It is possible for somebody to come out of university and move straight into a professional year (PY) role, but it will be uncommon, according to a planning group.
Speaking on the FPA Podcast, Eureka Whittaker Macnaught co-founder and chief executive, Greg Cook, said he expected the traditional career path to continue as maturity was an important element to the role.
“Somebody let’s say, completed three or four years of study in their early 20s, to leap straight into the PY and becoming an adviser out on their own at age 22 or 23, would probably be possible but not common,” Cook said.
“There’s, as we know, there’s lots of moving parts and in providing financial advice is highly regulated in Australia.
“Getting the maturity and learning the skills of dealing with clients, and the implementation of changes, and the creation of advice documents is a very important part of the role.
“The traditional role of client services, paraplanning, professional year and then individual adviser, is probably the career path that’s going to continue.”
The firm recently a candidate complete their PY and Cook said most clients had been accepting of having a young adviser.
“They respect when you spend the first couple of minutes at the meeting introducing the professional year candidate and their qualifications, and why the professional year has been part of taking us from an industry to a profession,” Cook said.
“It actually can be really explained in a positive manner; most people know they were young once and new in a role.
“They have a lot of empathy and they respect our business for bringing people through a trade-type retiree, they’ve had apprentices, or they’ve been an apprentice.”
According to the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA), over 200 licensees had one or more PY entrants training under the supervision of an experienced adviser, with 590 new entrants into the industry doing their PY.
