Driving change in financial advice
To celebrate World Youth Skills Day, we’re proud to announce our important new partnership with the Verve Foundation. We are supporting places on the ‘We Are Change’ initiative to attract and train the next generation of financial advice professionals. And, in the U.S. we are embarking on a relationship with the Financial Health Network.
At intelliflo, we talk a lot about the importance of widening access to financial advice. The financial advice gap is growing and millions of people are not getting the help they need with their personal finances. The trends in our industry point to the need for more financial advisers overall and for all to better address the needs of younger investors. That’s why we’re investing in We Are Change to make a positive impact on these negative trends.
Advisers need to target younger investors
From the financial adviser’s perspective, with demand for advice outstripping supply, older people who have already accumulated wealth and with a more immediate need for later life planning, are the obvious target market.
- Just 25% of advisers seek out clients under 35, compared to 63% who are actively prospecting for clients aged 51-65.
But financial advice firms aren’t charities, they are commercial organisations. Why should they consider targeting a less well-off demographic? Because it makes good business sense. Attracting younger clients who are building their careers and accumulating wealth encourages loyalty, creating an opportunity to grow your business via a forward pipeline of wealthy clients. In addition, Wealth distribution is also set to change, from largely comprising housing and defined benefit pension wealth, to becoming more reliant on investment wealth. Advisers have an important role to play in ensuring that future generations are accumulating the assets they need to live comfortably throughout their lives.
- Half of 18 to 29-year-olds say their household suffered job-related disruption due to the pandemic and more than one in three have reported financial difficulties following the crisis. Yet £5.5 trillion is set to transfer between UK generations in inheritance or gifts over the next two decades.
The adviser population is shrinking
We need to attract more talent into the industry and encourage new people to actively choose financial services as a career. It’s time to try something different: to work together as individuals, businesses and professional bodies to expand the financial adviser community, address some of the challenges facing young people today and broaden the reach of financial advice.
- The number of financial advisers in the UK increased by just 3% in the two years to 2020.
- 8% of advisers expect to leave the industry within the next five years and a further 2% intend to reduce their levels of business.
How intelliflo and We Are Change can help
At intelliflo, we want to be part of the solution. We’re putting our money where our mouth is by partnering with The Verve Foundation (part of Cathi Harrison’s The Verve Group) to sponsor their We Are Change initiative.
We Are Change is a not-for-profit initiative helping individuals achieve their Level 4 CII Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. It also equips selected candidates with the practical skills needed to work in the industry and introduces them to the broad range of careers available. The strategic partnership underscores our commitment to training the next generation of financial advisers and reflects our belief that to truly widen access to financial advice, there is a need to bring more talent into the industry.
It seems fitting to announce this partnership on World Youth Skills Day, a day established by the United Nations to promote the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment and entrepreneurship. With Covid-19 interrupting the training for 86% of apprentices and 83% of interns and trainees, the focus on supporting young people in employment, education and training is more important this year than ever before.
Interested in being part of the solution?
If you’re interested in being part of the solution, in future-proofing our industry, driving change in financial services and helping to widen access to financial advice, take a look at The Verve Foundation’s We Are Change initiative.