Planners top wanted list
Wanted: Financial planners. Start: yesterday.
There is a chronic shortage of skilled financial planners emerging, as demand for high end planners far outstrips supply.
Wanted: Financial planners. Start: yesterday.
There is a chronic shortage of skilled financial planners emerging, as demand for high end planners far outstrips supply.
Recruitment specialists say the industry is booming and has jumped significantly over the past 12 to 18 months.
"There are just not enough people out there with the expertise to fill all the vacancies," says Morgan & Banks divisional manager for financial services Anne Hatton.
Indeed, demand has escalated so much that Hays Personnel Services re-cently opened a special division dedicated to financial planners.
The demand appears to become from all corners of the financial serv-ices industry.
Hays' recruitment adviser for financial planning John Aldridge says the strongest thrust is currently from chartered accountants and CPAs, followed by stockbrokers.
"The accountants realise that they have a ready-made client base. They provide business and tax advice, but their clients have had to go elsewhere for financial planning," he says.
Recruitment Solutions financial services and banking consultant Rob-ert Kyte says major banks - and Westpac and Commonwealth in particu-lar - have realised the benefits of distribution and cross referrals and are trying to put as many advisers into their bank branches as possible.
"Companies want to cement the loyalty of their client base and there is also lots of money to be made in this area," Kyte says.
Also fuelling job opportunities are changes in the legal and regula-tory environments which boost the need for skilled people. So too, says ProQuest joint managing director Paul Resnik, is the rising pro-fessional liability financial planners face.
Also helping are the strength of the economy and stock exchange, and changing demographics.
"As the baby boomers approach their late 40s, they are becoming in-creasingly interested in providing for their retirement," Kyte says.
"There is also the rising sophistication in the Australian popula-tion's interest in financial products, which boosts their need for qualified financial advice."
While the experts say companies have to fork up for the right people, pay, it seems, has not risen as fast as demand.
"Salaries have been increasing steadily, but not spectacularly," Kyte says.
AUTHOR
Zilla Efrat
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