With the average investment advisor hovering in his or her 50s, 25 percent of the country's advisors are eyeing retirement themselves within the next decade.
Research from InvestmentNews' "advisor of the future" survey projects the retirement investment industry will come up short: 237,000 retirement advisors will be retiring over the next 10 years and it appears the ranks aren't prepped to fill the void.
See also: How to become a retirement advisor
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The survey points to "the readiness gap"— the age difference between founding principals and their successors — as the top concern. Currently, an average 11-year age gap means the financial advice industry might not have the muscle to meet future consumer needs.
InvestmentNews suggests firms look to developing a rich talent pool in-house, rather than spend money enticing talent from other firms.
Reporting only 12 percent of new investment advisors are arriving straight from college, and women representing only 30 percent of the industry, the survey looks to these two sectors as vital to the health of the industry.
When it comes to developing talent among young advisors and women, InvestmentNews discovered where the two sector overlap — mentoring.
Almost 90 percent of 500 college students surveyed by Pershing LLC wanted mentoring relationships in their career. And when picturing 25 percent of investment advisors leaving their posts in the next decade, in-house mentor relationships are a win-win: Bolster the younger advisor and give the veteran a way to share a career's worth of industry knowledge.
Finally, the survey noted that compensation is rarely the reason an employee leaves a firm. Rather it's corporate culture that determines an employees' longevity.
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