Financial advisers need to "bang the drum" for their profession to ensure it can help as many people as possible across the country, according to Kevin Forbes.
The chair of the Hants and Dorset region of the Personal Finance Society said money troubles were one of the biggest contributors to mental health issues in the UK and making high-quality, professional financial advice more accessible to people from all walks of life could make a massive difference.
Forbes said: "There are so many examples of financial planners and advisers doing this day in day out and we need a bigger, profession-wide effort to do more and reach more people. To achieve this, we need more planners and advisers and for that, we need more people entering our profession at younger ages and from more diverse backgrounds.
"Financial planning is a fantastic and rewarding career in which talent can be nurtured and thrive. We are responsible for making the case, building succession planning into our firms for the next generations to come and banging the drum for our sector.
"As a result, we will have a growing, healthy and vibrant profession that can help communities across the country."
Forbes was speaking after the launch of the FTAdviser Promote your Profession campaign.
The campaign, which aims to bring advisers, planners, paraplanners and brokers together to share best practice and encourage collaboration to boost the profession, launches officially this week.
The aims are fourfold:
- To provide a forum where readers can share best practice and ideas for showcasing the professionalism of financial advice.
- To bring expert commentary and insights from experienced professionals on building successful advisory businesses.
- To promote ways to encourage school and college leavers to consider financial advice as an attractive, long-term career.
- To lobby parliament and the Treasury to consider the importance of entrepreneurial financial services companies in the UK's post-Brexit regulatory framework.
Find out more at: Promote Your Profession
