Piers Johnson, Managing Director, Metropolis Financial Platforms Ltd discusses the launch of Money Marketing's new digital community, Future Financial Adviser, created in collaboration with M&G Wealth Advice, St. James’s Place, Quilter and other supporting partners.
Title name: Future Financial Adviser
Website: www.futurefinancialadviser.co.uk
Tell us about the launch of Future Financial Adviser - what is the purpose of launching this community? What does FFA seek to address?
Future Financial Adviser launched this month, and its prime objective is to promote the benefits of a career in financial advice to young people.
Financial advice as a career option isn’t on their radar, but it should be. It’s a rewarding career, helping people achieve their life goals, it can be highly lucrative, you can work flexibly and be based anywhere, and you can be employed or self-employed. Want to be a business owner and retire early? Become a financial adviser.
Possibly the best bit is that we predict a shortage of advisers over the next 10 years coupled with an increase in demand for the service they provide. That’s the sort of equation you want to be on the right side of.
Describe your target readers. What are they looking for from your platform?
We have 3 target audiences;
1. 17–25-year-olds looking for career advice/opportunities.
2. Career advisers and professionals who cater for young people.
3. Young people who have recently entered the profession, or started their qualifications journey and are looking to advance their careers.
We provide information from and access to those individuals and businesses who can help them, including a national jobs board.
FFA is a collaboration with some of the UK’s largest UK financial advice firms - why did they want to be involved in establishing this community?
There have been initiatives aimed at promoting financial advice before this. However, they have all been unilateral in approach, or limited in scope.
FFA is based on collaboration, as we all understand that if we want to move the needle on this, we are better together.
All our partners are passionate about nurturing the financial adviser of tomorrow and we want as many young people as possible to have the opportunity.
Why is it important for journalists to be aware of the adviser shortage?
Financial advisers advise on a large proportion of the private wealth in the UK and their role is pivotal to the health and wealth of our nation.
Society and culture are also changing around us at pace and its not enough to merely have enough advisers to satisfy demand, we also need enough diversity in the adviser pool to reflect society.
This can only encourage more people to access and benefit from sound financial advice.
So, if we can help solve the capacity crunch and put financial advice on the radar with young career seekers now, and in the future, then that is something that we will all benefit from.
On a more immediate level it’s also a great career choice for young people so please help us spread the word.
How do you think the financial advice profession will evolve and develop in coming years?
We predict there is a shortage of 50,000 advisers over the next 10 years. Our partners represent large, national advice firms and of course they hope to benefit from this initiative.
We all recognise though that the profession is made up of small, medium, and large firms and I expect that to continue.
Technology will continue to disrupt the profession and the wider industry and has the potential to bring much greater efficiency to many of the tasks involved in financial planning allowing advisers more time with clients, aside from the robo-advice style services we have already seen become established.
At its heart it is a profession based on relationships though and although technology can help in so many ways that aspect of human-to-human connection I expect to remain central to the client adviser relationship.
Is there any research/data from FFA (or supporting partners) on the adviser shortage/careers in financial advice you would like to highlight:
The figure we quote is a shortage of 50,000 advisers over the next 10 years which is an estimate provided by our partner St. James’s Place.
The demand for advice is expected to grow, our population is living longer than ever before, and with the average age of advisers in the late 50s, many will be retiring within that timescale.
In the past the insurers used to maintain large direct sales forces (the man from the Pru) which acted as the natural recruitment pool for financial advisers, but this is no longer the case.
So where is the financial adviser of tomorrow going to come from?
What is the best way to get in touch with FFA for comment?
I’m happy to take any questions from journalists (piers.johnson@emap.com) and we will also be running a series of webinars throughout the year. Do also please mention us to your colleagues covering careers!
Just visit https://www.futurefinancialadviser.co.uk to stay in touch!
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