Broker warns of a massive gap in younger advisers
More needs to be done to encourage young people into financial services – and to ensure their financial literacy too, according to a specialist mortgage adviser who believes he may never have discovered the profession if his mother had not enjoyed a long career in it.
Still only 24, Sam Hutchins (pictured) has established himself successfully within the business, working for Blueberry Specialist Lending, in Poundbury, Dorset, and is planning to buy his own property. However, when he left school he was uncertain what he wanted to do as a career. Hutchins’ mother – who worked for Nationwide Building Society for 35 years – suggested he take a job there while he worked out what he wanted to do. Hutchins followed her advice and found a career that he believes isn’t highlighted enough to school leavers.
“I think there's a massive gap of younger generation brokers in the market and they're going to be needed over the next however many years,” Hutchins told Mortgage Introducer. “The number of financial advisers under the age of 30 is ridiculously low and I think you could say the same for mortgage advisers.
“The industry people I meet are older, and if you look at the average age of a financial adviser, I think it's 57. I went to a school of about 2,000 people and very rarely can I ever remember anyone in any of my classes talking about wanting to work in the finance industry. People were either going to go into a trade or they're going to go to university. I just don't think it's something that's mentioned.”
Hutchins chose to leave Nationwide, and move away from lending to train as an adviser, because he didn’t want to be a small cog in a big wheel. He clearly relishes his role at Blueberry Specialist Lending. “You feel you've got some worth in the business and you feel like you're making a difference,” he noted. “I try to go above and beyond. We've got a very young team here, which is quite rare, I think. I wasn't aware of how much money you could make as a broker, but I love the fact that the job is commission-based. At the end of the day, the harder you work, the more you network, the more you try to reach out to clients and the better you get at your job, the more money you will earn. That's so attractive because the sky really is the limit. I very much like to better myself and see progression. One of the reasons it is rewarding, not just financially, is that it's problem solving and once you get something across the line, you're helping someone buy a property, which is a massive part of their life. If you can play a part in one of life’s big journeys, it’s very fulfilling.”
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So keen is Hutchins to raise the profile of financial services as a potential career to teenagers, he hopes to address pupils at his former school about the profession, but also the importance of managing their finances. “I would say it's probably one of the most pressing issues for children nowadays,” he suggested, “especially with social media – as they get older, everyone's got a brand new car and finance. People feel a need to have the latest things and they get themselves into debt at a very young age. I've actually emailed my old Sixth Form to see if I can do a talk about a career in financial services and about general financial well-being. It's so overlooked and so missed in education.”
Hutchins is clearly ambitious for his career and whatever it may hold long-term. “For me, in terms of the next five years, I want to keep honing my skills as a broker, becoming more knowledgeable, building up a solid client base of people and becoming a trusted and well-known broker,” he said, “someone to whom you can go to arrange finance for your more difficult things. If you can provide people with a good service, if you focus on getting the right outcome for your clients and being a good people person, the rest will come.”
