Planners and paraplanners in short supply

Financial services recruiting firm Profusion Group conducted a survey of delegates at the 2013 Financial Planning Association (FPA) Congress yesterday.

Of the 50 respondents, 54.2 per cent said that ‘financial planner’ was the position most difficult to recruit, while 47.9 per cent chose ‘paraplanner’ (multiple responses were permitted).

Speaking at the FPA Congress, Profusion Group director Cholena Orr said it was “very difficult” to pull a successful financial planner out of an advice business.

“Generally, the easiest way is if their management has changed and they’re suddenly unhappy,” she said.

Financial planning assistants were hard to come by for 16.7 per cent of survey respondents, while 10.4 per cent are struggling to fill a technical manager role.

Client service officers were by far the easiest positions to fill, with 48.8 per cent of respondents naming them as the least difficult to recruit.

Twenty per cent of respondents said financial planners and client service managers were the least difficult to recruit.

Canberra and Perth were the most difficult regions to recruit in, according to the survey, with 28 per cent of respondents naming Canberra and 26 per cent picking Perth.

Adelaide was the third most difficult location to recruit in (22 per cent) followed by Sydney (20 per cent).