To coincide with FAAA’s push to attract career changers to the financial planning profession as part of our Better off campaign, we spoke with four members about their career change journeys.
Taking a pay cut, sacrificing time with family and friends and starting down the career ladder (again) are the hard parts of changing careers from accounting, marketing and other fields to become a financial adviser. Despite the negatives, there are many advisers and potential advisers who are making the decision to move into financial planning with no regrets.
All cite the benefit of helping change lives for the better as being a driver for their new career.
And all see financial planning as where they want to spend the rest of their working lives.
It’s rewarding!
Stuart Engel
Director and senior financial adviser, Wealth Connexion, Brisbane
Stuart Engel, director and senior financial adviser at Wealth Connexion, Brisbane, made the move to financial advice about 13 years ago.
He had been working with financial advisers for around 12 years at that time, as a journalist and editor (Money Management) and then in marketing communications (BT and CFS).
He decided after talking to many advisers and having a deep understanding of the industry that it was somewhere he could run his own business in an area he felt he could work in for the rest of his life.
“I wanted a job where I’d be directly helping people. In marketing I felt I was generally helping people through understanding investments better, but it was pretty indirect.”
It took around three years from making the decision to starting the journey. “I looked at the [financial] haircut I would have to take, and it was a barrier to entry for me,” he said. His starting salary was around one-third of what he was earning in marketing.
A further challenge for Stuart was his two sons were small and his wife was looking after them full-time and they were building a house.
It all changed when he was offered a redundancy which meant he could pay his living expenses for a few months while he tried to get work as a financial planner. “It was definitely the most stressful financial time of my life. It was constant budgeting, and we had massive expenses as our home went over budget. It was really tough.”
It took about seven years to bring his salary back to his previous levels in marketing. And since then, it has grown.
He gained his MBA a few years before and was not worried about the study. He had already done his diploma and was working on his Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning as he wanted to make sure he had the best education he could have.
He started the AMP Horizons program in 2011, which was a nine-month program mostly for career changers like himself and he was working with a butcher, teacher and real estate agent at this time. “The skills were moulded into dealing with people, which essentially is the main skill of planning,” he said.
After Horizons, Stuart was keen on securing a position which would lead to taking an ownership stake in a practice. He had a few roles, each which taught him different skills including learning about annuities at Challenger and dealing with HNW clients.
Ultimately, he moved from Sydney to Brisbane and took a role and equity stake in a mate’s business. Moving the family to Brisbane was a challenge but he says there are no regrets. “I love it, and I love the work I do, and I really love having a say in the way the business is run. I like the people I work with, the culture is great – we worked hard at that.
“The business has a broad range of clients, and I have a lot to do with the investment committee, which is my passion.”
Now aged in his mid-50s, Stuart is keen to keep working for at least another 10 years. He says he’s been saying that for the past three years. Although he deals with retirement all the time, he’s definitely the plumber with a leaky tap in this regard.
Advice for those thinking about a change of career Stuart says, “Do it if you really want it. Make sure the motivation is right and then follow your dream.”
He warns, be careful who you go into business with. “Really do your due diligence. Be careful because they’re not all going to be suitable for you.”
Jodie Lane
Associate adviser, Rise Financial, Canberra
Jodie was in her late 30s when she decided to move into financial advice. She had been working as an accountant for around 20 years and didn’t really know much about the financial advice profession, but after meeting with her adviser she knew this was a career path she wanted to pursue.
Currently completing her PY with Rise Financial, Jodie said she didn’t know financial planning existed when she first started studying accounting. But things changed after meeting a financial planner.
She was harangued by her brother for some time to see his financial adviser but she thought that, working in finance for 20 years, she knew enough about finance. However, she eventually agreed to meet with the adviser and found the experience to be nothing like she could have imagined.
“She covered things I should have known about but hadn’t and after it all I was really sleeping better at night,” Jodie said.
“I was caught off guard by her approach. She said I’m not even going to talk numbers. I want to understand you as a person – how would you prioritise things in your life if you had no money, if you had money, if you had lots of money. It was homework but it listed a simple outcome and it struck me – why was I nearly 40 and never thought about this stuff? That approach really resonated with me that the plan would align with the life I wanted.”
