Advice firms need to break the "barrier" between paraplanners and advisers if they are to increase the number of advisers and diversify the profession, according to guests on the latest FTAdviser podcast.
The podcast was recorded as part of FTAdviser's Promote your Profession campaign.
The Financial Conduct Authority has said advice firms need to become more diverse because this will lead to better outcomes for clients.
Many larger firms have also invested in academies and training programmes to encourage younger people into a profession which has typically had an average age in the late 50s.
James Woods, director of BWD Search's wealth management team, said: "The most obvious [issue] that I always cite is the gap between the ratio of female to male paraplanners and in the advisory space. Depending on where you pull your stats from, 40-50 per cent of all paraplanners are female yet only 15-18 per cent of the advisory community is so there is obviously a barrier there.
"We need to understand what the barrier is, whether it is at an industry or a more local, firm level. We need to understand what would make that switch more attractive because that is clearly the most obvious route to increasing numbers of advisers full stop and younger advisers, but also female advisers within this space."
Gee Foottit, senior manager in partnership recruitment at St James's Place, said firms can find paraplanners so valuable that they can be reluctant to encourage them to become advisers.
She said: "It about is helping practices recruit up and coming people into supporting roles. It is the whole pipeline of talent all the way up to adviser.
"Unless you have new talent coming through to replace those paraplanners, people will be reluctant to let them progress to the next stage."
Sheena Gillett, communications and PR director at adviser trade body Pimfa, said that on top of this some advice firms needed to think more deeply about how they were finding new talent.
She said: "The awareness of the talent pools you're fishing in is really important. Taking a step back and asking if you are creating a bit of an echo chamber in your organisation and are you thinking about the places you are going out to recruit from.
"Are you being sensitive about the way you are creating and posting your job adverts? Are you thinking about how you are positioning your organisation with all of the benefits that are really attractive to some of the younger generations?
"Those are the things that will ensure we are getting interesting new talent through but also we can keep them as well, as we explain the opportunities they have got to grow and progress."
damian.fantato@ft.com