Navigating the Professional Year: Building strong foundations for a successful career in advice

The Professional Year (PY) program provides new advisers with the essential knowledge, experience, and mentorship for a great start to their careers. At the same time, it is a unique opportunity for supervisors to consider their own practices and how they can create the most beneficial experience for all parties.

However, at a time when the financial advice profession is looking to regenerate and ensure it can continue to play an important part in protecting and guiding the financial wellbeing of Australians, the program also has a bigger role.

The transfer of knowledge from experienced planners to new entrants is an invaluable part of the development process for young advisers, and by embracing this important purpose for the program, candidates and mentors alike can contribute to building trust in advice.

For Traci Bartlett, a PY supervisor and Financial Planner of 25 years who is now also the Learning & Development Manager at Fortnum, the key to making the most of the program is about building a trusted relationship with the PY candidate from the start. “We are going to travel this journey together, and if we can work well with each other, it sets the framework for a successful year where they feel supported,” she explains.

Beyond that, Traci works to set clear goals for the PY program, providing guidance and support while also working on candidates’ self-confidence and soft skills. “Most candidates I have worked with are academically strong, but there is a different stream of knowledge and skills needed when you are sitting with a widow who has just lost her partner of 50 years who looked after the family finances,” Traci says.

Kim White, Guiding Principal at CP Wealth Solutions and PY Supervisor, also sees the program as a way to give back to the profession that has given him so much. “Throughout my working life I have had the privilege to work with many fine mentors who have been there when I needed them, providing counsel to help me navigate through both good times and bad.”

“These kinds of relationships are invaluable and often enduring throughout our careers. It is a privilege to know that the candidates we are supervising will also ‘pay it forward’ when they settle into their own careers.”

For Cameron Martin, a PY candidate, the program came with a range of ‘out-of-the-comfort-zone’ yet rewarding experiences. He initially found the task of meeting the required hours of work and CPD quite daunting.

This challenge became even more pronounced during COVID-19 when face-to-face meetings were limited. However, Cameron persevered and met his hour requirements by acquiring new clients and building relationships with them.

TAL is hoping that the development and take up of digital support tools such as TAL’s PY Manager may help reduce this administrative burden and help advisers to navigate the Professional Year.

The most rewarding thing was getting to build up my confidence in working with clients as well as developing my relationships with them, as liaising with clients face-to-face was very new to me. 
Being able to assist them in meeting their goals and seeing how happy and relieved they could be after receiving financial advice is so rewarding. This is especially true with retirees when you are helping them achieve their retirement goals and lifelong dreams.

Looking back on his PY experience, Cameron recognises the program's vital role in establishing a strong foundation for becoming a proficient adviser. Having a seasoned adviser as a mentor is crucial for learning everyday skills, understanding the correct practices, and finding success. While everyone's journey is unique, a mentor can guide, educate, and shape a new adviser into a true professional.

TAL’s PY Community offers a virtual series of events that connect PY candidates with industry experts and experienced advisers to gain real-world insights into key advice topics, such as ethical dilemmas. TAL Risk Academy also offers four learning programs, created specifically to help advisers build knowledge and gain key skills for the advice industry.

For Cameron, having a mentor also enabled him to develop more meaningful client-adviser relationships. “I did not look at the PY as another year of study that needed to be done—I looked at it as a learning experience during the first year of my new career, and that is what it turned out to be.”

“Even though I was not new to the industry, I was new to a lot of the relationship development skills that the PY helped me develop.” Cameron maximised his PY by actively listening to his mentor, absorbing advice, and engaging in weekly wrap-up sessions - even seemingly minor details, such as being aware of nervous habits like saying "umm" too frequently.

For Kim, being a supervisor also helped him to develop his own skills in new experiences alongside his candidate, and caused him to consider his work regularly. “Where you would normally just do something, during the PY, you would stop and think, “Is this the best way to do something? Could it be done differently? Will the outcomes change? Why? How?”.

The advice profession continues to navigate out of a challenging period, and the ability to rebuild will rely on the entire profession working together to enhance consumer confidence in the value and quality of advice. The Professional Year has a crucial role to play, supported by partners like TAL, in facilitating a healthy and thriving financial advice sector into the future.