All work, no play for advisers

Julian Battistella

Four out of five financial planners are working more hours than the average Australian and most find it hard to ‘switch off’ from work, according to new research from CoreData and brandmanagement (CoreData).

The research, surveying over 800 financial advisers, found that 61.7 per cent find it difficult to switch off from worrying or thinking about work on the weekends.

Despite over 80 per cent of planners working more than the national standard of 38 hours each week, one in five often take calls outside of work hours, the research found.

Nearly 20 per cent of advisers work more than 50 hours a week, while nearly 4 per cent work more than 60 hours in an average week, it found.

The large workload taken on by financial advisers is “the key problem in our industry”, 2007 Fund Manager of the Year and senior financial adviser with Battistella Financial Services, Julian Battistella, told Money Management.

“Prior to setting up my own business I was only doing 40 hours a week. Now I work around 60 hours a week,” he said.

Battistella’s workload is not unusual among planning business owners.

According to the CoreData research, nearly 65 per cent of practice principals are likely to be thinking about work on the weekends compared to nearly 60 per cent of advisers who work in a practice.

“I believe most financial planners are working long hours because they have too many clients and they don’t filter their clients properly,” Battistella said.

CoreData’s Craig Phillips told Money Management the research confirms what many such as Battistella already know; there is a shortage of financial planners in the market.

“The industry is still trying to solve the daunting issue of attracting more would-be advisers ... to help meet the increasing demand for advice from the segments of the market that are open to using professional advisory services,” he said.

There are only 16,000 planners available to an estimated eight million Australian adults, according to Financial Planning Association chief executive officer Jo-Anne Bloch.

“The findings reveal life as an adviser is not an easy one, contrary to much of the flak planners as a group often face in the mainstream media and from certain quarters within the industry itself,” Phillips said.