Progeny has announced plans for its Adviser Academy that will allow prospective financial advisers to build their knowledge in law and tax, as well as financial advice.
In a first for the industry, Progeny will use its unique, multidisciplinary structure as a way of providing trainee financial advisers with a broader education in professional services, through secondments with its private and corporate legal teams and tax department.
The Academy was designed to provide a structured path for junior team members to become financial advisers. With mentoring and a carefully structured approach those on the programme have the opportunity to learn and gain meaningful experience from senior colleagues that would ordinarily take years to acquire.
Expanding the scope of the Academy to include experience in law and tax makes innovative use of Progeny’s combined professional services expertise to give Academy graduates a new advantage.
Gemma Schofield, Training and Competency Manager, said: “The Academy allows trainee advisers to develop a deeper understanding of how the financial planning profession works, helping them to understand regulatory requirements while providing exposure to a whole range of additional skills and experiences essential in client-facing roles.
“By allowing them to rotate through a number of departments in the business, ones which complement financial advice, the aim is to foster a new generation of advisers with a more comprehensive knowledge of professional services. This is good for their own professional development and their future careers and, ultimately, will deliver a better service to their clients.”
Ten advisers have now enrolled in the Academy since its launch in 2019, each experiencing their own individual journeys.
One of the inaugural members of the Academy, Rob Appleby, said: “The Academy is one of the reasons I joined Progeny. It offers all the tools needed for bridging the gap between a technical role and a financial planning role and represents a great opportunity for the next generation to step up. Given that the average age for a financial adviser is in the mid-50s, this is incredibly important.”
Neil Moles, Progeny CEO, said: “We are in the unique position of being able to give our Academy students access to a wider range of skills and experience than any other academy out there. We are using this opportunity to help create a new type of financial adviser, with a broader understanding of how financial advice fits with the bigger picture.
“It’s not about creating an army of identikit sales machines; we want to give our young team members all the support and guidance they need to develop into fully-rounded professionals. This way, we can help them to develop into the advisers of the future, with the skills to anticipate the ever-evolving needs of clients and the confidence to lead the way for the industry.”
The expansion of the Academy will continue in the months ahead, creating new opportunities for all types of professionals within the firm, including plans to provide training contracts to legal graduates.
Progeny’s expansion of the Adviser Academy has been covered in publications including:
- FT Adviser: ‘Academy adds tax and law for ‘new generation’ advisers’
- Money Marketing: ‘Progeny expands academy to include law and tax’
- Professional Adviser: ‘Progeny expands academy to offer law and tax training’
