AMP Horizons Financial Planning Academy has evolved to become a national centre responsible for not only recruitment and training of new candidates, but also the ongoing education and development of its entire financial planner base, according to Horizons director Tim Steele.
Steele said a strategic review of AMP’s financial planning advice and services business last year included all of its licensees and support areas, and resulted in the broadening of Horizons’ scope. Horizons is now responsible for the delivery of training and education of all AMP planners.
Steele said the change had enabled AMP and Horizons to leverage best practices and have real synergies across the group.
“We’ve got a much better structure and the opportunity to do something really special in that particular space,” he said.
A single education and development strategy does not currently include AXA financial planners, although Steele said this was something the group was currently considering.
“We haven’t made any decisions with respect to how Horizons may support any AXA licensees,” he said. “There’s a lot of work being done by our integration team to identify what areas we would look to leverage. We would like to think that our track record is such that Horizons will be one of those areas that would be of benefit more broadly.”
The Horizons Academy attracts candidates from all over the country and 327 graduates and 53 new AMP practices have come out of it so far. Steele said there was still a long way to go and that the academy would continue to evolve. For example, although higher than the industry average, only 27 per cent of females were coming through the Horizons program, Steele said. Horizons was currently researching what could be done to build awareness around financial planning and make it more attractive as a career for successful professional women, he added.
Steele said women particularly tended to make excellent financial planners as they were generally more empathic and better listeners. These attributes were important considering that 50 per cent of the Horizons training program revolved around soft skills, he said.
