Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / Hanna Hunt - is IFA Administration & Paraplanning the best career route to becoming a Financial Planner?

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Hanna Hunt - is IFA Administration & Paraplanning the best career route to becoming a Financial Planner? · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, and welcome to the Financial Planner Life podcast, where we talk to professionals at varying stages in their career about what it's like working in the wonderful world of financial planning and financial advice.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is proudly sponsored by Recruit UK, a recruitment consultancy specifically focused on the financial services.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: They have a niche specialism, recruiting, within the financial planning industry, so check out their website for the latest job opportunities, hints and tips, and blog articles.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And today's guest is Hannah Hunt from Ratcliffe and Newlands.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah started her career as an IFA administrator and she worked her way up to PowerPlanner.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: She's recently passed her level four qualifications.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well done, Hannah, because that didn't come easy to her, and she talks about that in a bit more detail.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: We compare the two roles of an IFA administrator and a power planner, but we go into detail about what each role does, and it gives you a real oversight as to how important these positions are.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Hannah truly believes that if you want to become a financial planner, you should start as an IFA administrator because it gives you a really clear perspective of what's involved in the financial planning process.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoy it.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah thanks so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really good, thank you.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: How are you?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very well, thank you.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very good.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: All the better for seeing you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I like to talk to people nice and early on a on a Thursday.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been trying to have this conversation for a while.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's nice to finally actually have a chat with you.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so as from the introduction, you're a power planner and you're at Radcliffe and Newlands.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And today, really, it's all about finding out what you do for a living, why you chose that route, what the journey's been like for you, and um a little bit more about financial planning as a career and why you've why you've chosen it, you know, on the view and the idea to help those who are listening perhaps progress in their career or get a better insight into the world of financial planning.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 2:06
  unknown: Yeah.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: So um, how have you been anyway during lockdown and and COVID and and all the rest of the nonsense that's going on?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think I've been really lucky.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, COVID's been obviously it's not great for everyone.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: I've been lucky enough that I've got really good people around me.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm still I haven't been furloughed, I've been working the entire time.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I can still come into the office when I want.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, not too bad um given the circumstances, can't complain too much, really.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so they've kept your they've kept your doors open so you're allowed to come in and out.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, most people go a bit mad, don't they?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Working from home, um, I think all the time.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly um can't do it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's um a Brucey bonus that if you can use the offices, you're allowed to go in.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's good too.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, even before COVID, I was the one person who was always like, I want to work from home, I want flexible working, and then finally got it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, actually, I don't enjoy this at all.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's awful.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: I I miss everyone at the office, I miss like, don't miss the commute, but kind of miss leaving the house every day.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, I find myself working nine to five.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: I finish work and I go for my kitchen island, move about three spaces and sit on the sofa for the rest of the evening.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I definitely miss working, working.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You raised a really good point.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: You raised a really good point there, actually, about um flexible working.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And over the years of working in recruitment, we have always had that discussion about flexible working.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people always say, I want to be, you know, I could do my job working from home, especially some of the power planner roles, back office type functions.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but what we've definitely seen is that people don't feel like they belong, so they're losing that kind of simple human need, basically, to feel like you belong.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a combination of things.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's an employer, an employer hasn't done very well at communicating to their staff whilst they've been off, not being in the office, and they're not used to it.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an education piece of themselves to get used to touching base with people, you know, how much is the right amount of uh contact and what's the you know, what's the least amount?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think um we find that in our office.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some people have really struggled being at home, whereas others have absolutely lapped it up.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the general consensus, and I think the general consensus across all professions is that flexible working is good, but not all the time, you know, working from home five days a week isn't, you know, exactly.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's having that balance, and and I think that's what will happen, and that's definitely what we're seeing.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're I'm all for flexible working.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've had one of the best months ever.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and um, you know, people are working from home, so it obviously is okay, it's not going to destroy a business.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's good that people are now actually seeing that people can be trusted to work from home and it gives you just a better work-life balance.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I can go for a run in the middle of the day if I want to, and then work a bit later, start a bit earlier, straight away get so much more done and when I have that flexibility.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm I know that Badcliffe and Newlands, I think, definitely kind of keep going with the flexible working because it's work it has worked so well.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, like five days a week working from home, I would go crazy.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: I can I could not do that.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, uh going to the office.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the word life balance side of it.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what you mentioned there about the well-being side as well, is being able to just get up and go for a run when you want to.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to step away and go outside and just chill, you can.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: You don't feel so anxious when you're in an office environment, you've got you feel like you've got eyes on you, or you feel like you should be performing, if you like, all the time.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think when you step outside of it, you realize that I can take 15 minutes to do a meditation, or I can take a half an hour run or a walk.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't feel like working at my desk right now, so I'm gonna go and do something else.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's perfect, and I recommend that for anybody to get that balance.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all right, cool.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you are working as a power planner at the moment for Radcliffe and Newlands in London.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'd really like to find out today is really the first instance is and a question I always ask is why did you choose to work in the financial planning profession?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I actually fell into them, which I think a lot of people kind of do.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, when I was at university, no, I never met anyone that was like, I'm gonna become a financial planner.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: That was never really a thing.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't really know about financial services at all.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I was lucky enough to kind of yeah, fall into it basically.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I was actually, I'd moved back into uh my parents' house because I was planning to move to Japan.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then I actually got a job at an appointment making business.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: This is down in Southampton, started there on the sales side of financial services, and then within a couple of months, they kind of said to me, Oh, well, we're willing to train you as a financial advisor.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: And at that point, I was like, I don't really know what that is, I don't know what that entails.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, kind of did some research into it, um, had a really good mentor there as well, who kind of um showed me the basics of financial advice, and I kind of thought, this is actually something I'm really interested in and I can see myself doing long term.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: So it was kind of like either go to Japan and teach English, or do I do this career that I've just been kind of shown or not handed to on a plate, but um had the opportunity to train as.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: So I kind of decided to go down that route, started my exams, and um and then just kind of went from there.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: And that was almost four years ago now.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: And then obviously four years later, I've done all my exams and now went from IFA admin to I'm now parapana, um, hopefully soon to be financial advisor.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, to answer your question, I I did really fall into it.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um you fell into it, like a lot like a lot of people do.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do you think if you did you go to university?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I did.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think if at university there was, I don't know, some kind of educational piece around what a financial planner does and what financial planning is, do you think that would have got you interested in that as a career?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, most definitely, most definitely.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um at university, I remember loads of people doing accounting.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and that was like really like well um spoken about quite a lot, but never like financial advice, which I think is quite weird because I think being accountant sounds really boring.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like I find well really, really interesting.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yes, you haven't ever mentioned it to me before.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: So there's not a lot of routes, like university-wise, to become a financial advisor.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so if that was more open or more talked about 100%, I mean I would have jumped, jumped at the chance.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, cool.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting, you said like accountancy is a bit, you feel like accountancy is a bit more boring and financial patterns a bit more interesting.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Elaborate on that then.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: I just think with financial advice, the way I describe it to people that don't work in finance, it's just problem solving.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_03: That is for me what it is.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: I get given a problem and I have to solve it, I have to provide an outcome.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas accounting for me is just whereas what I do is very different towards that.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: So, I mean, I remember one of my um the people that I went to uni with that I lived with in Hall, she did accounting, and I just thought it sounded like one of the most boring things in the world.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: And it kind of made me, well, I never want to go into finance because that just seems dull.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas financial advice is a very different route and a very different job, um, which is very different.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: I hope there's no accountants watching me.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I doubt many accountants be watching the Financial Planet Life podcast, but no, it's um and I think again when people think about finance, they think about banking or they think about accountancy, they don't think about the other routes such as financial planning.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they certainly don't think about power planning or something like that.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just not in any student's mind or understanding.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's always like I want to be a lawyer or I want to be a solicitor or I want to be an accountant or a doctor.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: These tend to be the ones that are held in really high esteem.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but financial planning isn't.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously there is a distinct lack of younger people coming through into financial planning, and one of the biggest issues is people learning about the actual role and the industry and the profession as a whole.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I do agree, I agree as well.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot's being done around that, you know, people are starting to um to educate younger people about the the need for financial planning, but also it as a profession to attract more people um into it.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Was it also the um the people sort of aspect of it as well, the helping people aspect?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is that because do you look at accountancy and think I'm gonna be sat there with a calculator and uh doing my sums and then the financial planning, you think, oh, I'm gonna be talking to people, I'm gonna be helping people, I'm gonna be able to make solutions for problems and stuff.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly that.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, as a financial planner, you're almost selling yourself, you have to build that rapport, you have to get clients to trust you because essentially you're helping them, like you're hopefully gonna change their lives.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's kind of the outcome you want as a financial planner.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: You want to make your clients' lives better financially.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: So 100% that was a massive aspect for me.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, obviously seeing how, excuse me, how my family spend their money and friends around me spend my money spend their money.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: If you can help people just improve their lives, I think that's a massive thing.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_03: I don't see that in accountancy or other, or like as a banker or in a hedge fund, whereas a financial advisor, you are you can really create a massive change in people's lives.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing to sort of so people, the listeners understand anybody that's really um looking to become a financial planner is that financial planners do also work with accountancy firms because there is a level of skill set that a financial planner has that an accountant doesn't, and vice versa.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what happens in that community, isn't it, is that an accountant might well say, Look, you know, I've got an amazing client here, run a business, this is what they're doing, but absolutely no financial planning.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that financial advisor does the financial planning piece.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a lovely piece of the puzzle of how it can all sort of one hand washes the other and everyone benefits each other.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to know accountancy, you don't have to be an accountant, but understanding how an accountant operates and working with them to offer the financial planning piece is a great way, isn't it, for a financial planner to win business from introducer relationships.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you interestingly enough, had another chap on the podcast, um, Taylor Beavis, and he started similar to you actually.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, his aspiration was he wanted to be a financial advisor, self-employed, directly authorized, and he managed to do that by the age of 24 years old.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he started in a sales role as well, selling platforms to uh financial planning firms.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So just talk to me about that sales role, then because leaving university, sales roles you're pretty much hit with go down, like become a recruitment consultant or do sales, or that tends to be when you leave university.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Did you find that?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, leaving university, you kind of well, I did four years and then I got to my graduation.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, what on earth do I do now?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like I had so that was why I was going to move to Japan.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: That was the whole reason.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then again, obviously fell into this job um just as a way to save money before I moved.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: It was um an appointment making business um where they sold appointments to financial advisors, um, so like lead generation basically.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I went in there and I wanted a job just as an appointment maker, but they um employed me as one of the sales consultants.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: So just day to day, I was speaking to financial advisors and selling them appointments.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: And obviously gave me a great understanding of what financial advisors do, um, speaking to them every day.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: And then my boss as well, he ran a program, so um, like a coaching program.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: So every every week I was kind of speaking to financial advisors and meeting them, seeing what they did.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: So that kind of yet again grew my interest in financial advice.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um but yeah, essentially I'd started off in sales and then I kind of pushed because wanted to become a power planner, and then eventually ended up leaving because I wasn't getting what I wanted from that role, and then moved to record for Newland from that.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: So when you were working at Advisor Breakthrough Group, the idea was to be able to generate leads for financial planners.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a financial planning company, but the the more exposure you then got to the financial planning profession, the more you learn about what they did on a day-to-day basis made you think, well, actually, this sounds like something that I want to do.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you couldn't do it in advisor breakthrough, so you had to leave.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as advice at advisor breakthrough, then you've got okay, so great.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you've you've gone into a sales role, you you've got some work straight out of the university, you started learning about the profession, fantastic.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Deciding right, that's the route I want to go down.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do about it at that stage?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: So at that stage, after I kind of because they said to me, so they had advisor breakthrough and they also had paid wealth management.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: So um the guy who ended, he did have a wealth management part.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's not the same business, but um a separate business.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I was constantly kind of like, right, I want to train this, let me write reports, let me try and um do some IFA admin type stuff.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: And he kind of just wanted to keep the sales side.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I did obviously quite well as um um sales manager and working in the program, so he kind of just wanted to keep me there.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and at this point I knew that I wanted to become a financial advisor, so I just wanted to progress.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'd been there for 18 months.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and eventually I just understood that I was not gonna get to where I wanted to be in that role, um, and essentially just started applying for different jobs.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like I was in Southampton at the time, I was applying for jobs in Southampton and then also in London, and then had a couple of um interviews at different firms in London, and then yeah, luckily, really luckily managed to get the job um here at Radcliffe and Newlands.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you say luckily managed to get the job, why was it why was it lucky?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: Because um, when I first obviously I had very little experience in um I applied for a role as an IFA admin.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um when I came for the interview, um, I was in my head, I was like, I just need to get an interview, I need to get sit in front of these people, and then hopefully they'll see that I want to learn and that this is something I really want to do.