This included putting personal insurances in order. “I was a parent and in a committed relationship with the bank, yet hadn’t done this before,” Jodie said.
After her experience with a planner, Jodie felt financial planning would be an incredibly fulfilling job but at the time she had a good role working with government. So, for her, the difficulty came about in juggling the study, and work, and surviving on a graduate salary.
This has been solved by working part time, so she can study whilst working to supplement her income. She is also juggling family. Currently in semester two of her Professional Year, she intends to stay in planning for the remainder of her working life.
“People have been so generous with time and knowledge and giving me an understanding of the job and industry. [Adviser and mentor] Trish Gregory has been fantastic and a great connector and has indulged me with a million details of how it all works under the hood.”
Her previous role working as an adviser to government departments, combined with understanding accounting and time spent in client facing roles in various environments meant a lot of the skills were transferrable.
And while she’s glad to have made the move to financial planning, Jodie says she also sees the value of experience before becoming an adviser.
I said to the adviser, “Wow, this is a great job. What’s the catch? She told me that while every job had bits that are hard work – helping clients was really rewarding.”
Emma McKenzie
Associate adviser, Rise Financial, Canberra
Emma is currently studying for her Masters in Financial Planning degree at Deakin University.
However, it took some time for Emma to move into financial planning. She never considered a professional career for herself. It wasn’t until she was working in an administrative role at a financial planning business – Roan Financial – that her horizons were widened.
Her boss there suggested she undertake the study although she was unsure about becoming an adviser. He said she would benefit from having post-graduate qualifications on her CV which could guarantee her better positions in future.
Emma’s reticence about entering financial planning was that this was in early post-Royal Commission period and there was a real fear of criminal penalties and the responsibilities of signing off on advice. But her boss told her that if she didn’t want to be hauled in front of ASIC for bad advice then all she had to do was not give bad advice.
The flexibility of the work was an attraction, as she was juggling a young family. And having joined Rise Financial this year she is enjoying the relationship aspect of dealing with financial advice clients.
Prior to working at Roan Financial, Emma spent seven years in hospitality management. After moving to regional NSW with her partner, who had children, she realised that working nights was not conducive to family life. She gained her business administration certificate at TAFE which led to her job at Roan Financial which then led her to advice. And now she feels supported by the profession and is in financial planning to stay.
Joshua Merritt
Currently studying at University of Wollongong
Joshua Merritt, from Shellharbour, decided aged 30 that he was going to move from civil construction to financial advice.
He had worked in blue collar jobs in mines in WA, tunnelling, driving machinery and heading a division. After six years in management he felt his next step in construction would be project management, construction management or starting his own business.
He didn’t fancy project or construction management but thought he could start his own business if only as a stepping stone to his next career.
His new company was putting in swimming pools – and he bought the machinery and is working paying down the assets which he will eventually sell to move full-time into financial advice.
Joshua has a Cert III in Plumbing, Gasfitting and Drainage and had completed 90% of a Diploma of Business in his previous role. Moving to financial advice meant a new beginning with a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in financial planning and finance, from the University of Wollongong, which he hopes to finish by the end of 2025.
Looking to secure a placement as a Provisional Adviser mid-2025, Joshua is meanwhile working as an intern with a mortgage broker. Ideally, he would find a PY role in a planning business with mortgage broking so that he can start adding value to the business’s bottom line immediately.
Joshua said he decided on financial advice in 2018, after reading books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and spending many hours sitting in vehicles on construction sites listening to podcasts.
“It excited something in me. I started coming home and thinking about a day in the life of this and a day in the life of that and decided on financial planning. It resonated with me.”
Joshua said he started the study thinking if it didn’t work, he could always change to something else.
He’d always invested in property and had bought four properties by the time he was 30. Mates at parties would ask him how he did it and he enjoyed sharing his experience with them.
So, in 2020, he sold his first property which helped him start his university studies and start his new business. He and his wife had also planned starting a family so he realised there may be no better time to change careers.
“Financial planning was at the front of mind; I was able to use my analytical, problem-solving skills from constructing strategy.”
