Soft skills crucial in new hires as wealth transfer commences

Soft skills are particularly important for up-and-coming advisers, as new challenges such as the wealth transfer approach, a panel of professionals said this week.

Speaking at Striver’s Brimstone event in Sydney this week, BT senior national accounts manager Tonya Ripley explained that soft skills and emotional intelligence will become particularly sought-after qualities over the coming period.

“Being able to have those soft skills is one of the things that you really need to be focusing on and developing in this industry. I think that soft skills are becoming more and more important,” Ripley said.

“With a lot of those conversations, you’re talking to people who are facing their own mortality and you’re also working with people who are the beneficiaries of money who are dealing with loss.”

Adding to this, head of advice proposition for Zurich Assure, Ben Smith, suggested that, while technical skills can be taught, soft skills and emotional intelligence are significantly more difficult to learn, making some candidates inheritably more desirable for advice firms.

“Technical skills will get you so far, but if you don’t have a balance [with soft skills], if you don’t have good emotional intelligence, if you don’t have the ability to relate and work with people, if you don’t have a strong work ethic, you’re probably going to be limited to very technical roles,” he said.

“Technical skills can be developed. Some of the other stuff you can’t pick up as easily by classroom learning, so that balance is important.”

Sarah Abood, CEO of the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA), agreed, noting that what makes a great financial advice professional is that ability to integrate the technical, the data, the numbers with the human being who is sitting in front of you.

“The best advisers are the ones who can really integrate those two sources of knowledge and help that consumer come up with the best strategy for them.”

Highlighting the value of soft skills, Janus Hendersons’ 2024 Investor Survey: Insights for a Brighter Future released earlier this year revealed that 67 per cent of advised investors felt very satisfied with their relationship with their adviser. Of these, 79 per cent indicated that their adviser provides them with “peace of mind”, while 72 per cent said they felt their adviser cared about them as a person.

“Notably, when advisers address emotional needs, client satisfaction improves,” the firm said at the time.

Despite the notable significance of soft skills, particularly among advisers, a report by Kaplan Professional conducted in partnership with Delta Consulting released earlier this year revealed that among 750 surveyed respondents, including advisers, new entrants, licensees and consumers, almost all shared a concern regarding the lack of practical experience and soft skills in new advisers entering the field.

Younger non-advisers looking to enter the field specifically noted in themselves a need to develop soft skills and new entrants said they, too, need to improve these skills and gain more industry experience, the report revealed.

These new entrants also noted a need for career support and mentorship from experienced industry professionals and assistance to improve soft skills with supplementary real-world projects.