Banks, wealth management firms and recruiters will address the chronic shortage of financial planners by launching a major recruitment drive in high schools and universities.
They also plan to target professions such as the armed forces, teachers, nurses and engineers.
In an industry first, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) has enlisted senior executives from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Challenger Financial Services, St George Bank and Axa Australia for a future financial planners council, which will hold its first meeting next week.
The council will develop programs and uniform marketing material to raise awareness of the profession, which has benefited from strong markets and compulsory superannuation but is paying skyrocketing salaries in the race to get staff.
Colonial First State head of distribution Paul Barrett will chair the council, which will also count Challenger Financial Planning’s Greg Kirk, Securitor’s Neil Younger, Axa’s Allan McKay, Griffith University business school’s Mark Brimble and recruiter James Godfrey as members.
FPA chief executive Jo-Anne Bloch said until now recruitment of planners was done on an ad-hoc basis but a more coordinated effort was needed to deal with the shortage.
“We do think it’s pretty bad. Anecdotal evidence suggests that most [dealer groups] with more than 20 or 30 licensees are looking for staff,” Bloch said.
Twelve universities currently offer tertiary qualifications in financial planning and the FPA wants the others to follow suit.
Bloch said students and graduates of business, commerce, accounting and economic disciplines will be targeted, as well as professionals with good relationship skills and who wanted flexible working hours such as ex-army officers, engineers, teachers and nurses.
She said there would be no direct rise in membership fees to cover the cost of the campaign, but members may be asked to finance it voluntarily.
Wealth managers such as AMP, Asgard and MLC are addressing the shortage by offering training scholarships and recruiting staff from other parts of the businesses.
