Striver is on track to place 100 graduates into the financial advice industry in 2026, having already placed 70 so far. Around 100 students set up a profile on the Striver platform every week, a 40 per cent increase in its year-on-year numbers.
Striver founder and chief executive officer Alisdair Barr tells Professional Planner the goal is to introduce 5000 new advisers into the industry in a decade.
“The numbers are pretty clear, and everybody’s talked about the decline in the amount of advisers over the last five to six years, and there’s certainly not a massive amount of them hopping up and down, wanting to come out of university into advice,” Barr says.
“And that’s what we’ve really focused on: How do we create a profession that’s really attractive for the next generation? And we do that, and we support them into finding really great homes in advice, and we support firms and organisations, finding them, attracting them, retaining them, and growing them into the next generation of advisers.”
Demystifying the lack of younger advisers
Unless someone is studying for a financial planning degree, superannuation is something boring that people’s grandparents talk about, Barr says.
“I don’t think it’s they don’t want to come into advice. They just don’t know about advice.”
He says that many don’t know there is a whole profession supporting people with their financial affairs, decisions and lifestyle. And that is where Striver comes in by raising awareness, getting people interested in starting a career in financial advice and making the pathway to it clear where future advisers can see how they can make a living of it.
“And I think that’s the piece that we haven’t done, and we don’t have, and that’s why we don’t have the numbers.”
Barr believes there should also be more support for the firms investing in growing talent, getting people through a professional year and into becoming an adviser so it is not seen as a burden.
“More structured pathways and support to helping firms grow talent… is where I think we really need to focus on as a profession,” Barr says.
Raising awareness
Striver raises awareness through a platform it built where students can set up profiles and learn about wealth management or say they are interested in a career in advice. It also reaches out through social media, activities and relationships with universities, partnership with alumini.
Striver runs an event called Brimstone which takes place in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. Its partner for the Sydney event that took place on Tuesday was North, which hosted the event and provided content support, access to insights into the financial advice profession, opportunities to connect with advisers and industry leaders, and practical guidance on entering and building a career within the sector.
“We’re always creating content, and we‘’re always talking to and working with universities to raise awareness of a career path and advice,” Barr says.
Barr says that Striver represents about eight candidates a week and get about a quarter of them jobs “and the rest of them find jobs by themselves or through their own means, but definitely with that support”.
Candidates have been placed in customer service roles, paraplanning and other roles that have a pathway into advice or directly into financial advice.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.