If you’re looking for a new direction in your career that can be both financially rewarding and see you helping and empowering people to improve their financial lives, you might like to consider a post-graduate qualification in financial planning.
Ready to upskill or embark on a career change in 2023? You don’t need to have a background in investing or superannuation to work in financial planning – just a curiosity and genuine interest in helping people to plan for their financial future.
Why consider a career in financial planning?
One of the biggest miscomprehensions about financial planning is that it’s all about facts and figures. Of course, you’ll learn all about investing, tax, superannuation and law, but at its core, financial planning is about helping people achieve their goals, dreams and financial security.
Being a financial planner means you can help people set and achieve their financial goals using personalised strategies and recommendations based on their unique financial situation.
‘As well as developing strategies and recommendations, financial planners act as life coaches, educators and mentors. It’s about creating close and trusted connections with clients and a desire to help people move towards a better life,’ says Deakin Senior Lecturer in Financial Planning, Marc Olynyk.
As well as helping others to better their lives through financial planning, you’ll also be helping yourself, with a career in financial planning offering:
- employment in a strong growth industry with a competitive salary
- a variety of career options and specialisations to choose from.
1. Strong growth industry with competitive salary
Helping people feels great, but knowing that you’re doing it in a profession with high growth opportunities and better-than-average salary can be the icing on the cake, and set you up for a lucrative and successful career.
Labour market insights from the Australian Government show the financial and insurance services industry employs over half a million people, with an even split of men and women.
The average income in the financial and insurance services industry is $1687 per week – higher than the all-industries average of $1200 – and the industry is projected to grow by 33,200 jobs (or 6.3 per cent) by November 2026.
And if you’re aiming to join the 63,900 people currently in a financial and insurance services management position, the prospects are even better.
The median full-time earnings of a manager in financial and insurance services are $2887 per week – considerably higher than the average management wage of $1593 per week. Three out of four managers earn more than $2178, and one in four earns more than $3849 per week (over $200,000 a year).
Broad range of careers
Once you have completed a financial planning qualification, there are a wide range of financial advice employment opportunities that you can seek to enter ranging from working within a small advice practice through to a large institution, working as an employee or you may have aspirations to setting up your own financial planning practice one day.
However, as well as a career as a financial adviser, your financial planning qualification opens up doors into a variety of other career options, such as:
- client administration officer
- insurance adviser
- business development manager
- superannuation consultant
- trainer and education consultant
- portfolio analyst
- paraplanner
- claims administrator
- compliance manager
- risk adviser.
Completing a postgraduate qualification in financial planning is generally the quickest way to complete an approved degree that complies with the Financial Adviser Standards, before completing a year of work and training (known as a Professional Year), and undertaking the Financial Adviser Exam.
‘A postgraduate qualification will provide you with specialist knowledge in the field, industry best practice and transferable skills that will enable new advisers to take advantage of the significant growth in the financial advice sector that is expected to take place over the next few years, and for existing advisers to demonstrate their professionalism and credibility, have the potential to attract a higher salary and increase their marketability,’ Olynyk says.
Why study at Deakin?
Ready to make that career change happen in 2023? Deakin University offers a supportive and flexible study environment, and strong connections with industry partners that can help you build your professional network and employment opportunities while you study.
In collaboration with Deakin Community Bank, we also celebrate our top performing students at our annual Deakin Financial Planning Awards. Each award is sponsored by an industry-leading organisation, and is an opportunity for our students to network and be celebrated by potential employers.
‘Our Financial Planning Excellence Awards and Industry Networking event represents a great opportunity to both recognise and reward our high achieving students and provide an opportunity for our industry partners to engage with our students and present on a range of career paths and options. Establishing strong industry links with our industry partners and sponsors is an important focus of financial planning at Deakin and is one of the key factors for why our students are in such demand for both internships and graduate roles.’
Find out more
Ready to secure your future and build a successful career with a degree that meets new requirements in a rapidly evolving profession? Deakin University is here to help you on your journey towards realising your career goals? Take a look at post-graduate course options and take the first step towards your new financial planning future today: