Advisers leaving the industry have several related employment options according to a wealth management recruiter, especially if they can stomach remediation projects, but business development roles are largely off the table.
Fabian Ruggieri, a wealth management recruiter at Kaizen in Melbourne, says the institutional exodus from advice coupled with incoming education standards and a looming ban on grandfathered commissions is prompting advisers to either look for a new home or seek an entirely new role.
“We’re seeing people looking for opportunities to exit advice,” he says, noting that it’s not just the big banks that are leaving the space. Yellow Brick Road, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, HSBC and AON have all announced their exit from wealth management.
“Some of the older advisers are slowly coming around to deciding that maybe it is time,” Ruggieri says. “A lot are looking for alternative roles.”
For those willing to let go of being an authorised representative, Ruggieri says contracted remediation roles are an increasingly popular option with “plenty of opportunities” paying “north of $100K”.
“For a role where that’s relative to giving advice and limited in risk, it’s a real option,” he says. “If you’re between roles or towards the back end of your career you can take a contract role for three or six months; there’s no risk, you’re still going to get paid six figures and you’ll work normal hours.”
The remediation roles – which largely involve checking advice documents for breaches – are not for everyone, however. A lot of advisers would find remediation work unpalatable, he admits, and a short term option at best.
“I’ve spoken to people who’ve done it for a month and said: ‘it’s not for me’,” Ruggieri notes.
He says the chances of an adviser transferring into a business development management role at a platform provider or fund manger are slim, as firms would rather put on someone with a direct investment background such as an analyst.
“I do a lot of those [BDM] roles and most of the time my clients aren’t open to seeing advisers,” he says.
