A perfect storm is brewing in the financial advice industry, which will exacerbate the financial advice gap and this is illustrated by an experience I had with an adviser recently.
During our catch-up the adviser received a call from a potential client who said they had £75,000 to invest but was politely turned away.
This is certainly not meant to sound like a slight on the adviser, as the reason they had to turn them away was because they were swamped with clients and unfortunately and understandably had to be choosy about who to advise with their finite time.
A nice problem to have you might be thinking.
However, what I see here is a potential client who could stand to benefit from advice and, at least initially, with no means of accessing it.
This is not an isolated incident as we regularly send out mystery shopper clients to evaluate our advisers and the teams often report that they actually find it hard to become a client as so many advisers have books of clients that are bursting at the seams.
The problem of a growing population who want advice, but cannot get it, is only set to get worse unless we radically improve the flow of new entrants into the industry.
As I have previously lamented, we are set for around a 26 per cent decline in adviser numbers over the next three years.
I therefore want to sound a rally cry to other players in this industry to help boost adviser numbers.
This could be as simple as making sure you and your colleagues spread the message to relatives, neighbours, or whoever will listen, that becoming a financial adviser can represent a great career.
Here at the Quilter Financial Adviser School we have just launched our new fast-track, three month programme.
This is a full-time rather than part-time programme and is ideally suited to those transitioning – ex-military, ex-sportspeople or women returning to work after having children, for example.
This will hopefully mean clients like the one described above will be able to find an financial adviser who has available bandwidth to help them.
Scott Stevens is director of adviser recruitment and acquisition at Quilter Financial Planning
