The new partnership seeks to attract and materially grow aspiring talents looking to join the advice profession, amid rising demand for advisers’ services.
To achieve this, Iress features as a partner and presenter in Striver’s Brimstone 2024 event series, which commenced in Melbourne on 19 March and will also visit Sydney, Perth and Brisbane.
The event enables students and graduates to explore career opportunities in financial advice and wealth management, where Iress meets with potential candidates to discuss their career options in the industry.
The technology provider will also provide a series of Xplan training modules for Striver’s mentor education unit. The training will allow students, graduates and job seekers to experiment using industry products and platforms, as well as learn how these technologies are used by advisers to support clients and expand their business.
Alisdair Barr, founder and chief executive at Striver, said that clear career pathways are imperative to making financial advice more accessible to the wider Australian population.
“To attract more talent into the industry, we need to shine a spotlight on the great careers and provide more education and resources to help candidates take their first steps. Iress shares our vision to create fulfilling careers for future talent and this partnership will help build our industry’s continued excellence,” he remarked.
Kelli Willmer, Iress’ executive general manager of wealth APAC, identified that with over 1 million Australians unable to receive the advice they need, building a strong talent pipeline remains crucial.
She commented: “A career in financial advice is an ideal fit for the desires of many smart, driven students out there today – fulfilling, rewarding and intellectually stimulating. As the industry’s mainstay software provider, we are committed to helping generate that demand and showing what that career can look like.”
Last year, Barr shared with Money Management why the advice profession should be embracing career changers and mature students to meet the advice gap.
“If you ask any adviser how they got into it, they say they ‘fell into it’, and the problem is by not being open to that, then we miss out on that talent. We should lean into it and embrace these people who have come from other fields,” he said at the time.
“We should have open arms towards career changers or parents who are returning to work. We need to embrace them so they can be part of the industry. How can we reduce the barriers and support them, and also support the industry to help them at their firms?”
