The industry needs to work harder to attract young risk specialists, according to Synchron Director, Don Trapnell.
Speaking ahead of the Synchron NextGen Conference, an event designed especially for advisers under 40, Mr Trapnell encouraged the wider industry to make the profession more appealing to younger players.
He warned that the financial advice sector was facing its own ageing population crisis, with the majority of advisers preparing to retire over the coming decade and fewer new entrants choosing to specialise in risk.
“Risk specialists play a very important role in protecting the life styles of their clients and I think as an industry, we have largely failed to communicate that,” Mr Trapnell said. “Individuals coming out of university appear to be gravitating towards financial planning and investments and not considering risk.”
Within his own dealer group, Mr Trapnell said initiatives which leveraged the life experience and knowledge of more senior advisers had been very successful in bringing in new blood. He urged other parts of the industry to adopt programs such as mentoring and specialist workshops targeted at graduates to help grow adviser numbers.
the average age of Synchron advisers has reduced from 59 in 2006 to 48 today
“We recognised, quite early on that Synchron’s adviser force was ageing. At that time, we made a decision to make Synchron an attractive home for young advisers, a place where they could learn from the incredible experience of our more senior advisers. As a result, the average age of Synchron advisers has reduced from 59 in 2006 to 48 today. We have been able to achieve that reduction, not by losing our more experienced reps, but by encouraging younger people into the Synchron family,” Mr Trapnell concluded.
Synchron’s NextGen Conference will run from 19-23 March in Canberra with special guest speaker Monica Wofford, from Contagious Companies, who will coach attendees on leadership, communication and interpersonal relationships.
My son is a director of our Businesses and has 8 years practical experiance, though more importantly, he has brought in technology innovations that I could not have done, as unfortunately even though I think I am still a young adviser, I left school having never been allowed to use a calculator, let alone a computer. ( This probably puts me in the old bugger category, which I deny vigorously )
I am amazed at the technology explosion and the benefits it has brought in. We are at the cusp of a technology boom and the last 3 years we have spent a considerable amount of money and time developing some technology that we hope will solve much of the underinsurance issues Australians face today.
Don, keep doing what you are doing as we believe you are on the right track.
As a younger adviser I can confirm that it is very difficult to get into an industry that expects you to already have min. 3 years planning experience whilst gaining considerable, and about to be dramatically increased, educational qualifications.
Every position I looked at, prior to my current employer having faith in me, required ridiculous qualifications and experience beyond what anyone aged under 35 and without years already in the industry could have. It is not realistic.
I came from a banking background, but many employers found that this was not “close enough” to financial planning, despite my qualifications in a related field.
If we want to attract younger advisers there needs to be a rethink of what employers set as their minimum requirements and give young employees time to acquire training and experience whilst in the industry. We need to invest in younger planners to gain the experience we need in our industry before the more experienced planners retire. Computers and technology will never replace the experience gained by some of the current planners.
It is the age old issue where you cannot get experience if you do not have a job in that industry!!
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