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I remember really vividly sitting in front of one of the directors at Bradcliffe and Newlands and him asking me questions.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't know the answer because I have very little experience in this, but I know this is something I want to do.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I will work really hard, I will do whatever it takes, um, I'm persistent, I'm a quick learner, really just sold myself.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and he brought in the directors, everyone met me, and then they kind of made a decision that I don't have the experience at all, but they were willing to train me up from IFA admin to advisor.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um so a good bit of advice there for anybody that's looking to become looking to get into financial planning, doesn't have any experience, is go in and sell yourself, you know.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you say go in and sell yourself, now you when you say you haven't had any experience, I'd argue that because you've had some experience of working within working a lot, you know, working uh in a company that supported financial advisors.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you had a good insight into what a financial planner does.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned there they also have a wealth management side as well.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did you get any qualifications prior to going in?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did you where you did you have zero qualifications before you started Radlian Newman?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: I was studying for my R01 at the time.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, I came in with zero exams, but I made it very clear that obviously I am studying my exams.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um my first exam was self-funded, um, and kind of just said it that way.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: When I said I didn't have the experience, yeah, like you said, maybe that's a bit of a push.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: But for example, he was asking me questions about how to send a letter of authority and stuff like this.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I don't know what a letter of authority is.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: So it was kind of like because they were looking for an IFA admin that kind of could kind of just come in and get on with it.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: And it was quite evident that that that would not be me, they'd have to give me some training.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so they hired me as a trainee IFA admin.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: All right, okay, cool.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you got in as a trainee IFA admin.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you a good uh one of the things you said there, which I think is really um is really important, and I say this to anybody who's got absolutely no experience and wants to get into financial planning, is go and do some research into what the financial planning profession is, what a financial planner does, research into all the different roles and the different types of roles within financial planning, understand that you're gonna have to start at the bottom and work your way up.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure as well that you're going in and you're getting a, you know, you're putting yourself forward to a qualification, self-funding one of your first qualifications, whether it's your RO one or whatever.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I always think that when you step in front of somebody and you're saying, look, I want to be a financial planner, this is my end goal, or I want to be a power planner, I'm willing to come in and learn from the bottom up.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what I've learned about the profession, but also I've self-funded my first qualification.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's incredibly difficult for a director of a business who's looking to hire somebody who's keen, motivated, and interest.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's very difficult to turn that person down if they've gone off their own back and actually done some work and have shown a keenness and a willingness to learn.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you've sort of, you know, that's what you've done, you know, probably helped in your sales background as well.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: You've gone in and sold yourself or the skill set, you know, why you want to do it.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when you sat in there with them, did you talk to them about wanting to become a financial planner?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is that your was that your end goal?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what you were saying?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want to come in, I want to be a financial planner.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's exactly what I said.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of said, I want to start from the bottom, I want to learn the full process, be an IFA admin, be a para planner, and then be a financial advisor.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I was very transparent about what I wanted, about the group I wanted to take.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, I'd start in my CI qualifications.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: So they knew from the day they hired me what the end of the goal was for me and why I wanted to do that.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, it was very transparent and they were very aware and obviously very supportive because they're doing exactly what they said they were going to do, and so am I, and now obviously I've gone from my training IFA admin and uh trained to be an advisor.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you had to obviously learn the role of an IFA administrator as you started.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you get yourself in there, and as you said, you had no idea of even sending a letter of authority, so you had to learn all of those skills and everything, the day-to-day practical skills of doing the role, plus you had to learn all your qualifications along along the way as well.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now what did your company do to support you around your personal development plan?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Did they outline a personal development plan?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Did they say, right, this is day one, and this is year three, and you're gonna be a qualified financial advisor in this amount of time, and we're gonna take you through each step of the way.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Did that happen or was it more sort of um organic?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there were 100% there is um like a development plan for me, but it's there was not a time frame because it's according to when I did the exams basically, because obviously I can't be managed advised without the exams, but my first couple of months um I'm really lucky to have a major boss here who kind of taught me everything I know that I do so every or every day at the beginning to sit with me and kind of teach me like everything that I know, and then as I got more confident and as I got more comfortable in my ball, he kind of let me get on with it for myself, and then like introducing things to me, and then sit with me, teach me, and then kind of let me get on with it.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: So that's kind of been the process throughout.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um learning new things, um, what the directors are just um it kind of does the same thing, and the same with my exams, they kind of they've always pushed me to do as um to do as many like as I can as quickly as I can, um which is obviously up to me because there's a lot of studying time involved.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um exams, they give me study leads.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, they are very lucky to be incredibly like well supported by my employers.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right, okay.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that I that that that comes up and I think is is highly important as well, is that when somebody's although somebody's desperate to get a job, you know, they are desperate to get into a financial planner, right?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: When you want to be a financial planner, I'll do anything.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I get that, but at the same time, you can, as an employee, waste your time with the wrong with the wrong company.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're going in there wanting to be an IFA, you know, I'll be an IFA administrator.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: If that firm don't have the time, energy to actually help and mentor you, which they need to do, or they haven't got some kind of outsource training solution that can that can help guide you, you can be stuck in an administration.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Role for quite some time.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if a firm isn't on the growth side, then they won't really want to progress you because they would want a really good IFA administrator in place or power planner in place.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's really important as well, is when you go into a firm, it's to probably ask questions about personal development.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what are you going to do to help me to get to level four qualification?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: What are you going to do to help me become a financial planner?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is my end game.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I want to do.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But that's brilliant.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And mentoring is a big thing.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the next generation will need mentoring.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, everybody needs mentoring.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it's about having that time and energy to be able to take people through.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: And a clear-cut personal development plan is great for anybody because you know where you're going, don't you?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know what your end your end goal is.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think um starting as when you started as a when you came out of sales, all right, and then went into an IFA administrative role.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Did you take a pay cut?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_03: No, I did not, but I was on You weren't that good at sales then.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it wasn't that good.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um no, I didn't actually.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I don't know if that's bad or company.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: I I think I moved on exactly the same salary um to my new job, which is not bad at all.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, decent.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't it wasn't like uh there wasn't like a step across thinking, oh, because again, you know, in the profession, they're trying to attract people from other other professions to come across.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, you know, stepping away from a job that might be paying you 45 50k a year to become a financial planner, you know, you're not gonna walk straight into a job that pays you 45-50k a year.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there is there is that difficulty.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you have to be realistic and not going to earn loads of money being an IFA admin.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: You that is the bottom of where you're gonna start, and then obviously your wage will go up progressively.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: Also, the more qualifications you have, um, the better your pay will be.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_03: But um, yeah, I was lucky enough that I didn't take a pay cut at all, maybe not lucky.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: So good, okay.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so starting an IFA as an IFA administrator.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: So what about so you were doing an IFA administrator role for about a year and about a year, weren't you?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'd say, yeah, I'd say about a year.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, um, my boss gradually kind of introduced some basic reports into me.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think I started doing protection reports maybe maybe like seven months into the role, something like that.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: Once he was like confident that I could do the full process as I feel admin and I was confident doing that, then he kind of slowly introduced me to para planning and well, very basic power planning.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I yeah, I've been a power planner now probably about 18 months, or I would like to say.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:41
