Over 50% of New UK Financial Advisers Came Through This ONE Academy!

Financial Planner Life Podcast

The episode explores the significant impact of the St. James's Place Academy on the UK financial planning profession, noting that over 50% of

Key takeaways

• Over 50% of all new financial advisers appointed in 2025 came through the St. James's Place Academy.
• The academy achieves a first-time exam pass rate of approximately 90%, significantly higher than the industry average of 55-60%.

Main topics

• Financial Adviser Succession
• SJP Academy Training Structure

Notable quotes

The academy was born from... a need to have a talent incubator.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a comprehensive guide for aspiring advisers, hig

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome to the Financial Planner Life podcast and we welcome back G Footed from St. James's Place Academy and we talk about how 50 % of new advisors into the profession have come through the St. James's Place Academy. We're going to take a deep dive into what's changed in 2026 and the ongoing improvements that they make. It's a fantastic episode for anybody that's thinking about becoming a financial planner. need to understand exactly what it's like from start to finish. You're going to love this episode if you're looking to become a financial planner. Speaker 1 (0:36) So, G, welcome back to the Financial Planner Live podcast. How are you? Speaker 2 (0:39) I'm very well. Thanks for having me. It's been a while since I've been on, Sam, so I'm excited for today. I Speaker 1 (0:43) did ask you. I think it's been about over a year, isn't it, since we did the deep dive into the St. James's Place Academy, which is going to be in the show notes anyway. So if anybody wants to sort of take a look into the deep dive, the different terms that we're going to talk about today briefly, but if someone wants to go a bit deeper, they can check the show notes and get stuck into that one. But the St. James's Place Academy podcast, they seem to be very popular. Speaker 2 (1:05) On your platform? Speaker 1 (1:06) Yeah. Oh, great. Massively. We get a lot of positive feedback from it. And, you know, I'm not just saying this because I'm here today working with you, but, you know, a lot of the guests that we've had that have gone through the St. James's Place Academy have been really fantastic stories of success. And I think that's the key, isn't it? Is that if you're going to go and join any company, if you're going to go down the route of becoming a financial planner and you're going to join an academy, you want to know that people have gone through it have been a success. And St. James's Place Academy now, it's not new. It's not the new kid on the block. Why is the St James's Place Academy such an important part of the financial planning profession? Speaker 2 (1:39) We are the longest running and most established programme out there. And we aim to be, I guess, the highest standard that people can want to replicate. And they are replicating it elsewhere, which is a flattering place to be for us. But we don't ever want to stand on our laurels and not change things because, you know, there are new people coming in and we need to make sure that we are. at the forefront of those changes ourselves as well. I think the Academy was born from, I guess, an SJP-centric place. So it was for the St James' Place partnership to be a sustainable business long into the future. St James' Place has an ambition to be a 100-year company. We're just over 30 now, so we've still got a long road to run to get to those 100 years. And having a business model that is sustainable when we can see it lasting out that long, the academy is a fundamental part of that for us. And if we look at the broader profession, we know that there are a lot of advisors who are over 50. I think it's almost 50 % of all financial advisors are over 50 and under 30 % are under 40. So that just means that over the next five, 10, 15 years, there will be a significant number of advisors exiting. They'll be retiring in a positive way. It's great. But what happens to the clients? So ultimately, St. James's Place is... 100 % focused on the outcomes for their clients, as are all of the advisors in the partnership. So the academy was born from that. Well, what happens when our advisors come to retire? We need to have a place for these clients to be looked after continuously. And we need to have a talent incubator. Because if we just recruit from the existing talent pool, well, as I said, many of them are over 50. So they're going to start running out sooner or later. So we needed to have an incubator of our own that said, let's bring fresh talent in. And now we're in a position where all of our graduates in 2025 contributed to over 50 % of those being appointed into the profession. So I feel like now we are not only benefiting from the infrastructure and the ecosystem ourselves, but we are influencing the broader profession in terms of gender makeup, for example. I Speaker 1 (3:47) love that. So 50 % of all new people that joined the profession actually came through the St. James's Place Academy. Speaker 2 (3:51) In 2025, yeah. Speaker 1 (3:52) That's incredible. So you are having a hugely positive impact on the profession. not just on the clients and individual advisors going through the process. Exactly. That's phenomenal. So, you know, things don't always have to be fixed. You don't have to be constantly looking for improvements for an academy, but sometimes changes are made. In 2026, what sort of changes have been made to the St. James's Place Academy? What's different from last year? Speaker 2 (4:18) Good question. And I probably won't be able to list everything because I think on an average year, we'll make over 500 changes to the