Financial sector fills advisory gaps

The financial planning workforce in Spokane is showing resilience as firms, educators, and professional organizations develop new strategies to recruit and keep people in the field. Efforts addressing the industry’s workforce challenges include succession planning, new educational pipelines, salaried career paths, and mentorship models designed to attract and retain the next generation of financial planners.

Nationwide, the industry is facing a 100,000-adviser shortage by 2034, according to a report by management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Statewide, the Washington State Employment & Security Department reports financial planning as one of the fastest-declining professions between 2023 and 2028.

Addressing Workforce Challenges

As the industry works to address its workforce challenges, Whitworth University’s Master of Science in Financial Planning program, launched in 2023, has become a key pipeline for new advisers. Designed to prepare students for the Certified Financial Planner exam, the program acts as a hub for prospective students as the only such program in a seven-state region, says Robin Henager, founding faculty of the master’s in financial planning program at Whitworth University.

Henager contends the industry’s shrinking workforce is driven by retirements and an outdated perception of the profession that deters younger people from entering it. The profession has become less transactional and more relationship-driven, with advisers spending as much time understanding clients’ values and life goals as they do discussing investments, she says.

Evolution of the Profession

Marcus Holzschuh, associate investment adviser with Spokane-based Vickerman Investment Advisors Inc., concurs with Henager, noting that the profession has changed faster than public perception of it. Financial advisers typically evoke images of stockbrokers, cold calls, commissions, and aggressive sales, he says, while in reality, the profession has evolved to focus on relationships, planning, coaching, and long-term advising.

Holzschuh notes that people often equate financial advisers with the old stereotype of stockbrokers. He says this old bygone era is not how most firms do business now.

As the profession has evolved, so has its compensation model. For decades, entering the financial planning field meant competing in a commission-based environment, Holzschuh says. Many firms would hire advisers on commission and expect them to quickly build a book of business by bringing in clients and assets.

New Career Paths

More firms now are choosing to hire new advisers into salaried positions offering bonuses tied to company or individual performance, Holzschuh says. Young advisers often start as interns, paraplanners, or associate advisers, learning the profession under experienced planners before managing their own client relationships.

Robert Forster, founder of Spokane-based Forster Financial Inc., says he entered the industry in the early ‘90s and has seen firsthand the evolution from transaction-driven sales to a relationship-based financial planning profession. Today, he has structured his firm around mentoring the next generation of financial advisers by recruiting graduates from Whitworth University’s master’s program, serving on the program’s advisory board for the past three years, and investing time training young professionals before they build their own client practices.

Forster acknowledges that the business model is costly; he typically does not see a profit from new hires for the first three to four years. However, once adequately trained, they are better prepared to meet clients. Additionally, some of the younger advisers he has trained over the years have become partners in the firm or are on the path to partnership; a succession plan built around preserving the culture and legacy at the company, he explains.

Travis Messinger, a wealth adviser at Spokane-based Fulcrum Financial Group LLC, says he sees the current industry as ripe for new advisers looking to enter a business with a succession plan in place that allows them to grow and eventually become a partner.

Having a salaried role is another important factor among career changers transitioning into the financial planning field. Brandon White-Szep, a graduate of Whitworth’s master’s program, says he changed careers to financial planning in 2024, following years of working in project management. He sought to work for firms that offered a base pay while beginning the master’s program at Whitworth.

Whitworth is adapting its master’s program to prepare more students for the profession. Earlier this year, the university received a multiyear, six-figure grant from the Charles Schwab Corporate Foundation to expand coursework focused on career pathways, practice management, and sales and negotiation, Henager says.