Fin plan hiring picks up (cautiously)
Financial planning recruitment is slowly starting to recover after a tough 12 months, with the Big Four banks and the larger dealer groups leading the way. But the employment market has a definite conservative edge to it.
“Six months ago every bank had a recruitment freeze. Now some of the local retail banks have lifted it and are opening the doors. Recruitment is definitely picking up, although it’s far from recovering completely,” says Paula Horta, a consultant at the Brooklyn Group.
Kasturi Pathak, a recruitment consultant at Reed Banking and Finance, adds: “Market confidence is slowly building and we have seen an increase of roles within the banks and larger financial planning groups.”
And unlike many banking-sector job functions, the fledgling upswing in fin planning hiring is affecting most levels of seniority.
Professionals with more than five years' experience and strong business-development skills are currently in demand at the big institutions, says Pathak. “But we’ve also seen associate and para-planning roles recently. These positions had been fairly dormant over the last year,” she tells eFinancialCareers.com.au
Experienced fin planners with a book of clients are always sought after because they can cover their salary costs almost from day one, says Horta. “But overall, I see more junior roles than senior ones.”
Younger candidates don't care so much about the brand they are joining but are more concerned with the role and future career opportunities, adds Horta.
Senior job seekers, by contrast, are becoming more cautious about where they work, after a year when the fin planning industry was rocked by falling revenues, investment collapses, a poor public image, and a shift towards a fee-based service.
“At a senior level, candidates are more aware that having a good brand name behind them makes it easier to attract clients. And if they are dealing with high-net-worth clients, what really interests them are the products and platform that the company uses,” says Horta
Count Financial recently touted its dowdy investment strategy - which shuns high-commission products - as key to its comparative success during the downturn.
“There are a few advisers who prefer the culture of conservative firms like Count and these advisers would perhaps have a similar background - accountants who transit into financial planning,” says Pathak.
And in another sign of encroaching conservatism, dealer groups are increasingly recruiting and training Certified Financial Planners (CFP), in an attempt to guard against possible breaches of regulation. Data gathered in a Money Management/CoreData survey shows that one in three of the industry’s largest dealer groups have boosted CFP numbers over the past year.