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News
www.fsadvice.com.au Volume 17 Issue 01 I 2022
Aussie CFPs move toward 5000
Skill shortages hitting advice firms
Australian Certified Financial Planners added 164 professionals to the fold last year, taking the total to nearly 5000. The Financial Planning Association of Australia, which is the certification body for the CFP designation in the country, recorded 4966 members at the end of December 2021. While CFP numbers in Australia in the past year have fallen by 4%, this is lower when compared to the 11% drop experienced broadly across the profession, FPA chief executive Sarah Abood said. Abood said it is pleasing to see that advisers continue to recognise the value of the CFP certification and dedicate themselves to education, despite the challenges they have been facing over the past few years. “CFP professionals have been growing proportionally and now make up 55% of our practitioner members,” she said. On a global scale, the total CFP population grew by 5.5% year on year to 203,312, hitting past the 200,000 milestone. This rate of growth also doubles the 2.5% recorded in 2020. The CFP Certification Program globally is managed by the Financial Planning Standard Board and operates in 27 countries. “Last year, the number of CFP professionals reached the highest ever, with growth from emerging, developing and mature markets demonstrating the broad appeal of financial planning and CFP certification worldwide,” FPSB chief executive Noel Maye said. “We’re pleased to report that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, momentum in the global growth of CFP professionals remains strong, and is increasing.” fs
T
Elizabeth McArthur
The quote
My advice to any employer at the moment would be to ensure the first interview is not to test the water and enter the meeting like it was a final interview.
he financial advice sector is facing a shortage of skills, forcing firms to change how they do things to attract talent. Profusion Group divisional director Chris Gordon said he has observed a skilled staff shortage in advice, particularly for client service officers, associates and established advisers who can bring books to a new firm. “I have known a number of client service officers recently offered the job in or after the first interview, the days of interviewing a short list and taking them through a full interview process are few and far between, as it’s highly likely the candidate will have other roles and offers on the table,” Gordon said. “My advice to any employer at the moment would be to ensure the first interview is not to test the water and enter the meeting like it was a final interview. The candidates need to sell themselves, but you will also need to
make sure that you are selling the opportunity too.” He explained between 80% and 90% of job seekers he sees at Profusion are looking for some flexibility, with most wanting at least some days working from home each week. To attract talent, employers are going to have to be open to this, Gordon suggested. He added that client service officers and associates want to know there is a career path for them at a firm, choosing firms with the opportunity to grow as a priority. “The industry still seems to have a focus on general advice and wholesale advice, definitely the growth areas of the industry and that will likely be the case for the foreseeable,” Gordon said. “Retail will likely continue to have a focus on merger and acquisitions, the recruitment market has not been as active in this area as businesses merge and re-establish themselves.” fs
Retirement planning boom seeks advisers Karren Vergara
With the passing of the Retirement Income Covenant on February 10, there has never been a better time for advisers to position themselves as retirement advice specialists. Superannuation funds will have to provide a retirement income strategy for members to assist them in their later years under the new RIC legislation, embedded in the Corporate Collective Investment Vehicle Framework and Other Measures Bill 2021. Under the strategy, trustees must balance risks, maximise income, and offer flexibility to savings. This must be presented in writing and made public from 1 July 2022. The Financial Planning Association of Australia chief executive Sarah Abood said advisers now look forward to their clients having the ability to access a broader range of options. The “one size fits all” approach in the super system has limited the ability for retirees to mix income, lump sum, longevity, and market risks adequately, she said. “We also welcome the additional clarification and
THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL PLANNING•
certainty provided by parliament on time frames for time critical advice provision which ends a long debate over the definition of ‘days’.” SuperEd chair Jeremy Duffield predicts that retirement planning will be a major focus of the 2022 Quality of Advice Review. Advisers are said to be in the empathy business as much as in the finance business, he told a Vanguard event. “In the real world, though, retirement is a transformative time of life and also a great opportunity for financial advisers,” he said. With some 250,000 people retiring each year and Australia having 3.9 million people aged over 65 this is “a huge market of people either retired or thinking about retirement”. Advisers have a key role to play in helping Australians align their retirement with their financial situation and therefore their own financial reality. “That’s often very hard to do. It’s a major challenge to work out how long your money will last, and how much you can afford to spend,” he said. fs
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