programme. So even if you spoke to one of the people on your podcast, they may have come to training six months ago. The training today will look different to how it was for them six months ago. And it might not look dramatically different, but as I say, these small incremental changes that we'll make, sometimes we'll make big changes like we did after COVID with the move to much more virtual programme or I guess a hybrid programme. So 500 changes a year, why make those changes? And you said up front, well, don't change something if it doesn't need changing. And we absolutely agree with that. So we have lots of feedback loops. We remain inquisitive. We like to be at the forefront, be at the top, you know, be that leading academy in the profession. So the feedback loops are AI. supported. So at the end of any session, there's a learning sense check. How have you got on with this module? And that gives us MI and data. But there's also end of term analysis with the delegates, as well as observations out in the field. And of course, all of the people going through the programme have access to lots of SJP people supporting them. So at any time, they can give us feedback to whoever they happen to be speaking to. And we take that on board as well. So we've got that broad view of both qualitative and quantitative data that says to us, okay, something might need tweaking versus changing quite dramatically. And we do that. We want to be the very best we can. So we keep changing things when we see that we need to. Speaker 1 (5:45) I see you're still working with Redmill Advance as the exam trainer of choice when it comes to the qualifications there at St James's Place. How's that going? Speaker 2 (5:53) Yeah, I would say that's one of the things, if it's not broken, don't fix it. So one of the things that we have been working with since the outset of the academy back in 2012 and before is the Chartered Insurance Institute as the exam body and the route that we take. Speaker 1 (6:05) We Speaker 2 (6:05) like that approach because it's modular and I think it's helpful. You know, 45 % coming through our academy have a non-financial services background. Speaker 2 (6:14) learning about the financial products and the profession is all quite new to them and we find that their you know six exam modular approach helps them really understand in a deep way the products that they'll be recommending to their clients and Speaker 1 (6:27) then Speaker 2 (6:28) secondly Redmill Advanced I think our relationship with them must be about five years now and we have great outcomes for the people going through the training with us our first time exam pass rate With the combination of both their trainers, our trainers, the system that it is, and we can talk a little bit about that, Speaker 1 (6:44) is Speaker 2 (6:45) consistently between 80, 85, 95. You're just under 90%, just above, sorry, 90 % first-time pass rate. And that's versus a profession or industry whole of about 55 to 60 % first-time pass rate. Speaker 1 (6:56) Why is that? Why do you think that is? Because that is phenomenal pass rate. Speaker 2 (6:59) It's the combination of the system itself. So the system itself has... different learning styles. So if somebody has dyslexia or they like, they just prefer to learn through an audio book rather than reading something or watching a video, they just take the information in more. In that way, Red Mill Advance has all of those different learning styles built into it. It also has knowledge checks. It has an app for your phone. When you're on the commute, you can be testing your knowledge. So I just think the broad range of how you can learn through it is really helpful because it caters for lots of different learning. learning styles and then when you partner that and marry that with the support that people have In the SJP Academy, I think that's the thing that makes us stand out from others is the level of support that you have here. So when you're on that learning journey in term one, where you're getting through the qualifications, you've got access to exam trainers, both from Red Mill and from St James' Place, Speaker 1 (7:49) who are Speaker 2 (7:50) experts. These people sit every single sitting of the exam. They really understand what they're looking for. So to pass that knowledge on to you when you're about to sit the exam is second to none. But also I think the emotional support. So there's a peer group. You're joining the Academy. You're in a room full of both virtually and in person, 20 other people, 25 people on the same career change journey as you. And I think that connectivity, that peer led support is super helpful. So they all have a WhatsApp group. You know, they're texting things in there all the time. And that WhatsApp group continues for the rest of their journey in St. James' Place. And often the questions go from exam based questions into actually real client. you know scenarios and how do I help has anyone had a client in a similar position to this so I think that is super helpful too and then of course the development managers that we provide so intern one when you are learning the exams you have a relationship manager so there's that one person you can go to when you do need support Speaker 1 (8:42) but Speaker 2 (8:42) around of course all of that are experts in anything that you might need. So it could be technical expertise in a particular product line that you are finding challenging to understand. Or it could be, I think we mentioned this on one of our previous podcasts, just some emotional support. We call it pastoral care. So actually I'm going through something personally at the moment. I might need to postpone my exam for one reason or another. And it's just helping, holding hands with that person, making sure from a personal and health