  unknown: Yeah.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So again, you know, if someone's coming in as a if someone's coming in as an IFA administrator, obviously with the right firm, you've got the training and development and support behind them.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you're an IFA administrator and now you're a power planner.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: It tends to be a transition, doesn't there, between the two.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you start to take on.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: So what what happens then?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you day one of being an IFA administrator, you're sat there thinking, what the shit doing, what am I doing here?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then what what what so just talk me through the level of work that you that start, you know, what do you start to do?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to regress back a little bit, but what yeah, you know, so talk talk me through it.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the main things um that I started off doing were letters of authority, um, speaking to um providers and platforms, which is one of the main things you would do as an IFA admin and can be extremely tedious.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um why is it why is it why is that talking to platforms and providers extremely tedious?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's just some of them are extremely unhelpful.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, just the waiting.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's just trying to get the information you want.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you'll send it off a letter of authority.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you obviously need very specific information for for an IFA admin to then hand over to the paraplanner, and then you'll wait three weeks, you'll get the information through, and there they've left off like three of the most important things that you need.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: So you have to call them.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: So that is a very big part of being an IFA admin is speaking to platforms and providers, um, which you definitely have to get used to.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you get better, you learn from your mistakes, and not your mistakes, but you learn what to ask for and how to chase.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that's a very big part of it.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like I said, less of authority, using CRM systems.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we now use Intelligent Office, used at Velo before.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_03: That's a big part of it, getting used to like different um systems that you use, um, and using stuff like Iris, um, different financial planning softwares.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, that's kind of like the bulk of it, I would say.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_03: And that was a keying on business, on using different platforms as well.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: So worth mentioning there as an IFA administrator, you're not just sat there at a desk typing into spreadsheets.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You are actually picking up a telephone, speaking to you know, product providers, platforms, etc., putting letters of authority through.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And for those that don't know that, that is you signing, that's the client sending it signing a letter saying you can work on their behalf.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: So your job as IFA administrator, you know, if it's an administrator, if you've got a client that's got multiple pensions or multiple investments or whatever in lots of different places, you've got to go to each of those different providers with a letter of authority and get that information in so you can collate it, pass it to the power planner so the power planner can start to do their deeper level of research.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember I used to work for um Aviva and um I used to train out customer service staff, and the customer service staff used to have to work with the IFAs and the financial advisors, and there used to be some real tension because obviously you guys want it rapidly because you're trying to get something together to be able to give the client the best service possible.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, there's process and whatnot going on in the background.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So um I remember that quite vividly.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's a really good point because you're not just sitting there as an IFA administrator, you are building those clients, those, those may not be client-facing skills in that respect, but you're building customer service skills and relationships.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: 100% and you're understanding that part of the process and how much time those things can take, but also as well, how incredibly important those parts of the parcel actually are.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you're starting to understand a huge amount of time involved in being a financial planner.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things you have to do.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can't just back up a fag box, go, there you go.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's that's what that's what I'm gonna make you in the next couple of years.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, cool.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you're doing that as an IFA administrator, you're doing all your research, wonderful.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then gradually you started to learn, you started to move into power planning.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: So talk to me about that transition.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you then know?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, or a power planner all of a sudden, because quite a funny one, actually, because power planners come to us.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a power planner.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, tell me what you do, and they tell me what I do, and they're not actually a power planner.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, that's interesting.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So the name gets banded around quite a bit because someone could be a senior administrator, and I'll say to them, You're not a senior administrator, you're actually a paraplanner.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: So for me, it wasn't like my bosses then sent me down one day and was like, right, you're a paraplanner.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: That um it was a very smooth transition.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll still do loads of admin.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, I think every paraplanner kind of kind of does or have has a specific way of working.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: So where I work very closely um with one advisor here, I the way that I work that I think works best is I will do I will do all the admin before, I will do all my own research, I will input all the data into CRM systems, I will then write the report and then I'll key on the business because it's just a streamlined process.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I know other paraplanners obviously work differently.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but in terms of kind of moving from only doing admin and then going to paraplanning, I think it was just obviously my boss just starting off really simple reports, started off protection.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then once he was confident enough, obviously just check on my work.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: Once he was confident, I could get that.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: And then once I kind of got more exams, so I think as once I did RO4, the pension exam, he was like, Well, okay, you you now have the knowledge.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm gonna get you to some pension transfer reports, and then just slowly he he kind of um um just gave me more complex reports, and then eventually I just moved from doing all admin to obviously just I do like 80% power planning.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_03: But like I said, I do my way of working, I do prefer to do the full start to end process.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but that's kind of been mainly now through COVID because it just works better.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is that also because you you like to be in control a bit more, you know that you can start something and finish it, and you you're not relying reliant upon anybody else.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: I think especially now where it'd be different.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I sit next to one of the administrators, um, obviously I don't sit next to them now.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_03: So it just seems a bit strange if I then have to call him or email him going, here's all the work I've just done, I've just filled out all of this.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Can you now key this on?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't really make sense.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_03: I would I prefer it to get the case um from the IFA, I then do all the admin leading up to it, I then do all the research, I have the client contact as well, I will call the client, I will email the client, I get all the signed paperwork back, and then I key it on and then to key it onto the CRM system.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: It just I think it's less room for error that way.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: And then yeah, it's just more streamlined, it just makes more sense in my head.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I think that's dependent on the advisors you work for and how your company do it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm lucky enough that I can kind of if I want to take um that level of control, I can.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um but I think it's dependent on the IFA if they have an IFA admin and a paraplanner, or yeah, just how your company prefers to work, I guess.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned there about doing your exams, and as you studied and passed some of your exams, you had your your knowledge increased.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do you find that do you do you find that the exams are beneficial in understanding what you have to do on a daily basis, say as a power planner or or an IFA administrator, or is it experience over qualifications that that gives you the the confidence and knowledge?
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Which one?
