Peter Daly
Dealer group Australian Financial Services Group has reported that their AFS Paraplanning Academy imitative has been a success.
Launched last month, the academy was introduced in order to ensure the group maintained its profitability and success at a time when the industry faces a skills shortage.
AFS managing director Peter Daly said supporting the future paraplanning needs of the company’s practices was integral to putting in place a sound succession plan for AFS.
“Our practices confirmed that they were experiencing difficulty in recruiting qualified paraplanners, and in response the AFS Paraplanner Academy initiative was introduced to address this concern,” Daly said.
With recruitment of qualified paraplanners a continuing concern for the financial planning industry, Daly said businesses would need to nurture and develop the skills of their existing staff.
The AFS Paraplanning Academy program currently has seven candidates attending the six-week program. The first two weeks are conducted in house, with structured classroom activities. This is then followed by four weeks supervisory training in the individual practices, from which the paraplanning academy students are nominated.
