Education is a wonderful thing. Many of us strive to attain higher education to improve ourselves, raise our prospects in life, help others or pursue an important cause.
However, it’s not the be all and end all. As C.S. Lewis once said, “education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil”. Those values noted are an important component every individual needs, especially if their career has a focus on helping others.
I point this out as over recent months the media has questioned the educational requirements of financial advisers in the wake of financial planning scandals. There were plenty of damning headlines. One journalist even became RG146 compliant and wrote about the relative ease he did it with. It made for a good read, but it missed an important target.
At the same time, some major institutions have made a big fuss of stepping up their game by announcing degree minimum educational standards for future hires.
As a PR offensive this looks great because it will reassure potential clients that standards are improving. Always important if your institution has been at fault and is attempting to win back trust! The question of it actually achieving a higher quality of financial advice is another matter.
No one should expect a higher education levels to overcome a rotten culture or poor individual ethics. If your incentive is a sales culture and your ethics are of a dubious nature, does it matter if you have a degree? I’d very much doubt it.
I work with advisers who have multiple degrees, some with post graduate degrees, and others without a degree. Personally, I have complete faith in the capabilities and knowledge of every adviser under our AFSL. If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be with us – degree or not. I don’t differentiate between advisers with a degree and those without because I’ve seen great technical acumen and knowledge displayed by both groups. And the culture we’ve developed means there’s a knowledge base across the group that can be shared at any time. Sometimes it can be a technically experienced adviser without a degree offering support to a less experienced adviser with a degree.
Increasing educational standards may be a good step to end cheap media grabs, but is it really anything other than a smokescreen and a false sense of security for clients?
Without the appropriate culture and values in place, maybe some sections of the industry will become “a more clever devil”.
Peter is the managing director of FYG Planners. He is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) who started in the financial services industry in 1981. A specialist in business development, Peter’s role primarily focuses on providing strategic planning advice to FYG Planners on its future direction, improving the technical skill base of the group, identifying business growth opportunities and services that can be developed for use by FYG Planners Advisers.
