New advice industry recruitment business launched

Adrian Patty, a financial and mortgage adviser from AP Financial Solutions, has launched Spark Professional – a business focused on providing recruitment services specifically for the advice industry.

"Spark Professional was started to assist financial services businesses with practically-trained staff, drastically reducing the cost of hiring new employees," Mr Patty said.

According to the Spark Professional website, potential employers can browse a pool of industry-ready, pre-vetted candidates.

"Every member of the Spark Professional talent pool has completed our intensive training program, a comprehensive and rigorous course that teaches everything it takes to develop and deliver in-depth strategies in the areas of investment, super, retirement, insurance, and tax advice," the website says.

There are several staff categories employers can choose from, including administration, research, client service and associate advisers.

Spark Professional also provides employers a 90-day guarantee and it will replace or further train a candidate to ensure they are industry-ready.

Mr Patty said his company also offers practical training for people hoping to or already working in the financial advice sector.

"The practical training we provide to potential employees has also been made available to existing staff to enable practices to upskill internally in a wide range of financial advice areas," he said.

According to the Spark Professional website, the training takes place over a series of modules that include topics such as investments, insurance, product comparison, compliance and insurance quoting.