Looking beyond the Professional Year

One of the most important factors to a successful Professional Year (PY) strategy is for firms to look beyond the 12-month horizon.

Speaking at the Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association (SIAA) conference, Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management WA state manager, Chris Webster, said firms needed to have a clear idea about what would happen to the PY adviser once their year finishes.

“I think the worst thing that can happen is you can pull some young people through a program like that and then put them back into the seat where they’ve come from,” he said.

Webster, whose firm had recently graduated a PY adviser with three more in the program and a further 10 in a pre-PY academy, said new advisers brought new energy to an organisation.

“We talk about what we teach them through the program, but we learn so much from the younger cohort.

“Their clients are going to be different to ours, they’re going to have different needs and wants, they’re going to use different platforms, they're going to manage money differently.”

Ord Minnett interim head of human resources, Bernadette Page, said a good PY program was all about managing risk from a talent and succession planning perspective.

“The ongoing success of our business and the existence of our business will come down to us developing new advisers and successfully seeing that huge transition that's going to happen in the next five years with those that exit.”

Fourth Line chief operating officer, Joel Ronchi, said he expected the Professional Year would be the “next big focus” for the advice community following completion of the financial adviser exam.

The risk management and compliance firm was setting up an academy to help firms manage new entrants on their Professional Year.

Prior to joining Fourth Line, Ronchi had been supporting advisers ahead of them sitting the exam so was well-placed to work with them on the PY.