Ben Madilynn
There’s no denying that a lot of work has taken place in recent years to diversify the mortgage adviser workforce, but are we doing enough to attract younger people?
The age and demographic of mortgage advisers was the proverbial elephant in the room for a long time and has rightly been the focus of attention for several years now.
While there have been many positive steps in the right direction, we are still facing the challenges of a retiring workforce.
This begs questions around the perception school leavers have of careers in mortgages and whether it’s something they are at all attracted to, or even aware of. It’s generally felt that mortgage advice is something people fall into, rather than actively choose, so what can we do to influence this?
Bigger-picture change is probably needed at the skills and qualifications level, but there’s also a role for individual businesses to nurture young talent and champion the benefits of an adviser career.
It might not sound appealing or sexy on paper, but a career as an adviser can offer a lucrative income, the ability to build your own business, flexibility, a good work/life balance, and the chance to meet and help people from all walks of life.
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It’s also becoming more innovative as technology advances and we seek new ways to improve the experience of customers and advisers.
Embracing technology and fresh perspectives
There’s a great opportunity for younger generations to bring fresh perspectives to the industry and really make their mark, whether that’s taking advantage of those technologies, getting creative on social media, building relationships with clients, or something else.
The challenge is in how we communicate this to younger generations, while making sure there are enough pathways into an adviser career. And that means getting them through the door to begin with.
One of the ways we do this at Rosemount is through our internship programme. We are listed with various universities as offering internships to students seeking a one-year work placement as part of their degree courses.
We started that with one intern last year and have two on board this year. Interns get to experience all aspects of the business, including how paraplanning works, compliance, case checking, risk management and feeding back to advisers.
Building confidence in the role
The current interns are both economics students and are enjoying the hands-on experience they are gaining.
Joshua Wright, aged 21, heard about Rosemount and gained an interest in the sector through his older brother, who worked for one of our appointed representative (AR) firms.
After doing his own research, he felt it sounded like the right opportunity for him.
“A lot of my friends have been working in bigger offices and are doing a lot of admin, whereas I was given a lot of responsibility straight away, which has really helped to build my confidence in the role,” Joshua said.
He continued: “You don’t have someone looking over your shoulder constantly, but you are always given support if you need it. I’d definitely recommend it to other students and would encourage them to just put themselves out there and apply.”
Ewan MacBride, aged 20, also became interested in the industry at a young age after spending time at a financial solutions firm for his year 11 work experience.
He said: “From day one at Rosemount, you’re getting a lot of exposure to different aspects of the business, which helps you to learn about how it operates as a whole. I don’t know many people doing their work placements in finance, but I do know people who are one of 20 or 30 interns and don’t spend much time in the office because it’s work from home.
“So I’d definitely encourage others to think about it. Even if you don’t think it’s the perfect placement, be open-minded, you could learn a lot more than you think.”
We are now becoming known for the high quality of our intern programme and hopefully this will snowball, especially if other businesses start doing the same. Of course, we get the benefit of having young and enthusiastic people working hard as part of the team, and it’s also great news for us that interns want to become advisers with Rosemount after completing their degrees.
As more students come through, they’ll tell their peers, and as they start to get employed positions and share their experiences, they should become role models for other young people.
How mortgage advisers can help
There’s also a role for AR firms and individual brokers – especially those joining the industry from education – to raise awareness of careers in mortgage advice by being active on social media and talking about what they do.
This could be through careers talks at local schools and colleges, or just generally with their networks, or even friends and family.
If we all do a bit, we can hopefully highlight the benefits more widely and show that a career in advice is absolutely something to aim for, rather than fall back on.
