How to build an advice talent pipeline when the profession is shrinking

The numbers do not lie. Australia had close to 28,000 registered financial advisers before the Hayne Royal Commission. Today, approximately 15,558 registered advisers remain.

The profession has nearly halved in under a decade, and financial advice career pathways have not kept pace with the exits.

Demand for advice is not shrinking. An ageing population, growing superannuation balances, and rising complexity in retirement planning all point in one direction. The gap between the advisers available and the Australians who need professional guidance widens every year.

This is not an abstract industry problem. It is a practice management challenge that sits on the desk of every firm principal in the country.

A shortage no market has solved

The problem extends well beyond Australia. Professional Planner has noted that the United States and the United Kingdom report similar shortfalls in their adviser workforces. A McKinsey report predicts the US could face a shortage of roughly 100,000 advisers by 2034 at current productivity levels.

The common thread across all three markets is the same: a failure to position financial planning as an attractive career for young professionals.

The profession has not told its story well enough, and structural barriers to entry have pushed away people who would otherwise make excellent advisers.

What the DBFO reforms open up

The federal government’s Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms represent the most significant attempt to address the talent pipeline in years.

The reforms create a new class of adviser who can deliver scaled and simple advice on defined matters, including insurance recommendations and basic retirement questions. That opens a genuine entry point for new talent without compromising standards for complex advice.

The reforms also modernise education requirements. Most commerce, economics or finance graduates can now complete the pathway to registration in roughly half the time and at half the cost of the previous framework.

Employers can tailor combinations of structured learning and on-the-job training, which broadens the appeal to candidates from diverse professional backgrounds.

The opportunities are concrete for advice practices. Broader financial advice career pathways mean a larger and more varied pool of candidates to recruit from. Firms that understand the new framework early will have a structural recruiting advantage over those that do not.

The career-changer opportunity most practices miss

Practices that overlook career-changers are missing one of the strongest talent pools available to them.

Deakin University data shows that approximately one third of students in postgraduate financial planning programs come from other professions. These candidates bring maturity, transferable skills, and a deliberate choice to be there. Employers consistently rate them as high-demand hires.

The pathway is clear but demanding. Career-changers typically complete a Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning, then undertake a Professional Year of 1,600 hours of supervised work within an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) holder. After that, they sit the national financial adviser exam.

The Financial Advice Association Australia has developed resources to help licensees and candidates manage the Professional Year’s documentation requirements more efficiently.

Mentoring programs and tailored training plans sit alongside these tools. Together, they make the transition faster and less daunting for people entering from other industries.

Practices that actively mentor Professional Year candidates are not just filling a supervisory obligation. They are building their own future team.

What practices can do right now

Building a talent pipeline takes deliberate effort. It does not happen by accident.

The Hays 2025 Skills Report found that 84 per cent of hiring managers across accounting and finance report staffing shortages, with graduate intakes among the most effective responses.

A structured program brings in motivated candidates who can develop into senior roles over time. It also builds the kind of culture that retains people.

Beyond formal programs, practices need to examine what they actually offer emerging talent. Flexible work arrangements have become a threshold expectation for most candidates, not a bonus.

Clear progression structures, genuine mentoring relationships, and a visible commitment to professional development rank consistently at the top of what early-career professionals value most when choosing an employer.

The Professional Year deserves more strategic attention than most practices give it.

Money Management notes that practices taking their supervisory responsibility seriously contribute to building a stronger profession while potentially identifying future business partners or successors.

Firms that invest in the supervisory relationship, rather than treating it as a compliance obligation, develop better advisers and build a reputation as employers of choice.

Defining clear financial advice career pathways within the firm, from paraplanner through to senior adviser and potentially equity, sends a signal to candidates that the practice takes people seriously. Visible structures attract ambitious people. Vague promises do not.

The profession cannot fix this without practices

Australia’s advice profession cannot recruit its way out of the talent shortage without changing how it presents itself to the next generation. That requires existing practitioners to actively champion the profession, mentor those entering it, and build the internal conditions that make people want to stay.

The advisers who take that responsibility seriously today are not just solving a staffing problem. The financial advice career pathways that exist a decade from now will reflect the choices practices make right now.