Wanted: 10,000 IFAs over the next decade

According to Positive Solutions chief executive Jim Reeve, the programme is totally unique. “Nobody else does what we’re doing,” he says. “No bank, no financial institution, no insurance company has an apprenticeship scheme such as ours.”

The problem for the financial advice industry is the fact Mr Reeve is, by and large, correct - his apprenticeship programme is unique, and its very uniqueness throws into stark relief what is perhaps the major reason why the industry is failing to attract the next generation of IFAs.

Mr Cummings would be the first to admit that the lack of training opportunities for IFAs is a “massive” problem in the UK. “It’s a fundamental weakness of the sector,” he says. “It’s very expensive to train someone to become an IFA, and, far too often, companies headhunt qualified personnel from each other rather than invest in training programmes.”

Until recently, Aifa has worked hard to resolve this very problem, collating best practices for IFA training. But the association has had to suspend its efforts in order to focus its limited resources on the evolution of the RDR. Once the review goes into the implementation phase next year, Mr Cummings says, Aifa will be able to focus its efforts again on “galvanising" the advice industry into investing in its own future.