The shortage of advisers compared with the increasing advice gap is a well known issue but apprenticeships could be a solution to both, according to some in the industry.
In light of National Apprenticeship Week (February 6-12), the Personal Finance Society spoke to industry professionals about apprenticeships in the insurance and financial planning professions and how they can benefit both firms and their employees.
Speaking on the podcast, Tom Hegarty, chair of the financial planning trailblazer group and director at M&G Wealth, said the number of advisers within the sector has reduced gradually over the past few decades from about 200,000 in the 1980s to 30,000 today.
“There's a number of reasons for this, mainly to do with regulation and increasing costs to be an adviser, but it has caused issues around the accessibility and affordability of financial advice to consumers,” he said.
“In order to fill that advice gap, we need to recruit more financial advisers to increase the supply of advice and we also need to see the emergence of new advice models which could offer alternative solutions to clients which are likely to be seen through the development of technology.”
Another solution to grow the number of advisers could be apprenticeships, he explained.
Many large financial advice businesses tend to run their own academies and train and develop new talent for the future themselves.
However, he said: “In addition to those academies and new advisers, we need to give or have the option available for smaller businesses also to recruit, train, and develop their own talent as well - for those who don't have access to academies or large companies or could be costly for them to use.
“This is where apprenticeships could be a great mechanism to help.”
Hegarty explained that the policy around apprenticeships has been updated in the past few years and there have been apprenticeship programmes available for financial advice, paraplanning, and a range of other areas in the sector as well.
A small financial advice business could recruit a trainee and put them on to an apprenticeship programme in financial advice or paraplanning.
“The majority of those costs are paid for by the government with a small contribution coming from that advice business,” he said.
“That apprentice would need to be employed by that business, they’d need to be paid a wage, and then around 80 per cent of their time will be spent working within that business but around 20 per cent of their time will be spent on learning and development on the apprenticeship programme.
“That's why it's a great way for advice businesses to be able to recruit and develop their trainee advisers through apprenticeships.”
As the chair of the financial planning trailblazer group, Hegarty said the apprenticeship programmes that exist at the moment are effectively a syllabus for financial planning and paraplanning career paths.
They are known as apprenticeship standards and they need to be updated every few years.
The ones that exist at the moment have been in place for five or six years, and they now need to be updated, which is part of his role as chair to oversee the updating of the standard to completion.
Good practice
For employers, Hegarty explained that there are always a few challenges around the ability to recruit people into their businesses.
“That ranges from recruiting the right person, training them and then keeping them in their businesses as well,” he said.
“In terms of recruiting the right person, the employer needs to not just go for the aptitude of the individual, but also look at their attitude as well so the capability and the skill set of that individual to be able to learn and understand those roles.”
For financial planning, and paraplanning, there are four main skill areas that an adviser needs to look for: the capability of technical knowledge, adhering to the regulatory requirements around ethics, dealing with clients - the business acumen to being able to build and develop a good business practice and interpersonal skills for financial advisers.
“Pick the right person, do all you can to support them, and motivate them,” he said. “Review that regular list to see how things are going on the apprenticeship. Treat them well and pay them well so they don't want to leave and go somewhere else.”
Gideon Van Zijl, compliance and regulatory development consultant at Zurich, and former participant of a senior insurance professional apprenticeship programme, was also on the podcast.
As someone who did an apprenticeship, he said he was quite upset at having to g down the apprenticeship route when he first started but has since changed his mind.
“I thought that I could just do the Advanced Diploma in Chartered Insurance through the Insurance Institute and then I was told I had to do the apprenticeship,” he said.
“I'm actually glad to say that I was totally wrong in not wanting to do the apprenticeship. While it is a level six apprenticeship, so it is a lot of work, it has prepared me much better for my day to day activities and for my role.
“And the main benefit I had was the link between the technical knowledge which I achieved through the CII and being able to explain the knowledge that I've acquired, and that's where the apprenticeship added so much value.”
He said it also allowed him to meet many interesting people, and to be able to see a much wider picture of the business than he would have seen if it had not been for the apprenticeship.
“When I was encouraged to do it, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.”
sonia.rach@ft.com
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