The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has enhanced its long-running mentoring program and will roll it out across the country later this month in a series of events designed to encourage financial advisers to work together to educate and encourage each other.
Fraser Jack, AFA National GenXt Chair, said the AFA’s revitalised mentoring program will not only accelerate the professional journey of GenXt advisers, but will also reinvigorate and motivate more experienced advisers.
“The main aim of the program is to bridge the gap between GenXt and more experienced advisers, in order to encourage all advisers to share ways in which they can provide quality advice to their clients,” Mr Jack said. “Advisers are currently providing financial advice to two in 10 Australians – this simply isn’t enough. If we want to see more Australians accessing advice, we have to work together to come up with really great strategies and highly relevant approaches.”
Mr Jack said AFA advisers have always been very collegial and the AFA Mentoring Program (the Program) offers them an excellent forum for working together. “It offers an opportunity to collaborate to ensure that the advice we give our clients is of the highest quality,” he said.
The Program consists of three different approaches: face-to-face mentoring, webinars, and white papers on topics GenXt advisers have indicated are important to their development.
“We expect topics to include things like how to generate referrals, how to market to a target client segment, how to handle objections and how to develop centre of influence relationships,” Mr Jack said.
When AFA CEO Brad Fox was an adviser, he mentored Matt Hale who was AFA’s Rising Star Winner in 2012. Mr Hale is now a mentor himself and hopes that by sharing his experiences, he will be able to guide GenXt advisers to success.
“I hope the program will help extend the AFA’s strong collaborative culture to GenXt members and encourage them to become actively involved in their association,” he said. “The Program has been crucial to my personal development and I now regard my relationship with Brad as a friendship.”
His tip for fellow GenXt advisers is to find a mentor they really connect with.
“You get the most out of a mentoring relationship over a long period of time when you really connect with someone,” he said. “Wherever there are good quality people involved, results will speak for themselves.”
The AFA’s Mentoring Program will launch in cities across Australia on 30 May. Visit www.afa.asn.au/events to secure your place.