Advisers have been told to strive for qualifications outside of financial services to truly "future-proof" their business.
Speaking at a Personal Finance Society conference in Birmingham today (November 28) Julie Lord, former president of the Institute of Financial Planning and founder of Bridgend-based Magenta Financial Planning, said advisers should be looking to sit the relevant financial planning exams as they are available.
She said: "Get out there and take all the new exams as soon as they come out.
"But not just the financial services, have a look at some other stuff like behavioural psychology, counselling, coaching and wellbeing courses.
"All of these things are set for your to help your clients more in the future, it’s not all about their money, it’s not all about investment advice."
Figures from the Chartered Insurance Institute show the number of chartered planners has risen by more than 60 per cent since 2010.
A study commissioned by Quilter earlier this year found conscientiousness was the defining quality of a successful adviser.
Speaking at the time behavioural economist Mark Pittaccio said this was a contrast to the public perception of advisers being "high pressure and hard salesman".
Ms Lord said advisers should ensure their teams are presenting a united front to clients, urging principals to be ruthless if individual members of staff do not share a company's common goal for its customers.
She said: "If you’ve got people in your business who are not going in the same direction, who you are having to fight all the time, then you need to be thinking a bit more clearly about your own personal future direction."
Regularly fighting people in the same business was "exhausting and very unfulfilling", Ms Lord warned.
She added: "You have to make sure that everyone in the firm is on the same bus and going in the same direction but not only that, they are all in the right seats as well.
"The right people in the right jobs, doing the right thing for the clients. And if you don’t feel like that at the moment, I can absolutely promise you there are fabulous financial planning firms out there begging for good staff.
"So if you don’t feel like you are in the right home, leave. If you don’t feel like you’ve got people in your team who are the right fit, get rid of them."
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
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