Don't look to new grads to boost industry

The financial advice industry is setting itself up for disappointment if it focuses on trying to recruit people straight out of university.

Tuesday, April 11th 2017, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

That’s according to David Boyle, GM of investor education at the Commission for Financial Capability and former general manager of funds distribution at ANZ Wealth.

He said the question of how to get new advisers in to the industry had been a big one ever since he became involved with it.

Banks had traditionally been a feeder stream into the industry, he said, and more advisers might come up through the ranks of mortgage broking or insurance advice.

Under the new legislation it would be easier to make the switch from those channels to investment advice.

But he said he did not think young people would ever come out of university wanting to be financial planners.

“I don’t believe that’s possible or makes sense. Most people want someone with experience and knowledge and that comes with a bit of time.”

He said it might be achievable to have more advisers in their 30s and 40s working in the industry, rather than their 50s and 60s, and offering a broader range of products and services.

It comes as recruitment firm Grad Mentor told Australian media that the financial services sector there needed to work harder to attract graduates, with a focus on branding the industry as a profession and raising awareness of the good work advisers did.

“As a profession, we’ve looked at consumers in terms of how we get the unadvised [population] in front of advisers and bridge that gap [and] … it’s great to raise the education standards … but if you can’t fill up those degrees with people hopping over themselves to be a part of the profession, then there’s no point in just having these educational standards,” Founder Alisdair Barr said.

* See the next issue of Asset magazine for more analysis of the state of the financial advice industry.

Tags: financial advisers