Kaplan Professional and the Financial Advice Association have paired to launch the Advice Academy to help set a “best of breed” PY standard in the industry.
The academy has three goals: boosting new entrants, creating a best-of-breed Professional Year tool tracker/analyser, as well as doing more than meeting the minimum requirements.
At a breakfast in Sydney last week, FAAA chief executive Sarah Abood said this will help solve the ‘big gnarly problem’ of boosting numbers of advisers in the profession.
“I hasten to add we’re not trying to add more requirements on to regulations that are already pretty stringent, this is not about going above and beyond the law,” Abood said.
“This is about making sure that these new entrants are job-ready – that they have the skills that they need and the confidence they need to go into a meeting with a client, to confidently present a strategy, to talk about fees, to talk about the benefits of advice.”
Abood said part of the initiative that tackles new entrants will seek out candidates among high school students, career changers and overseas students, and help tailor PY programmes to match the different streams.
“Every candidate is different though. The offerings through this PY will be tailored to the needs of individual candidates,” Abood said.
“The needs of a 35-year-old [former] teacher are going to be the quite different to the needs of a 21-year-old fresh graduate.”
The program won’t be limited to FAAA members or Kaplan students and instead would be an asset and resource to be used across the profession.
“These programs are for professional financial advisers. This is not about pathways for qualified advisers, although QAs might be some of the people that come into the program if they find they love what they do,” Abood said.
However, Abood said FAAA and Kaplan can’t solve the issue alone and “we really do need our profession to come together and get involved”.
“There are many ways people can get involved. Financial support will help a lot, mentors [and] connections will help a lot,” Abood said.
“Kaplan and FAAA have it to a point where we now need to engage with people who want to help and want to get involved to finalise the program before we launch.”
Abood said the current PY system required 1600 hours of structured training – much more than other professions – which puts a lot of strain on smaller practices not equipped to handle the requirements.
“The support for PY is very fragmented,” Abood said.
“Many small firms are struggling to put the required effort and investment into a PY candidate. Our PY is very demanding – 1600 hours of structured training and work experience, that’s far greater than in accounting where it’s 500 hours.”
She added this is why the industry needed to help support the PY regime in a consistent and standard way.
“I hasten to add, lots of people are doing a lot in many different ways to try to support PY candidates and we absolutely don’t want to replace that,” Abood said.
“What we want to do is a create a central structured program the whole profession can benefit from.”
Kaplan commissioned Delta Consulting from the University of California, Berkeley, to conduct research to better understand what would motivate more people to get into advice,
“The biggest challenge we have is the future and bringing people in,” Kaplan CEO Brian Knight said.
“Wanting fair pay wasn’t the driver that we thought it was. There were new entrants coming in wanting work/life balance.
“What is important to them is having careers that gave them a sense of fulfillment in which they felt they were making a meaningful contribution and had a positive culture. They also need clear guidance on the entry pathway to a career and support to navigate the barriers to entry.”
