A working group of Financial Planners has presented a new set of initiatives to the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) professional body to help raise awareness of financial advice as a profession.
The working group was formed in 2025 by a group of Planners with a shared ambition to help inspire the next generation to consider Financial Planning as a career.
The three initiatives presented are:
Raising awareness in the classroom – a white-labelled presentation that any company or individual can use to go into schools and colleges to introduce students to Financial Planning as a career path, explaining what the role involves and the opportunities it offers.
Providing clarity on routes into the profession - an online toolkit that sets out the routes available, including the differences between independent and restricted advice, employed and self-employed status and the range of academies and training providers.
Creating opportunity through funded places – highlighting existing initiatives that give individuals the chance to begin working towards industry qualifications, supported by mentors and structured guidance. The group is also working on a project to help fund additional places on these schemes.
Charlotte Wheeler, senior wealth manager at JP Morgan and member of the working group said: "This project has been about turning our shared frustration into action. Financial Planning is a fantastic career, but too few young people ever hear about it, and even fewer know how to get started. These initiatives are designed to change that."
The Financial Planning profession currently has fewer than 200 advisers under the age of 25, according to the most recent FCA data on the adviser market. This is a decrease of 10% since 2022 and represents under 1% of all Financial Planners.
According to analysis of the FCA data by Begbies Traynor Group, there has been a 12% rise in the number of advisers aged over 60 since the start of 2022, with over 7,000 advisers older than 59.
Hollee Vivian, Chartered Independent Financial Planner at Vivian Wealth, and member of the working group, said: "During this project we’ve discovered some amazing initiatives such as the Verve Foundation that are providing people with the tools for free to start their journey to become financial advisers, through qualifications and alongside real industry support.
"It’s become a mission of ours to try and secure more funding for the team to create a real tangible benefit to our shared goal.”
The members of the working group are:
- Andrew McRae, Acumen Financial Planning
- Charlotte Wheeler, JP Morgan Personal Investing
- George York, Aquila Financial Management
- Hollee Vivian, Vivian Wealth
- Kane Prior, Chester Rose
- Matthew Swiggs, Advanta Wealth
- Olivia Willets, Perspective
- Rachel Toseland, Simplicity Financial Planning
- Raveen Kaur, Rathbones
- Tom Manton-Janes, Bespoke Advice