The Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) is to launch an initiative to boost adviser numbers, offering support for Professional Year candidates and their supervisors.
Speaking at the FAAA annual congress in Perth on 18 November, FAAA chief executive Sarah Abood detailed how the association’s initiative will seek to boost adviser numbers.
Launching next week, the Advice Academy is brought in conjunction with Kaplan Professional, Striver and Art of Mentoring.
Abood said: “A big part of our problem is nowhere near enough new entrants. New advisers have ranged between around 300-500 in recent years, which is insufficient to even offset retirements, let alone grow the profession.
“The Advice Academy is aimed at increasing the number of students studying approved financial planning degrees, increase the proportion of those students who secure a Professional Year placement, and the proportion of those going on to complete their Professional Year and start their career as a financial planner.”
The initiative includes measures such as a mentoring program, 100 hours of structured learning for Professional Year candidates delivered by Kaplan, training programs and support for Professional Year supervisors.
A Professional Year tracker for candidates will help track their progress against work and structured training hours, ensure work is signed off by supervisors at the right time, centrally store PY plans and certificates and download digital logbooks.
It is also supported by financial services firms HUB24, Australian Retirement Trust, AMP, Zurich, Vanguard, Xplan and WT Financial Group.
She concluded: “With these building blocks in place, and along with our new careers centre, and our work supporting school careers advisers and uni student associations, we can look to substantially building our numbers in the years to come.”
Research by Padua Wealth Data earlier this year found the financial planning model of practice has hired the most new entrants since 2022, with 1,071 active advisers appointed over this time, accounting for 12.5 per cent of all advisers operating under this business model.
Investment advice model businesses also make up a considerable portion, taking up 349 active new advisers, while super funds have just 41 active new advisers.
