Following its inaugural Brimstone event in Sydney in September, Striver will expand interstate in 2024 with new dates after feedback from students at the event suggested 85 per cent would consider advice as a career path.
The event – which was attended by 200 students in September – may not yet move the dial on replacing the 10,000 advisers that have departed the industry since the Hayne royal commission, but with extra dates in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane next year, Striver founder Alisdair Barr says the program will be able to promote the profession which has struggled to appeal to new entrants.
“That was 170 people who aren’t studying the approved degree and are early enough in their careers to change their direction to study the approved degree – this is way before [doing their professional year] or anything like that,” Barr tells Professional Planner.
Additionally, he adds a female attendee ended up being hired by one of Striver’s clients in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.
While the industry has spoken about getting out in public to attract new talent to advice, Striver has delivered an avenue to deliver this initiative.
“They just want to be a part of it, they just think it’s as important as their responsibility to be able to support the outcome of that,” Barr says.
“They wouldn’t be backing if it they weren’t excited by it and wanted to see more of it really.”
The inaugural Brimstone event was hosted on 19 September in Sydney, pulling in industry heavyweights like Insignia head of advice Darren Whereat and BT chief executive Matt Rady, with the two companies among a group of major licensees and institutions sponsoring the event two months ago.
“We’ve gone and mustered up our partners to commit to running four more of those events nationwide next year based on the fact that we had that impact on people who hadn’t even seen advice as a career opportunity,” Barr says.
Barr notes the perception that the Hayne royal commission put off new entrants from coming into to advice but believes it’s a myth.
“It’s not that, they just don’t know about it,” Barr says.
Drawing in from different places
Striver community manager Mel Nguyen, a firm believer in the phrase “you can’t be what you can’t see”, says the event drew people from different backgrounds which will drive diversity in the profession.
“If no one can see people like Sandhya [Maini, head of Zurich Assure] in front of them talking about financial advice, I would never envision myself getting financial advice,” Nguyen says.
She adds that she also doesn’t fit what the “typical” adviser looks like.
“Adviser Ratings last year said a typical adviser was a 40-something year old man living in the suburbs in Melbourne from a private education background that’s probably Anglo-Saxon – that ain’t me,” she says.
“Bringing the event over to the other cities with an [unimaginable] amount of diversity in both gender, backgrounds, immigrant/non-immigrant… that’s super important,” she says. “Not only for the industry, for just general financial wellbeing.”
