Planners need the right stuff

Finding good financial planners is a very difficult task, saysFinancial Recruitment Groupmanaging director, Judith Beck.

“If they are good, and they have built up a good client base, there has to be a very good reason for them to move,” she says.

“Salaries are not that different between groups, so we end up promoting the company and the opportunities as a reason to move.”

AXAnational manager dealer groups Andrew Waddell agrees salaries are not an issue and most planners who are seriously looked at for recruitment tend to have the same good technical skills.

“A planner’s technical competence is usually taken as given,” he says.

“What we are looking for is for them to be proficient and committed to an ongoing career and education.”

The second area AXA focuses on is the planner’s strong personal skills, Waddell says.

“This includes the ability to work within the team and their people skills with clients.

Beck says dealer groups want planners who are CFP-qualified with three to four years experience — and they need to be professionals.

“We check out the qualifications and do thorough reference checks,” she says.

“Probity checks are carried out at the end of the process.”

Beck admits everybody is looking for the same type of planner.

“They want planners with strong technical skills, who are ethical and have a stable employment history,” she says.

“People want the planner to stay around for a certain amount of time.”

Beck says from the planner’s perspective, the conditions have to be right.

“It has to be a better company that they are moving to because if they are successful, they are reluctant to build a client base again,” she says.

Waddell says AXA is really looking for planners who have an entrepreneurial spirit.

“They might start as a salaried planner when they come to us, but we want to see an entrepreneurial flare,” he says.

“Our Project Discovery was about turning an employed planner into a productive principal running their own business.”

Beck says she has found a lot of dealer groups are now looking at growing the skills of their existing planners rather than recruiting new people.

But cultural changes can trigger a planner’s desire to move to another group, she says.

A planner looking for a new home will be focused on the support and systems, as well as a good client base, she says.

“You have to find someone where the timing is just right, and then you can recruit them,” Beck says. “It takes us normally two to three months to get a good planner.”

Waddell says when AXA is seeking planners it is looking for the best it can work with and “very few have all the right ingredients”.