He noted that the interest in the academy had been “phenomenal” and that he had never been so busy.
Recruitment
Atherton did not believe the firm would have a problem trying to find people to join the academy.
“The problem we are going to have is finding people who want to come here for the medium to long term. We have had a lot of people reaching out who want to do one or two years and we have had to say no because we want to train people first which can take one to two years. And in my opinion it takes longer for people to become competent” he discussed.
Atherton believed Malaysia was very open to immigration and can be an exciting place for advisers.
He said: “We've had the Budget in Malaysia and remittances into Malaysia from overseas are now tax free till 2036. They have no inheritance, they have no CGT, minimal tax on dividends. It's an incredible place, and it's really fun to live here.
“Over the next five to 10 years, the market will develop to be the same as the UK. There's now 25 per cent chartered people and lots of chartered practices.
"We want that bar raised and we want to go on that journey. The future of financial planning is probably more multi jurisdictional now. So any adviser coming out here can go on that journey and help the international space improve and develop. The top end of it is already exceptional but the quality overall is not the same as the UK but that is changing.”
Atherton said Melbourne wanted to play a part in raising the standards of international advice and collaborate with UK-based advisers.
“At the moment, Britain is suffocating people to the point you can't even get CAS, then there is the regulator's negative stance. Things are improving, but we've still only got 27,000 advisers,” he added.
Atherton said the academy was all about taking people who have a passion for financial planning and have shown ambition but just can’t get the opportunity in the UK.
“It's about finding people who are going to be happy here and settle. We want them to be happy and successful, and that's how we're going to grow.
“So it's really a high quality, low volume academy but we don’t have a cap on numbers. So long as we've got somebody who is passionate, wants to get their qualifications, is ethical and wants to live in Southeast Asia. Perfect” he added.
alina.khan@ft.com