perspective, they have everything they need in place. And then once they're ready, supporting them through the journey at a time that's right. Speaker 1 (9:13) Love it. And obviously, you know, moving from one career to another into financial planning with the support of St James's Place Academy is fantastic. But what about financial support during that period? Are you still supporting people financially through the academy or through their journey to become a financial planner? Speaker 2 (9:28) Yeah, and it's a really important part for people to understand when they're coming through. And we have two, really two routes that somebody can take coming through the academy training. Sometimes people come with a set route in mind and that doesn't change. Others won't know which might be right for them and our onboarding or selection process is designed specifically to give them lots of information for them to do some homework to be able to make a very informed decision about it. And part of it will absolutely be the financial picture. So we will need to understand from the individual what their personal circumstances look like. from a household perspective, Speaker 1 (10:04) you Speaker 2 (10:05) know, not just an individual. And then that helps you make a decision. So the two routes I mentioned before is I'm going to start my own business, which is super exciting. Yeah. But obviously you've got to spin a lot of hats. You're becoming a financial advisor for the first time. Often you're running a business for the first time as well. We do have. people that have been entrepreneurs before come and join us as well, which is fantastic. They understand a little bit deeper some of the other things that they need to do on top of advising. But if you're new to this for the first time, there's lots of things to consider. And your financial resilience, I think, is an important part of that process and that learning journey. So what I don't have is one answer on what the financial support looks like for everybody. It does differ if you're starting a business versus... joining an existing practice of St James's Place. So just really quickly, just as a recap for people, I know I've mentioned this on the other podcast that I've been on with you, Sam, but if we've got new audience watching, and this is the first podcast that they've seen me on with you, I think it's important for people to understand the SJP model, the infrastructure, how the business works. So we've got 2,000 employees. None of our employees give financial advice. We are there to support the partnership. So the partnership is where the advice happens. And in the partnership at St. James's Place, there's 2,500 or over 2,600 individual businesses and around 5,000 financial advisors who work within those businesses. So when you're coming through our academy, the two routes out are I become an advisor in one of those existing businesses under the partnership umbrella, or I start my own business under the partnership umbrella. Now, there is a third route, because if you do join a practice, there's a choice between being an employed or a self-employed advisor within that business. Speaker 1 (11:43) And Speaker 2 (11:43) again, that's down to the person's personal circumstances and what they need. So back to your question, is there financial support? There is, and there's lots of different ways that we can support you. Our onboarding process is very much designed to understand them as an individual. what their needs are from a financial perspective, how resilient their finances are, and then that will help drive the right decision and outcome for that person on the programme. That said, if somebody's personal finances aren't necessarily in a position to start their own business now, you can stepping stone into a practice before running your own. Speaker 1 (12:16) So Speaker 2 (12:16) again, there's lots of flexibility in the ecosystem once you're in the partnership to get the outcome ultimately that you want in the end. Speaker 1 (12:23) Brilliant. So if someone listens to this podcast now and they're just trying to find out a little bit more about St. James's Place and they're kind of slightly worried a little bit about the financial side is, look, put that to one side. for the time being, if your heart is set on becoming a financial planner and you want to explore that career route, there are multiple different routes within St. James's Place. There isn't just one. So do reach out and have that conversation in the first step and, you know, find out what it's all about, what route might be suitable for you. And as you sit down with somebody and they uncover and discover. then hopefully the solution will actually kind of present itself. Speaker 2 (12:56) Absolutely. And our recruitment managers are dealing with people all of the time and they're placing into different opportunities all of the time. So they're very well equipped to give you all of the answers that you need. So be inquisitive, ask lots of questions. And I would say the things to look out for and ask your recruitment manager about that will help you, particularly if you're going to become an advisor in an existing practice, is really understanding the contract. So there will be a contract, whether you're employed or self-employed, but you need to understand the intricate details of it. And some of the feedback I've had personally is I became an advisor in a practice. They were talking to me about all of these things, ongoing advice fee, initial fees and all of these terms that at the time when you're new in, all just sounds great because you're just you're fresh in. You're so excited. You want to get started. The contract maybe doesn't quite make. sense to you as much or maybe you think it does you know you feel like a hundred percent it does and