Verve Foundation, the not-for-profit organisation looking to bring new blood into the profession and help advisers to grow, is to launch a second tranche of its ‘Adviser Incubator’ initiative following the success of the pilot programme.

The Foundation says that applications are open from today for the next cohort.

The Incubator initiative aims to support advisers who are newly authorised, those looking to set up a new advisory business and those looking to expand from being a ‘one-person’ firm.

Verve says the structured 12-week programme gives firms a pathway to follow.  

Weekly sessions are complemented by a supportive community, mentoring, access to collaborative office space, ad-hoc educational sessions and the opportunity to get admin support, while also giving trainees some work experience.

Hayley Rabbets, head of The Verve Foundation, said: “We decided to run the first cohort of The Adviser Incubator programme as a pilot, to test the waters and see how things go and the feedback we’ve had has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We now want to move forward and continue supporting as many people as we possibly can, so we’re opening applications for our second cohort, aiming to launch at the end of September.”

One of the advisers on the pilot, Brandon Lamam, said that after setting up his own business with Rockwealth, he was mainly focused primarily on “survival” and being able to bring in enough fees in the first year to cover expenses.

He said after a successful first 6 months his challenge was how to grow and the Verve Foundation proved very helpful.

He said: “Life as a new business owner can be quite lonely at times, so being able to listen in to advisers on a similar journey to me was really useful. Hearing the cohort talk and advisers sharing their positive experiences has made me more motivated than I was before.”

As a not-for-profit organisation, Verve Foundation initiatives are funded through partnerships with like-minded individuals and companies. Parmenion is the lead sponsor, with Royal London supporting.

Applications are open and will close on Friday 15 September 2023.

• Details at: http://thevervefoundation.co.uk/