Although the demand for financial advisers continues, regulatory changes might alter this, according to recruitment firm eJobs.

It says the number of financial planning jobs advertised nationally has risen 16% during the past 12 months.

And the demand for life insurance specialists continues to be high, MD Trevor Punnett told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“But I think the jury is still out on what the impact will be on life insurance jobs once the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms come into effect,” he said.

While the current demand for financial advisers is strong, the overall industry numbers have in fact only grown slowly.

“Given the huge number of industry jobs advertised each month one would suspect the financial planning industry to be growing massively,” Mr Punnett said. 

“But the number of financial advisers has only grown by approximately 19.5% during the past 10 years.”

He says the financial planning industry will need to compete for staff against all other industries in the future as unemployment rates keep falling, and he sees the FOFA reforms as a disincentive to recruits.

“Are there enough succession-minded advisers prepared to take on the risks of running a practice now the Government has released its FOFA reforms?” Mr Punnett said.

“There are still questions on how these reforms will affect practices with fluctuating income streams, uncertainty in business valuations and the additional ‘opt-in’ administration costs.”

In the short term, Mr Punnett foresees “stiff competition” to recruit new staff and retain advisers within dealer groups.