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Experience or qualifications?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Which one's better?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's hard to say.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_03: I would say both.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, some of the exams I feel like I'm never probably never going to apply the knowledge, like R01.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: I can't ever think that I'm gonna apply that to anything.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_03: With stuff like R0, which is the investment one, and then R04, which is the pension one, there's loads of stuff from that because that's what I do day to day.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, investments looking at funds and um fund performance, fund analysis, stuff like that.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I do day to day.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: And the same with the RO4, the pension one, pension transfers is what I do every every day.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: But I use that knowledge and then apply it.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I can't say either or if it's experience or the book, both of them together is why I now feel so technically able.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, perfect.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: So being an IFA administrator isn't a lower level role, it's just a less you're you've got less responsibility as you're learning the position.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some people are career administrators, they do incredibly well and they're so bloody organized.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if they ever left the financial planning firm, the financial planner would go mad.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: So they're in such a vital part of the process.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And without them, you you know, the financial planning firm you know can't do what it needs to do.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then when you step across into that power planning, the level of responsibility kind of grows.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Your level of responsibility grows because all of a sudden you're putting your name to some research as well that you're doing.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: So just talk to us a little bit about then how that level of responsibility goes up when you be start to do power planning.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: What what are you doing that's different to administration?
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, the main um the main difference, obviously, going from IFA to admin is the report which you write as a as a power planner.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_03: So you go from um obviously just doing the admin.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: I don't even think admin is a very good word for IFA admin because it's so small.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: When people kind of hear IFA admin, they think of just a normal admin person, um, which that definitely is is not the case with an IFA admin.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_03: There's so many different moving parts.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I've spoken to advisors before, and I I see it myself now as well.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_03: Having an amazing IFA admin is absolutely vital to the financial planning process.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_03: If you that that's like you said, there's so many people who have created IFA admins because it is such a vital role, and it's made me kind of think that when I become um financial planner, I'm gonna do my own admin because I know how important it is.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um if you get anything wrong, and like most financial planners, they won't do their own admin because they they don't trust themselves to do it or they don't know how to.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: So it's very, very important to have a good IFA admin, very vital.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, um, just moving on obviously to para planning, the reports and the research is what differs from the admin role.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_03: So the obviously all the IFA admin will get gather all the information, uh, get all the information from all the providers, and that then gets passed to me as a para planner.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: I then look at it and say, um, there will be some objectives from the client, say, uh, this this client's got£100,000 that they want to invest.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: I will then do my research um using different softwares, and then I'll look at their risk profile and then choose the fund selection, and then I'll get confirmation from the uh financial planner that he's that he or her are happy with what I'm going to recommend.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: And then then I write a suitability report, which is um kind of one of the main things, which is like a 30-page report um which is needed for compliance and by the FCA, which kind of states their needs and objectives, what we're recommending, why we're recommending it, um, and then all the details you would basically need to know.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's about 30 pages long, it's a really long document, and I think quite boring if you're not a financial planner.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I then do uh go to the providers and download any documents that's needed, um, and then I have the suitability reports and all the documents and then hand that over to the financial planner.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: And that's my part of it done, really.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it's a gathering of information.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's making sure you've got all the information down from all the investments and things that they've got out there, and then it's this suitability report.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the suitability report, about 30 pages long.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like a lot of work, that 30 pages long document, and a lot of and it sounds like a lot of responsibility, like almost like it's on your head as a power planner to make sure that you've got everything in place.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you deal with that level of pressure?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because I can imagine you're probably not one more writing, I probably struggle to write one suitability report a week.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in reality, how how many are you writing a day?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, a day, it depends because there's different levels.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_03: So, for example, an ISA report wouldn't that doesn't take that long.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_03: If you're doing a drawdown report, um, for example, that will that would take me a day, if not more, maybe two or three days, depending on how complex it is.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: So it's dependent on the reports you write.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's obviously loads of different ones.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: If you're just doing a review, it's really short.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_03: And but like I said, the drawdown ones, they're like 30 to 40 pages, they're really big reports.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: That does sound really scary.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: You do use templates.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_03: You're not going to be saying don't open a Word document and start typing.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you do use templates which has a lot of the stuff in already.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then you obviously have to add in all your research and all your findings and the objectives and the client information and stuff like that.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_03: So you do use templates.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: So when you say like looking at the research, what is what is the res?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know you like you're you're you're you're researching.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say, for example, like um you're you're gathering all the information in.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you're doing your fact find, financial done a fact find, yeah.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: You've gone out and gathered that information in, yeah.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what is research owning the providers up and getting the getting that what they've currently got in place, or is the research looking at better solutions for the client?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is that different?
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_03: So what once I have got the fact find and I've got all the information from the providers, I then use that and then for a half over to pension.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so if the client has four pensions, I would then look at these pensions and I need to then make a decision if the best thing is for the client to these pensions or move them somewhere else.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and the way you do this, there's loads of different financial planning softwares um that different companies use, um, which will compare um the pensions and how much growth they're gonna provide you at retirement.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then obviously, if it if the software that you're using um then says, oh, it's actually more beneficial to move these pensions over to this platform or this provider, um, that's one bit of research.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: You've then identified a better provider for the client.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_03: And then the second part would be the investment proposition.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_03: So all clients need to complete a risk profile profile questionnaire, or yet again, companies use different ones.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then from that, you can then determine the level of risk a client is happy with, and then you use that, and then you come up with an asset allocation which matches to their risk profile.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, and we have a central investment proposition, which a lot of firms do.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_03: So we we kind of use our model portfolios, but you can also have bespoke portfolios where you build build your own.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we use that a lot for our ethical stuff.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I build a lot of ethical portfolios.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that is finding the provider which is um the most suitable if it is um worth moving it, and then the asset allocation is like the main two bits of research that you're gonna do, and you do that through using different softwares.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds it does sound really interesting, like pulling that research in and sort of delving deep and trying to find the all the information that's relevant and trying to find the best solution for that client.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: It does sound like problem solving, it does sound really interesting.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, would your advice to somebody who's getting into financial planning um and starting at the IFA power planner route level, should they have a passion for problem solving?
• 39:43
  unknown: Yes.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a good attribute.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's exactly what it is.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_03: I literally say to people, because I rave about how much I love my job all the time.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_03: And it's quite weird because when I speak to my mum about this, she always says to me, the last thing in the world I would ever expect you to do was first of all work in finance and also sit behind a desk all day.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_03: And like some of my friends work in hospitality and stuff like that.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: They're like, God, it must be so boring to sit behind a desk.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, no, it's brilliant.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: I absolutely because it's just it is, you just get given a problem and you have to solve it.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: That's essentially what it is, what your job is.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: No day is the same, no case is the same, and it's your responsibility to get the best outcome from the client.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's exactly the same.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_03: It kind of reminds me of I remember being in like year seven or year eight, and you get given a problem as like a group, and you you have to solve it.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_03: This is just the adult version of that, basically.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the adult version of problem solving.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, and if you've got that inner need and want to be able to help people, I think this role the role of a financial planner is all about helping somebody.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's helping somebody whether you know, you're helping them reduce their stress or worry about money, you know, their future goals.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's very much a people person, you know, position, isn't it?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's not just about how much money I can make, it's about creating solutions for people for long-term uh happiness and you know, and wealth.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that's the bit that I think you're absolutely right, because your mum said, looking from the outside, I could never imagine you sat behind a desk just typing away a computer.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: But that's people's perception of what financial advice or is, you know, you're sat behind a desk and doing that, and it's like, no, there's just so many different levels to it.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that you said that no two days are the same because that's what we're all looking for.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're an intelligent um person who needs variety in your life, financial planning will will give you that, it will give you that those daily challenges because no two days are the same.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, whenever you're dealing with people, people are like that, aren't they?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, that can go one, it can go one way or the other.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: You think you've absolutely nailed it, and then all of a sudden someone says, See you later.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not interested.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Someone around the corner is giving me a better service.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so leaning onto that then, because there's administrator, and this is the thing we've got to get rid of as well, is this perception that I'm an administrator and that's I'm I've got the administrator mind, and I'm the power planner, and I've got the power planner mind because it's like you're either a power planner or you're a financial advisor.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's absolute rubbish.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can you can do both, can't you?
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think this is a level of arrogance there, I think, that I don't want to do power planner or admin, I want to be a financial advisor.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so, well, you know, the two go hand in hand.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: So taking yourself through the journey, okay.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you've recently become level four qualified, haven't you?
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well done.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_03: Very good.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Was that was that a struggle?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, massively.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's really hard.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna lie.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is it really yeah?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's um, it was definitely uh, I wouldn't say a struggle, but it's taking a lot, it's taken a lot of weekends in the library, a lot of missing out on doing stuff with my friends and family.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_03: But I don't know if it depends, I'm not, I don't test very well, I never have.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I don't know if that's an element of it, but yeah, they are very, very hard exams.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it is and you do have to sacrifice quite a lot to kind of do them.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, I see things on LinkedIn where people have done them in like seven months, and have you done that?
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I stu I study like three or four months for one exam and there's six of them.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um I mean it's not, it wasn't a straight road, um, but definitely worth it in the end.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_03: So, I mean, yeah, I got my RS6 results on Friday.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I actually I failed a previous lease with my my second go at it, and just reading that I've actually had my diploma after studying for it for almost three years, best feeling in the world, absolute best feeling.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, exactly, it's an achievement, isn't it?
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and well done because you've obviously worked hard.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know how hard it is because I speak to people all the time.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody, this the I had I had a guy in the podcast, he passed it and did it in level four within seven months.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's ridiculous, it's ridiculous.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: But um, not ever not not you know, no two people are the same.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: We all learn differently.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that being in a role of a this is what I go back to the original bit when you went and started as an administrator and you started working your way through the process, so you've got that hands-on experiential learning.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a bit like you, I don't test well at all.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm better throwing myself into a job and failing over and over again, and then I start then I start to learn.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tests freak me out.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: I look back at I was 27 when I passed my drive-in test because I was like, oh, you know, I don't like you know that was the theory one.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not I didn't test well in school, but put me into a situation where I have to solve problems, put me into a situation where I have to get results.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on it, you know, I'm in there and I like that hands-on experiential learning.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a powerful side as well, because again, people are like, well, do it, Sam, should I get my level four qualification and then become a financial advisor?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: And my answer to that is no, just walk, take one, get one of, as we said earlier, get one of your qualifications, start studying towards it, start to see what it's all about.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: That obviously gives you gravitas and leverage to get into a business, but you can learn as you go along.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and that was that what if you didn't have that style of approach to your learning, do you think you'd have struggled sat in your back bedroom without any experience of the job itself?
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I like I read these books and I I've thought before, because I have seen people actually, one of my good friends, he did all of his exams before he he started in a role.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: And like I remember reading, like I think it was R04, and I was thinking, if I don't work with pensions, this would be like reading Greek.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: It is, it's like unless you can apply it.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_03: So hundred I would never ever recommend like let me do the exams first and then get a job.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: Learn on the job because that's what's going to make it easier for you to pass those exams.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_03: 100% the yeah, the knowledge you get from doing will enable you to learn and pick up and apply the knowledge that you read in these books, which are, I mean, they're like 300 pages of A4.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_03: There's there's a lot of stuff to kind of cram in your brain and remember for these exams.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_03: If you can apply them at work, it will definitely lend a helping hand 100%.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's great advice to anybody listening, really.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, don't dismiss the route of IFA administrator into power planner, into financial advisor.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you've got a good, strong work ethic.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: One you're learning on the job, you're learning the job, you're learning good, valuable quality skills that are only going to help you once you become a financial planner.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you outsource your power planner or admin, at least you understand the process and what is involved, timescales and all that kind of stuff.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's honestly so important.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, like I know a lot of advisors, it is like an aging profession.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_03: So if you look at advisors who are in their 50s and 60s, they just went straight into being an IFA.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_03: So they don't understand the process, especially after like our um, was it RDR and stuff?
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_03: And the what's needed for compliance as an IFA admin, as a power planner.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: I would always say you need to have these steps in order for you to be a good financial advisor, so you understand the whole process of doing it.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, yeah, I do I would not recommend any other way of doing it.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I now know how beneficial it is to be a good IFA admin, and being a good power planner would enable me to be a good IFA.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a really good point, actually, in regards to post-RDR.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that it completely changed.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: The level of paperwork massively increased, you know, to be a to be a financial advisor, to be an IFA, you know, not just a financial advisor who's tied, multi-tide or whatever.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: You've to be an IFA and have to be able to deliver higher levels of research.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, there's loads of work to actually be done.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's again, there is the profession, and there is the professional route.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm a big advocate.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: I flip-flop.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm like, well, if you've got somebody who's absolutely amazing at selling to people, I know you shouldn't say selling, but are you know good at relationship building and perhaps have some really good strong relationships, I think to myself sometimes, well, if that's the case, just study to become level four qualification and just jump straight into financial planning and then have somebody else do your power planning and administration.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is you kind of you can, I don't know, if you can have those deeper level of conversations with a client that kind of you know, the the level of research that goes in.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you sit down with a client and you and you'll say, Look, you know, I've done this job from start to finish, I know exactly what it takes.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what I'm gonna do.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go out and do this, I'm gonna do that.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then my power from a power planning perspective, this is the effort I put in, and I I know this because I've done it.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden someone's thinking, gee, this this this girl knows what she's talking about.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Stick me in front of somebody, and I'm like, you know, you want six percent, I'll get you seven percent.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about that.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'll do some research.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, let me buy you a beer, you know.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know, but there is, I suppose there is there is two sides to it, isn't there?
