Financial planners are in demand

GETTING a job in the financial advice sector is the perfect second career.

Anthony Kurver says he has seen first-hand the difficulties that come from a lack of financial planning

As national unemployment figures exceed 6 per cent and an increasing number of people look for work each month, the financial planning industry is growing in strength.

Recruitment firm Hays’ Australia and New Zealand regional director Nick Murphy says financial planners are among the most sought-after workers, and the profession is a good option for ­accountants and people with an economic background looking to diversify.

“There’s a real candidate shortage, there are a lot more jobs than there are candidates out there,” Murphy says. “At the moment we’ve got more jobs than you can poke a stick at, we just don’t have the people to fill them.”

The financial planning industry has been under a cloud in recent years due to practices going under and taking clients’ funds with them — such as Storm Financial, and the Commonwealth Bank’s recent scandal where hundreds of customers lost thousands of dollars when staff ­invested their funds in high-risk ­investments.

The Australian Securities & ­Investments Commission also has ordered Macquarie Bank’s financial group to contact 160,000 ­customers over flawed financial advice.

While there is a reluctance among many to pay commissions to a planner, thousands of people believe it is in their best interests to have a professional manage their ongoing finances.

Murphy says the financial planning industry is different from accountancy and banking because most graduate planners go into other jobs ­straight after leaving university. Few new graduates go into financial planning because it is an industry that requires life ­experience and years of understanding financial markets.

It is the perfect second career, he says, particularly for older workers who are looking for a sea change or who may have been made redundant in the current tight economic conditions. Those who go into ­financial planning generally start off in other financial services, ­accountancy or economics, before undertaking the required RG146 diploma.

Murphy says financial planning companies tend to recruit from within the industry, particularly from banks, rather than training younger recruits.

“The interesting thing with financial planning is that many companies are reluctant to train and would rather buy in staff,” he says. “They want someone who can hit the ground running. People can come from a whole variety of backgrounds and you need ­people moving in from banking, accounting, finances.”

Along with in-demand professions such as information tech­nology, architecture and construction, the financial planning industry is taking off, Murphy says, with many mortgage broking and other financial service companies expanding.

Mortgage Choice opened a financial planning service in 2012. Its chief executive, Michael Russell, says the industry has slowly recovered from the GFC and, with a booming housing market, more people are looking for advice from providers other than the major ­financial institutions.

Mortgage Choice had been operating in the mortgage broking industry for more than 20 years, and Russell says consumers were increasingly asking for financial advice to complement their housing loan and investments.

“The industry is growing on the back of a resurgent housing market,” he says. “Our core mortgage market is growing both in loan numbers and in staff headcount. With financial advice everyone is recognising you need to put on a financial planner earlier in your life. You expect to work longer and you’re living longer and it’s important that you plan for your golden years earlier.”

Russell says there was a great deal of hesitancy and even alarm surrounding the financial planning industry. But, he says, recent legislative changes will make the industry more accountable, with financial planners having to disclose commissions, and regulations have been tightened.

Russell says that since Mortgage Choice started offering fin­ancial planning, staff numbers have grown to seven brokers in their head office and 32 advisers in the network. He hopes that will grow to 60 planners by the end of the financial year.

“We’re recruiting existing planners, they need to have a pedigree in financial planning but we’re looking for this new generation of planners. We’re looking for people who are young and hungry and customer-focused.”

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Man with a plan: tragic confusion prompted career

ANTHONY Kurver was destined to be a financial planner, despite undertaking what he called a “mind-numbingly boring” accountancy degree.

Kurver says he lived in the US in his late teens. A friend’s father was a financial planner and Kurver went to work with him a few times.

He enjoyed the work, learning what it was like to deal with investments and insurance and offering advice.

But it was after watching what happened to his extended family after his aunt died a decade ago that he realised he should be a financial planner rather than an accountant.

“My aunty passed away quite suddenly, and when I saw the condition her affairs were left in, they didn’t have any planning,” Kurver says.

“It spawned from there: seeing what could happen to people without insurance.”

Kurver spoke to a recruitment adviser towards the end of his degree and was sent a list of financial planners in his area.

As a 19-year-old he began working with a planner, doing compliance and insurance.

He then went to a mid-level accountancy firm and worked his way up through para planning and advising, but could not have his own client list because they were referred from accountants. He moved to Mortgage Choice to start his own franchise, which is becoming more lucrative as he takes his own clients.

He says one of the benefits of working for Mortgage Choice is its fixed-price model, where clients are charged for services rather than paying commissions. “You might be forgoing some revenue, but that model is more attractive to consumers,” he says. “I’ve won a few clients because of that.”