Financial planners may be able to upgrade their cars on the back of findings from survey, but their increased pay-packets are unlikely to see them splurging on luxury models.
The 2016 surey has found the proportion of planners earning in excess of $220,000 a year has more than doubled over the last eight months, jumping to 15 per cent, while there was a six per cent decline in the number of those earning less than $90,000.
Bottom earners
Despite the proportion of planners reporting salaries towards the bottom end of the pay spectrum decreasing, when the data was broken down based on their employers being part of an aligned group or not, there was an increase in those taking home salaries of less than $70,000 among planners working for non-aligned groups.
The survey found that 17 per cent of non-aligned planners were earning less than $70,000 — up from 14 per cent in 2015 — while just seven per cent of aligned planners claimed salaries of that size.
While a cursory glance through the data showed that the 26 to 35 years age bracket had the highest proportion of planners in the sub-$70,000 pay group, age did not appear to be a significant factor supressing wages, with 17 per cent of respondents aged 46 to 55 years, and 15 per cent of planners in the 56 to 65 years group, reporting they were in the same boat.
However, just two per cent of planners aged 36 to 45 years said they were in the lowest pay bracket.
Where to earn the most
When it comes to breaking into the top salary brackets, only planners who described their employers as dealer groups and financial advisory firms (26 per cent), and retail banks (20 per cent), reported earning more than $170,000 a year.
However, no respondents who said they worked for superannuation funds or accounting firms reported taking home less than $70,000 per annum, with less than one in five super fund planners earning between $70,000 and $89,999, while $90,000 a year was the lowest salary reported by planners employed by accounting firms.
The survey also revealed that no retail bank-employed planners earned in excess of $300,000, while one in 10 advisory/dealer group-employed planners claimed wages above that level.
Dreaming bigger
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents felt they deserved a higher salary, with no one earning less than $70,000, reporting to be happy with their pay — down from three per cent in the 2015 edition of the survey.
The survey found that 17 per cent of planners believed their salary should be more than $250,000 a year, compared with eight per cent last year.
Aligned planners were significantly more likely to believe they were worth in excess of $250,000 (22 per cent) than those working for non-aligned groups (13 per cent), while 18 per cent of those working for dealer groups/advisory firms felt they should be in that pay bracket — with three per cent believing they should take home more
than $500,000.