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can go in at a kind of um relationship-based level, but I think I think coming from university, I think coming from university where you just want the opportunity, right?
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: You want the opportunity to get stuck into a career, right?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: And first off, what is the career of a financial planner?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: Students listening to this right now or early on in their careers need to go and research what a financial planner is.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is it the right thing for me?
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: Once you understand that and you know that, understand that if you start as an IFA administrator, you could be starting on 20k basic salary, but my god, power planners, and you can get to a power planner level at what in four years, three years even.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, even before that, yeah.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: A power planner is a rare as rock and horses.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you can earn 35, 45, 50k.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some power planners on 65, 70k.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's in the city.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_03: If you get a job as a power planner in the city, you can go up to 70k as a career.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_03: Some power planners are more than employed financial advisors because they are so because you are you are technically more able than a financial advisor because you're doing a lot more technical work.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, the money in in power planning is great, even if you just stay as a power planner, if that's what that's what you enjoy.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is the bit I like, is because if you start as administrator, get on the power planner route, right?
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: You've built yourself a career in power planning.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've then got the choice to go and become a financial planner.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: But if you go off and become a financial planner and you think to yourself, do you know what?
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I like being a financial planner, no problem, step back into a power planner role.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, happy days.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hell of a lot harder to go the other way, isn't it?
• 50:15
  unknown: Yeah.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you start as a financial planner and then you go, well, I'm gonna go be a power planner.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got your experience of power planner.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, yeah, exactly.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can't at all, you're just the teeth and you know, all the rest of it.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, so that's a really good point.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I think um one that people shouldn't overlook, go down that route, train properly.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Take may take a couple of years, but your salary will increase by 25-30% each year, especially when you start getting your exam and the belt and your qualifications.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got your level four qualification, okay?
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: You said to yourself you wanted to be a financial planner.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to move into financial planning?
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is that your next yes?
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_03: That is the natural next step.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_03: So obviously, now I've got my um exams, I can now obviously give financial advice.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's a lot once you get a diploma, but there's loads of other moving parts, you obviously need to be.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_03: It depends if you're what firm you're working for, we have to be FCA registered.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we we we are members of tenant, which is an appointed representative.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_03: So there's loads of different moving parts.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_03: And um one of the directors here, what it really drills into me is obviously as soon as you get a diploma that's on paper, you can give financial advice.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_03: But a lot, well, even more importantly than your diploma is your skills as a financial advisor.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because when you sit down with someone in a client meeting, in that fact-finding meeting, you are asking the most personal questions.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_03: You need to get that person to trust you and feel comfortable enough to share, I mean, their medical history, what they earn.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's it's a lot to ask for from someone.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_03: So there's a lot of like interpersonal skills that are very important as well.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_03: So, my kind of next natural step into this is training, obviously, which I'm already doing to be a financial advisor through fact-finding and stuff like that.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the next natural next step.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: I think a lot of people kind of me included, get their right, I'm a financial advisor now.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's not really how it works because you obviously you need to be able to go into those meetings and um yeah, be really personable and get someone to trust you.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's also a big part of it.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_03: You need yeah, you need to believe in yourself and be able to build that rapport.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: Learn those kind of um uh learn the sort of emotive skills that go hand in hand with with becoming a financial planner.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: And again, just because you're level four qualified doesn't make you a financial planner.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many um relationship building skills you need to learn.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: You need to understand how to question people effectively.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you might be an administrator power plan, it's very factual, isn't it?
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's very like fact, fact, fact.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: And all you want is the facts, it's clear as day.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: Human beings aren't like that.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're a funny bunch, and you've got to be able to understand how to position your question in the correct way, how to uh how to build trust with those individuals.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think um one thing I'm learning the most as well is that there's so many good coaching and um sort of life-centered financial planning courses that are coming up, and I think it's well worth anybody who's becoming a financial planner to make sure that they're going down that coaching strategy, you know, how the coaching training and development, you know, know your there's one called Know Thyself Academy with Tina Weeks.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_00: You should connect with her.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about getting to know yourself.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't know yourself, how are you supposed to get to know a client?
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really unearthing who you are and then how you can then position that within a financial planning uh meeting with a client.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, if you're building that strong relationship with that client, that client's going nowhere.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: If they think in the back of their mind this person's a bit bit kind of geeky and a bit kind of, I don't know, non-emotive, then they're just like, well, I can't build any relationship with them.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly that.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think it's important to um remember as well.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_03: So when you meet a client, your goal from from that client meeting is not just to move their pension and then never see them again.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_03: You want to be their financial advisor for the rest of their lives.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like you want to build enough rapport so you count this person as a friend because you need them to trust you and you don't want them to sell them some life insurance and do a pension transfer and then not see them.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_03: And like you're their financial advisor.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_03: They are just like people have doctors, people have lawyers, people have financial advisors.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's a very long-term um relationship.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_03: So you really do need to build that rapport early as well.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: Lovely.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a power planner, then a lot of power planners then start to step into client meetings as well, so they get the experience of being face to face with the client, and maybe they also deliver an aspect of that meeting, whether it's a report or something along those lines.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_00: Was that something that you did?
