You may be familiar with Money Marketing’s Financial Adviser 2B section, where we provide insight and analysis for budding advisers.
Within it, we run a great column called ‘Diary of an aspiring adviser’, which follows new recruits on their journey to qualification.
The diary entries are both inspiring and enlightening, covering the highs and lows from exam battles to job changes and personal wellbeing.
I’ve been thrilled to see a couple of columnists reach fully fledged qualification recently. The hard work and dedication involved are clear.
Call me naïve, but I was surprised to hear such pressure was being placed on aspiring advisers
This is encouraging given the desperate need for fresh blood in the sector. I shouldn’t have to remind you that the average age of UK advisers is 58, or that we need 50,000 new ones to service current demand.
Without that fresh blood, advice just won’t survive. So I was shocked to read a piece by one of our columnists, Vicky Ngoma, explaining why she was giving up on becoming an adviser.
“As a self-employed IFA, I felt pressure to put myself in front of groups with more disposable income than I had, pushing product sales and basically helping the rich to get richer,” says Ngoma.
“Selling products was not my motivation to join the industry and I found doing that extremely disheartening.”
For new joiners, it is easy to fall into a sales trap while trying to establish a business
She is now pursuing a career as a financial coach, and says: “This seemed the best way to serve my peers in age and demographic now, rather than when they are financially mature. Everyone deserves a secure financial future, not just those who come from a place of wealth through connections.”
Ngoma’s diary entries paint her as a caring, passionate and ambitious woman who will be a serious loss to the advice profession.
Consigned to history?
Call me naïve, but I was surprised to hear such pressure was being placed on aspiring advisers. The sector is far from perfect, but I thought tales like this were mostly a thing of the past.
Are we to expect new recruits to know the ins and outs of what’s ‘normal’
Sales pressure has been in regulators’ sights for years. Following findings in the Financial Conduct Authority’s 2017 Asset Management Market Study that advisers were under significant pressure to meet sales targets and generate revenue, rules requiring a more transparent breakdown of fees and charges for clients were introduced as part of Mifid II the following year.
I was curious to hear about other newly qualified advisers’ experiences.
“It’s an old-school approach left over from the commission-driven era, but I haven’t experienced any pressure to flog products,” says Rockwealth associate financial planner Tom Redmayne, another adviser we’ve followed through our diary series.
I’ve been thrilled to see a couple of columnists reach full qualification recently. The hard work and dedication involved are clear
“When choosing who to work for, I ensured the firm was driven by doing the right thing for clients, rather than seeing an adviser as a glorified salesman pushing financial products.”
So things could have been very different for Ngoma at another business, and the experience of Premier Wealth Solutions adviser Emmelia Powell echoes this.
“It’s driven by firm culture, colleagues’ attitudes and what your understanding of financial planning is. Financial planning, in my opinion, is client central not product central,” says Powell.
This may sound obvious if you’ve been in the sector for five, 10 or 20 years. But imagine taking your first steps into the world of advice today, and trying to find a company and role that can support both your studies and your life outside financially. Are we to expect new recruits to know the ins and outs of what’s ‘normal’ here?
Things could have been very different for Ngoma at another business
As Powell admits, she was lucky to enter an established firm without any pressure to grow her own client bank.
“I think, for new joiners to the industry, it is easy to fall into a sales trap while trying to establish a business,” she says.
It’s great to hear most firms are raising their new recruits in a supportive and compliant environment, but this undercurrent of sales pressure is not acceptable.
The profession must be on its best behaviour to attract the talent it so badly needs.
Maria Nicholls is features editor. Contact her at maria.nicholls@moneymarketing.co.uk
This article featured in the June 2023 edition of MM.
If you would like to subscribe to the monthly magazine, please click here.
