Demand for financial planners and insurance brokers in flood ravaged areas of Australia is expected to surge, placing pressure on wages Alliance Recruitment said.
Paul Barbaro, executive general manager of Alliance Recruitment said the insurance industry, including assessors, insurance brokers and banking are desperately seeking customer-facing assistance to deal with flood inquiries.
“Due to the significant demand, we expect to see upward wage pressure in the insurance sector,” Barbaro said.
“Salary pressure is also expected to emerge in financial planning as people effected by the widespread flood disaster attempt to re-establish themselves financially.”
So far, he said, financial planners have not been inundated with requests from flood victims but were instead fielding a greater volume of enquiries from retirees wanting to access funds to assist family members.
“In the past natural disasters have resulted in a withdrawal of jobs in the wealth management sector. To date, there has been no change in demand from this sector in response to the floods,” he said.
FPA chief executive Mark Rantall said the advice association had received a low level of take up from the public for its pro-bono service.
“The response from the general public has been lower than we thought. But we’d expect that people are just trying to really survive at the moment and the primary needs are housing, accommodation and food,” Rantall said.
“I think once things settle and people have taken care of their basic needs they will turn to their financial situation.”
