RISK: helping people

According to a study by the Financial Planning Research Journal from Griffith University, interest in helping others is the primary reason for individuals choosing a career in financial advice.

Other motivators include work experience, employment opportunities, and the desire to work with people and numbers. Intrinsic rewards such as autonomy and interest are more important to prospective financial advisers than extrinsic rewards like salary and working conditions.

However, a higher salary was found to be more important to working advisers than non-working advisers.

The study also found that financial advice is often seen as a career for mature age career changers or something people "fall into". Personal experiences, such as observing how a financial adviser has helped family members or work opportunities in financial planning, played a role in influencing the choice to pursue a career in financial planning.

To boost numbers in the industry, the authors suggested providing more positive social learning experiences involving financial advice to the next generation and promoting the profession to students by offering more work-integrated learning experiences and including compulsory personal finance content in a broader range of courses. The profession should be promoted as a career to "help others", which will be especially relevant to attracting millennials looking for a sense of purpose in their work.