Why did I become a Financial Planner? This question recently came up in conversation with other professionals in my field, to understand how we landed in the Financial Services profession. It was clear that our journeys were very similar. It was never our plan to work in the world of Financial Planning, we just kind of, stumbled upon it. Fate, some may say.

Nowadays, the avenues and training grounds available for individuals to get started in our profession have drastically reduced, as many of the natural choices are no longer in as many local locations.

This led me to think about future talent and how we can encourage and educate young people to choose Financial Planning as their career. It was very clear from my discussions with fellow professionals that everyone loved what they did, and that, despite the career finding them, the fit was perfect. So, how can we market this to the future generation of Financial Planning professionals?

For me, the key idea is to illustrate the fulfilment in what we do for clients and how much satisfaction we get from providing solutions that meet our clients' needs. The key objective is to ensure that our clients can sleep at night, safe in the knowledge that someone is looking after their finances and provide them with the security that everything is okay. This clearly brings with it a huge responsibility, but for me, that is the role.

There is also a large responsibility placed on the profession, to come together, to create the educational avenues, share career stories and provide the necessary noise to allow Financial Planning professionals of the future to have visibility of what is required, and what their career path might look like. There is an appetite from the profession to assist, however, we need to find the format and formula to bring this all together and provide the necessary tools to ensure that this is a simple adjustment from where we are currently.

There are opportunities for us to succeed. Whether this be university or school placements, creating a more logical and successful path to Chartered status, working with both the profession and the educational authorities to allow this. But most importantly, we need to be visible at career fairs, providing the future with insight on how fantastic a career in Financial Planning is.

I have had various discussions with schools and universities, where my plan is to provide individuals with as much information as possible on what we do, how we do it, and the benefits of a long and successful career in Financial Planning. We need Financial Planning to be considered alongside other professional careers such as accountancy or law. Working alongside regulatory bodies to create content and avenues for this, is the way forward.

We owe it to both the profession and the talent of the future. Therefore, my legacy is to ensure that we create a profession that is chosen, as opposed to one in which individuals stumble into.

Find out more

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with me, a member of our Wealth team, or your usual adviser, if you would like to discuss this further.

If this has peaked your interest in a career within the Financial Planning profession, visit our Careers page to find out more about life at Johnston Carmichael.