Pareto Financial Planning is expanding its in-house training programme to help up-and-coming advisers accelerate their careers.
The Manchester-based advisory firm launched a trial of the scheme last year under the stewardship of director Paul Stones, with the aim of nurturing talent from within to support its rapid growth.
Anthony Bruchez was the first to come through the ranks and the latest to be inducted are Dafydd Parry and James Hogg.
Dafydd has been a paraplanner for six years, including for the last three at Pareto, while James, an economics graduate, gained two years’ phone-based financial advisory experience before joining the programme.
Pareto advises individual and corporate clients on all aspects of financial planning, including pensions, investments, protection and employee benefits.
The firm, which is celebrating a decade in business this year, grew turnover by 18 per cent to £4.85m in its latest financial year. Funds under influence increased by more than £130m to over £600m.
Its adviser programme runs for up to 18 months. The scheme aims to give participants client-facing advisory experience and a grounding in Pareto’s client-first approach.
At first, they conduct client meetings under supervision and, after a few months, are able to advise unaccompanied while working in Pareto’s servicing department, with support from senior members of the team.
After 18 months’ experience and exposure to a variety of cases, they move into one of Pareto’s growing band of accountancy firm partners to provide their clients with a financial planning service.
Paul said: “We need to expand our team of advisers to support a growing client base, and this initiative means we are able to nurture our own talent and mould them into how we want them to operate as fully-fledged financial advisers, while simultaneously enabling them to develop relationships and build their own client portfolios.”
He said the traditional training route for independent financial advisers – usually working at a bank or large firm – means they often fail to gain exposure to clients or a guaranteed role afterwards.
Paul added: “Our programme offers advisers the opportunity to work with a well-established client base from the outset. It’s not a case of ‘who do you know?’ or ‘cold-calling’. They gain much-needed, face-to-face advisory experience, gearing them up for long and successful careers at Pareto.
“Anthony was the first to come through the scheme and has already achieved a great deal, and we are confident Dafydd and James will prove equally successful.
“We believe the model of ‘developing your own’ is the future of the industry. We are proud to be ahead of the game and look forward to welcoming further advisers on to the programme in 2019.
“It’s fair to say the advisers who go through our programme are the future of Pareto.”
