Regulation does not put off younger people from joining the financial advice profession, Andy Thompson has said.
Speaking at the annual summit of the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association, the chief executive of Intrinsic said regulation was something experienced advisers complained about but not something that bothered the next generation.
He said: "I don't think that is how people think outside the industry. I think people are comforted by the fact there is some robustness and structure.
"I am guilty of this myself, of thinking about the good old days and how tough life is for us now because we have to fill in some forms.
"But when you bring new people in they have got appetite, they are not jaded by any of that and are reassured by what they see."
Mr Thompson said one of the biggest concerns he had when encouraging new blood into the advice market was that an adviser in their 20s would be able to work with a client in their 60s with millions of pounds in wealth.
But he said: "I thought there would be much more resistance from the older person but there has not been."
Camilla Stowell, head of wealth and investment management, private office and international at Coutts, said: "They do not carry that baggage and it is up to us to figure out how we make the regulation work in a pragmatic way."
Richard Charnock, chief executive of Standard Life Wealth, added that the regulation was what made financial advice a profession.
All three agreed firms should be focusing on hiring people to make their workforce more diverse and greater flexibility at work was highlighted as a key way to achieve that but Ms Stowell highlighted that advisers would need to be more adaptable than before.
She pointed out how Coutts now asks its advisers to work in shifts, so some start work at midday so they can handle clients who might want to speak to an adviser after work.
Mr Thompson said the days of hiring advisers with big books of clients were gone.
He said: "The supply of advice is limited and the demand is huge. Whether you have a big book of clients is less important now than it has ever been.
"We are in a world now where what you are doing is you are entering into a long-term relationship with those clients who are paying increasingly for that ongoing advice.
"We are looking for a different type of adviser who can do that rather than someone who brings a big book of clients. We have got the clients now."
damian.fantato@ft.com
