Warning bells over a "huge recruitment crisis" expected to hit the advice industry have become more frequent and louder this year as fingers pointed towards an increasing regulatory burden and ageing adviser population as cause of concern.
Speaking with FTAdviser Quilter warned of its own predictions for the number of advisers set to exit the market, saying it was preparing for 10 per cent of the current adviser population to leave the industry each year over the next three to four years.
Scott Stevens, head of recruitment and acquisitions at Quilter Financial Panning, said: "Whilst over the last few years you've seen adviser numbers trip up a little bit, I would describe that as an Indian Summer because over the next few years it's going to be really, really tough.
"That 10 per cent headwind will add up accumulatively over the next three to four years to about 7000 individuals [leaving the market]."
With just over 26,000 advisers on the FCA register, Mr Stevens said this would amount to more than a quarter leaving the profession at a time when demand for advice is only set to increase.
He said: "This doesn't just affect Quilter, it affects all my competitors too. So this is really a rally cry.
"Whilst I feel that Quilter, with our standing in the market place, is going to play our part that rally cry is calling on our competitors to help us all in that journey that will see more people as they get older need financial advice as their lives become more complicated. There’s a crying out need for advisers."
Quilter's adviser school recently bolstered its offering with the introduction of a fast track course and Mr Stevens said advice firms "growing their own" advisers in a declining pool was a "silver bullet".
The Quilter Financial Adviser School now allows full time students to achieve a Diploma for Financial Advisers in three months, compared with its standard part-time programme which takes 47 weeks.
Mr Stevens said: "The fast track course allows us to go after second careerists, those that are ex-sportspeople, ex-military, mums returning to work - many individuals who have already got those softer skill sets they have learnt through another profession and actually when they look at this [financial advice] they see a very attractive career because it allows them to be fairly autonomous and can earn good money.
"But they can also achieve a higher purpose which is helping people and cut their own time according to other duties they may have."
Mr Stevens said whilst the fast track course was currently in place as a pilot running until mid-January he remained hopeful that if he could make a success of the programme more of its kind would be rolled out in the near future.
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
What do you think about the issues raised by this story? Email us on fa.letters@ft.com to let us know.
