Disappearing advisers is half the story

I always enjoy reading the latest reports from Adviser Ratings. They have their finger on the pulse when it comes to movement in the advice industry.

This quarter in their Musical Chairs report, it stated that a net of 698 advisers left the industry between June and September 2019.

This makes a total of 3,400 advisers to leave in the first nine months of this year (which equates to about 13% of the industry).           

It’s a lot and it’s not unexpected. I guess, equally, the number of advisers joining the profession over the last quarter was not entirely unexpected either. There were 10. Just 10 people who entered a profession that most likely will be one of the most in-demand over the coming 20 years, as baby boomers hand over their wealth to the next generation.

On the one hand, you could say that these new advisers are going to clean up. They will have immense opportunity and only be limited by the amount of clients they are able to serve. It also says that advisers who are choosing to remain in the industry will do very well once the education standards and regulatory changes start to become reality and they move past them.

It’s going to be a profession that will never run out of opportunity.

In a world where we all want our children to grow up and into professions where they can thrive, the big challenge is to get parents and teachers talking about the prospect of school leavers choosing financial planning as a dedicated profession – as opposed to straight commerce.

At the moment, it’s not a profession like law or medicine where parents would always point to as being in-demand, even though it is. It’s also not a tech profession, which is where so many students are now going. But financial planning is incredibly important to the future.

I think because so many people identify themselves as a “type” that the financial planning industry needs to start demonstrating what the attributes are of successful advisers.

In my experience, these are the attributes of great advisers:

  • Great with people
  • Value relationships
  • Technical but able to explain concepts in layman’s terms
  • Don’t want to be in an office 24/7
  • Enjoy making a difference and helping
  • Want to be financially successful

If people grasped this as a typical planner profile, perhaps we would have more candidates entering the industry – in time to start replacing so many who continue to leave.

As an existing adviser, you can go about describing these attributes to people you meet, the press and your own social media. The more we start to describe the planner of 2020 and beyond, the benefits will become twofold: more students will choose a dedicated career in financial planning and be excited about it, and more people will feel comfortable identifying an adviser they want to work with and see the value.

It’s a win-win.


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