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um I did uh when I was first kind of stepping into power planning, um, because we have some employed advisors here, so I used to uh go with them into the meetings.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but now I I mean I go to some client meetings, but not that many, to be honest, um, because I work on the technical research team, which is um like a central team that all the advisors can use for use.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't work for, even though I work a lot with one specific advisor and I have a lot of client contact, I'm not involved in his client meetings.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, like I said, I just work with a lot of different financial advisors.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: But that is if you work for a specific advisor, you're as a power planner, you're pretty much all always going into those meetings.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that comp again, that's stepping, that's a reality check as well.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, IFA administrator, you are dealing with product providers, you might be phoning the client up every now and then, just getting some extra information, perhaps.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Power planning, you're also starting to get into face-to-face meetings.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you are listening to the financial advisor, how they deliver their structure, their fact finds, how they build relationships.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you might start to take on some extra responsibilities within those meetings as well.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not again clear-cut, it's not like today you're a power planner and today you're a financial advisor, but that lovely trans transition period.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_00: And as you rightfully said, if you're working with one, two, three different financial advisors, you're being pulled in lots of different directions.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, that power planning role is essentially trainee financial advisor.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:55
  unknown: Yeah.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_00: I like the name power planner because obviously it's a role, power planner.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and people would like to stay as a power planner.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think, you know, with companies when they're thinking about hiring somebody where they want somebody to become a where they want a good quality power planner, but they want also to be able to build their financial planning team as well, is to call it training, you know, power planner stroke trainee financial advisor.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_01: 100%, yeah.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is just so much, yeah, there is so much you're learning within that role to do.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you are an aspiration now to become a financial advisor.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you've got to go through your competent advisor status, and that's what you're doing at the moment, and you're learning this, learning the ropes and everything.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is patience a massive part of becoming a financial planner as well?
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have to be patient?
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, 100%, which is something I really lack.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_03: So it was very difficult.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think one of the main things you have to be patient with, well, for me anyway, was the exams.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that they're not going to happen overnight.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_03: That's not going to be like I said, like I said, I have read people doing it in seven months.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_03: I have no idea how.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, working full-time and doing the exams is um it is a lot, and you do have to be patient as well.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_03: For me, anyway, it wasn't a straight road.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_03: I failed my RF4 once and I failed RF6 once.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_03: And that just like can only describe it as like a sheer heart when you've been studying for something for so long and you fail.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so yeah, it's just having the patience and also the determination to kind of try again.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, it's not, it's not gonna be, you're not gonna start as an IFA admin and then a year later be a financial advisor.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_03: It is you do have to be patient.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's very important to be with a firm that you really enjoy working for.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so you you don't mind working there for four for four years um training to be where you want to end up.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's very, very important.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_03: I can't imagine being anywhere else where I am at the moment because I enjoy it so much.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're not in a good firm and you're not surrounded with good people, it could it can be quite tedious, I think.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: So great stuff.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um so okay, brilliant.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks so much for sharing your journey then from administrator, power planner, to to trainee financial planner.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_00: So this what I've learned from our conversation really is that don't dismiss the IFA administrator to power planner route.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a very important part of a financial planning business.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it may sound like the financial planner is the the glitz and the glamour, but there's a huge learning curve to becoming a financial financial advisor.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the IFA admin and power planner route will ground you and train you in the right way, will give you the skills required so when you do become a financial advisor, you can absolutely nail it.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also at the same time, you know, don't be put off by the time scale.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you may hear some people pass their exams within seven months, but it takes you, took you a little longer, and it takes the majority of people a little longer.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're in a role, you're doing the job anyway, what does it matter?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like any profession, it takes time to build your skills up.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can't be a financial advisor on day one, simple as that.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a transition.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_03: You're not expecting to be a lawyer from like day one, and it's essentially kind of very similar.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_03: So it does take time, but um also I'm not I'm not there yet, but it's from what I've experienced, it's definitely definitely worth it 100%.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the future then.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: What does the future hold for you?
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, one thing I'm going to point out here, we need more women in financial planning.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_03: God yeah.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're a female.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: What are your views on that then?
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: Women in financial planning.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it a profession that more women should get into?
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_03: I think one of the main things is I think as a woman, you want to get financial advice from a woman.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_03: I think if you're going, I would anyway, if I was gonna go, if I was gonna um see a financial advisor, I would automatically want to go see a women, a woman.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_03: I think I'd be more comfortable speaking to a woman.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like I'd build better rapport and they would understand my needs and objectives better.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it is, I don't know why, I don't I don't know a single other woman around my age who's except for people on LinkedIn, obviously, um, who do what I do.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it is it is like it's an aging um profession that everyone I've read an article the other day, I can't remember the number, but the amount of people that are going to be retiring and clients who need um new financial advisors, and it's yeah, and yet again, especially women, we need young women in this profession, and I can't urge young women to get involved.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's it's a fantastic job.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm actually lucky enough at here at Radcliffe and Newland's one like our top, I think like three advisors are all female, and they're like amazing at what at what they do, and I'm lucky enough to kind of see how they work and see where how well they do and where like where they've come from.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it's huge opportunities for women in this profession, massively so.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: You said there about your top three um top three planners of females, and everybody needs someone to look up to.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there needs, I think there needs to be more, and I think everyone does, there needs to be more women um in positions of influence and talking about what it is they are doing on a day-to-day basis, more female leaders within financial planning.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, 100% more director level.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because as you just rightfully said, you know, you are looking up to these guys and you're seeing what they're doing, and you you want to aspire to do what they're doing as well.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think you know, any next gen the next generation, any females within financial planning, talk about what you're doing.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I love that Catherine Catherine Morgan's always doing it, she's always out there talking about it.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_00: I had the mortgage mum on.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, she was that I watched that.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she was great, and I think um, and I think women have a really lovely way of expressing emotion and being able to build that empathy and relationship.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_00: I do think, and it works both ways because um men themselves also I would like to go and see a female financial planner.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to see a man just because I'm a man, you know.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_00: I if I if I feel that that that is male or female, it doesn't bother me, but I do tend to feel that sometimes I don't know, a male-female relationship when it comes to that way.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, maybe it's just stereotypical that men don't quite want to open up and it's full of pride.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I think a man talking to a woman, it's different.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know, it just feels more comfortable to me.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_00: But then I was a bit of a mummy's boy, so yeah, I know what you mean.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's just depending, like I don't think it depends that much on gender.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think 100% we do need more female financial advisors because there's a massive gap, gap there.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_03: I think obviously dependent on if you're a woman or a man, but if you just meet that financial plan and the rapport is there, the rapport is there, you need to have build that relationship.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's it's a shame that we don't have the choice to pick female financial planners because there's not that many of them.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, beautiful.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_00: All right, great.
• 1:02:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, listen, thank you so much for sharing your journey and telling us a little bit about yeah, the different role types and everything, because that will be really beneficial to somebody who's listening to this thinking, like, I want to become a financial planner.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: What route should I go down?
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you've given a really clear-cut idea of what it's like to go the IFA to financial planner routes.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it is a journey, it is a learning experience, and there's so much that you have to do.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think something people should take away from this is don't overwhelm yourself by thinking that you need to do it all straight away.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_00: It takes time, doesn't it, to get to get yourself from A to B.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, thank you so much for your time today.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it, and um have a lovely day.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_03: Brilliant, thank you so much.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um cheers, mate.