Plymouth (17.08.26) – Advice firms need to look beyond recruitment and turn as far back as middle schools to attract more young people into the financial planning profession, according to national advice firm Continuum.
The demand for financial advice is growing, however, the number of qualified investment advisers continues to fall.
With this week bringing annual GCSE results, Continuum has called for financial advisers to engage with middle and upper schools to help encourage more people to join the profession.
Reported revenue from retail investment advice increased 14% in just one year to £6.5bn in 2025, but despite the market growth the number of advisers fell by 143 that same year, according to the latest data from the FCA.
Worryingly, only 171 of these financial advisers are under the age of 25, highlighting a serious long-term risk if the profession does not do more to support future talent.
This gap between demand and supply has been widely known for several years, with many large wealth management firms opening academies to try to fill the gap. However, the gap continues to grow.
Continuum believes all advice firms should be doing their part to help meet this growing demand, working to spread the word about the benefits of a career in financial advice, rather than relying on a few larger players.
Erin Rigault, Independent Financial Adviser at Continuum, said: “The problem starts at school. Financial education is not built into the curriculum as it should be. Not only does this mean that children are not learning essential financial management skills they will need in life, it may also leave many who might consider joining the profession lacking in confidence in making financial advice their career.
“The FCA and trade bodies have focused a lot on helping advisers to deliver better and more consistent outcomes for clients over the past couple of years and a lot of good work has been done. However, without doing more to help attract young people into the profession, the foundations of the profession could drop away as there will simply not be enough qualified independent financial advisers to meet demand.
“It could be easy for advisers to sit back and see this as someone else’s problem, to be solved by the regulator and large advice firms. But this is a problem for us all if we want someone to be there to support our clients and their future generations when the time comes for us to step back.
“Even the smallest of one-man band advice firms should consider doing their bit. Local schools, universities and societies of young people are usually more than happy for advisers to come and tell their students what it is like working in financial advice and help break the damaging stereotypes that often pervade the public’s perception of what it is we do. The future of our profession is at stake.”
Within the Continuum partnership, several advisers work with local schools, colleges and universities to demonstrate how rewarding a career in financial advice can be.
Continuum has previously called on advisers to promote succession schemes to young entrepreneurs to attract more young people into the profession.
Young people are more likely than ever to be looking to enter careers where self-employment and building your own business can become a reality. According to the Office for National Statistics, nearly a quarter (21%) of 16-21-year-olds say they will likely be self-employed at some point in the future.
If the profession is to attract this growing number of entrepreneurial youngsters, it needs to look beyond training and promote how easy it is to start and grow your own business in the financial planning market.
Erin Rigault added: “Today’s young workers are more interested than ever in building their own business. This is great news for our profession as there are many roles within financial planning that are well suited to self-employment and building your own empire.
“Promoting succession schemes and how young people can grow their own independent business within the financial planning market with no capital requirements on entry is important if we are to attract these entrepreneurs of tomorrow to our profession.”
Erin Rigault, Independent Financial Adviser at Continuum
Editors Notes – About Continuum
Continuum, headquartered in Plymouth, was established in 2014 by founding partner, Martin Brown, as a National IFA brand to offer a modern, new financial advice experience.
The business focuses on creating a three-way partnership between Continuum, the adviser and the client, in an environment where each party can only succeed and grow if the other parties also succeed and grow.
By educating customers through an award-winning financial education programme and offering our clients a loyalty programme, Continuum develops long-term relationships strongly endorsed though market leading Net Promoter Scores – most recent customer survey delivered a score of +90.
An in-house discretionary model portfolio service, My Continuum Wealth, was initiated in July 2021 to offer an exclusive MPS (Model Portfolio Service) to Continuum advisers.
Continuum now holds assets under influence in excess of £3.12 billion.
In December 2020 Continuum was awarded ESG kitemark (ESGmark) accreditation in recognition of its business approach of Environmental, Social Responsibility and Governance matters.
Continuum is a trading name of Continuum (Financial Services) LLP which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Continuum (Financial Services) LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership
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Katherine Mitchell 07917 855881 kmitchell@brandonconsultingservices.co.uk
