Just Wealth, the investment arm of Just Mortgages, has set itself the task of drawing in fresh-faced advisers with a business model, it believes, will give it the edge over other wealth management firms.
The wealth business' parent is hoping to find 125 more advisers by year end, as it scales up from 525 to 650 advisers. Just Wealth has also set itself the target of reaching £30m in client assets by December.
Just Wealth operates solely on a self-employed financial adviser model, having launched its pensions, investments, and retirement advice service a year ago.
With a focus on building customers for life, Just Mortgages was lacking a financial advice outlet for wealth customers.
David Magee, former distribution director of AkoniHub, heads up the new outfit. “Just Mortgages already had the clients, so it just made sense [to launch Wealth],” Magee told FTAdviser.
A big challenge Magee said advisers were facing when working for big wealth firms in a self-employed capacity was the lack of support in acquiring new clients.
“Big firms can be much of a muchness in this space,” he explained. “The unique part I saw [at Just Wealth] was solving the struggle advisers face of ‘how do I get to see customers?’
“The firms out there say ‘come with us, try to find your own customers, and see if you can be successful’.
“The biggest attraction I saw is that you’ve got this 4-500 person brokerage with advisers who are seeing lots of clients. Why would a customer see a mortgage broker and then go off down the road to try and find a financial adviser? They want it in-house.”
Just Wealth’s unique selling proposition for self-employed advisers is that it will provide referrals and leads from the mortgage side, which will complement their own net new business.
“We of course don’t want advisers to be wholly reliant on that,” said Magee. “We’re keen for them to network themselves and build their own profile.”
Currently the majority of advisers - some 400 - across Just Mortgages and Just Wealth sit on the self-employed side of the business, which launched back in 2016.
Already on track to add 25 more advisers by the end of February, Just Mortgages also intends to double the number of its employed mortgage and protection advisers from 125 to 250.
On the wealth side, Magee’s team has been tasked with growing the business "ten-fold", to £30m in client assets by the end of the year.
Investment in training
Alongside the inbound flurry of mortgage clients to help his team of advisers get started, Magee is also reassured by the investments Just Mortgages has been making in its academies over the last ten years.
“There's dissatisfaction on the wealth side of this sector, with many advisers joining firms in the hope they’ll learn the ropes quickly,” said the wealth boss.
“But all too often, firms are busy seeing clients and don’t have time to train new advisers up.
“But here, by investing in training as well as business growth, we can achieve a much greater success rate.”
According to John Phillips, Just Mortgages’ national operations director, the firm received more than 1,000 CVs in the run up to its latest academy.
Asked how the firm avoids becoming a training ground where advisers join before leaving for greener pastures, Phillips said: “Well, our attrition rate is very low. We don’t put any restrictions on advisers who leave, like other firms do. And I personally speak to every adviser who decides to leave. Occasionally, an adviser finds mortgage advice isn’t for them, and that’s totally fine.”
But with a growing wealth business, Magee believes the breadth of opportunity for advisers at the firm just got a lot more attractive.
A big focus for the firm has been on bringing in a new, younger generation of advisers.
“We have an ageing population of advisers who are leaving the industry,” said Magee.
“So there’s a real benefit for us to grow a financial advice arm and attract the next generation of advisers.
"Academies for financial advisers are important, because otherwise it’s a very narrow path for getting into financial advice.”
Opening up new career paths
The types of candidates joining the wealth side range from established advisers who spy a fresh opportunity, to next generation financial advisers straight out of universities.
The business has also seen an uptick in interest from Level 4 qualified advisers who haven’t yet given advice, and paraplanners who have become frustrated with firms not giving them the chance to move to the next step.
“The aim is to give advisers different career paths,” said Phillips. “At the start there was no future proofing for the advisers. But over the years, we’ve slowly been growing our adviser divisions.”
Phillips reckons both the mortgage and wealth businesses will together bring 50-70 new people into the industry this year alone. Pools ripe to pick from for first-time advisers over the last year have been hospitality and bank branches, he said.
But these are by no means the only sectors the businesses have benefitted from, he said. “One of our best advisers was once a bricklayer,” said Phillips.
Over the next 5-15 years, he hopes the firm will offer a complete route for financial advice.
“We’re not megalomaniacs. We’re not here to take on the world. We’re just here to serve our clients better and keep growing the advice sector.”
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
