Demand for advice jobs on the rise

Hiring has also increased after slowing in the second half of 2012, with many organisations implementing a hiring freeze at the start of 2013, Hays found.

In particular there is a need for financial planners with proven sales skills and strong interpersonal skills, according to Hays Banking director Jane McNeill.

Major banks are looking for Financial Planners with strong business development skills as they become more aggressive in maintaining and building business. They also have a requirement for planners that hold a minimum ADFP [Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning] qualification,” she said.

There’s a particular need for financial planning candidates with language skills, especially in Asian languages, she added.

“Asian language skills are in particular demand to help banks compete and grow their migrant banking client base. This is a trend that has emerged strongly over the past year.”

There is also a continued shortage of experienced paraplanners with specific financial planning systems skills such as XPlan, and that shortage shows no sign of abating, the Hays quarterly hotspots list found.

Ms McNeill said demand for XPlan experience will increase due to a large number of clients changing to Xplan.

“Senior paraplanners are needed and salaries being offered for these candidates are at the top of the range since highly technical and complex paraplanners are a necessity given the [Future of Financial Advice] changes,” she said.

Boutique practices are struggling to find paraplanning candidates with the right technical ability in the areas of high net wealth clients and advanced strategies in superannuation, self managed super funds, insurance, Centrelink, tax, family trusts, and other legal structures. Hays stated.

Geographically, planners are most in demand in capital cities but regional and rural demand is increasing, in some cases being supplemented by phone-based advice, which Hays identified as a definite growth space within the big four banks.