A Greater Birmingham firm of independent financial advisers (IFA) has launched a training scheme to provide new career opportunities in the profession.
As part of it, Eastcote Wealth Management (EWM) has linked with Aston University to secure some of the recruits it needs.
Based at Eastcote, near Solihull, it specialises in financial planning, private client and corporate, reviewing and optimising existing portfolios and building new ones.
It has more than 30 experienced staff including 12 advisors, approaching £500 million of funds under management, and over 1,500 clients. Directly authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, it holds chartered status from the Chartered Insurance Institute.
But so concerned at the lack of young talent coming into the profession – a 2016 EY survey found that just 22 per cent of financial advisors were under 40 – it recently launched a specific Financial Planner Trainee programme.
The launch was on the back of previous more informal arrangements which brought in Andy Reynolds and Phil Jefferies.
Recent joiners to the trainee adviser scheme, sourced through a variety of means, are Josh Foster, Naomi Fielder, Ben Brayshay and James Luke.
In addition, in liaison with Aston University, one of its graduates is due to arrive in September as an advice support team member but with a view to gaining the necessary experience and industry qualifications to become an IFA.
Rob Kenyon, an EWM director, said: “We took on Andy and Phil a couple of years or so ago though they weren’t part of an official trainee adviser scheme – they just showed promise, impressed us with how bright and motivated they were and how quickly they picked up the skills, not burdened with any entrenched ideas on how to be successful in the business, so we fast-tracked them to adviser status.
“But now we have a proper system in place.
“Basically we want to attract young, keen individuals that we can train to do the job in the right way.
“The vast majority of current financial advisers across the industry are 50-plus and there is a shortage of new ones coming into the business. EWM wants to be proactive in this area and are looking to attract recent graduates and part qualified para-planners onto the scheme.
“We have been working with Aston University Graduate Advantage to identify candidates and to show to graduates that financial planning is an interesting and varied career that they should look on in a similar way to the law or accountancy
“We won’t exclusively use Aston and won’t exclusively recruit graduates but it is a good source of talent and we want to build a relationship.”
Graduates should have backgrounds in finance and investments and/or investment analysis.