experience to determine whether it is something that ultimately, they wish to do long-term.

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Damon Bensein CFP^®

Head of Private Wealth, Elston

Licensee: EP Financial Services

The financial planning industry has come a long way and is well on its way to becoming a true profession. New education standards, growing advocacy through strong professional bodies, and reforms that have removed conflicts of interest our industry has faced, will certainly go a long way in attracting the next generation of advice professionals.

The industry is dynamic and constantly changing and I believe that this an exciting time to be part of the evolution of the financial planning sector.

However, to really inspire the next generation to enter our industry, we need to promote all that is great about what we do. To quote Simon Sinek, we need to articulate the ‘why’ which drives us to be advice professionals.

We are in the unique position where we can oversee not only our clients full financial position, but also their hopes and fears, their goals and dreams. We are in a privileged position to help them achieve all that is important in their life. There are very few professions like ours where you truly are the first port of call whenever something changes in a client’s life.

Being a profession is one thing but showcasing how we help clients and the strong lifelong relationships we build, is where I believe we are going to be able to inspire the next generation of advisers.

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Cody Harmon AFP^®

Financial Adviser and Managing Partner, Hard Line Wealth

Licensee: Fitzpatricks Private Wealth

To choose a career, someone must truly understand why they want to do what they do and what the job description entails. The ‘why’ comes from them; showing them what the career looks like is up to us and how we do that is through mentoring.

As people and professionals, we continue to build and grow as individuals, and by doing so, we are able to give back and share with others.

We learn best by modelling ourselves on those who are successful at the very thing we are trying to do. That’s why students need someone to model themselves on, and that’s where mentoring comes in.

As planners, we all need to get involved with existing institutions and see how we can mentor students. In fact, RMIT University in Melbourne has a great online portal where I have sourced students from.