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The UK is in desperate need of financial advice. And to meet this surging demand, more than 10,000 new IFAs will need to be trained over the next 10 years, according to Chris Cummings, director general at the Association of Independent Financial Advisers.

The answer as to where all these advisers are meant to come from, however, is unclear, for the recruitment of new IFAs is proving to be a very big challenge. And if the industry has had difficulty in attracting the next generation of financial advisers, as far as Mr Cummings is concerned, it largely has itself to blame.

“The industry’s reputation hasn’t been all that we would wish,” he admits. “As an industry, we haven’t been very good at putting forward the ‘good-news’ message. We haven’t been very good at explaining the value of financial services. Millions have been spent in brand-building advertising campaigns, but all that has done is to remind consumers they’re not quite sure who to trust.”

The problem, according to Mr Cummings, is one of image and reputation. Put simply, any potential investor seeking financial advice cannot be wholly certain of the motivation of the person sitting across the desk from him. Is he a salesman? Is he a multi-tied adviser? Or is he an IFA?

Not only has this caused confusion among investors and fomented distrust, it has also tarred all financial advisers with the same brush, Aifa contends. And this, in turn, has made an increasing number of university graduates think twice about entering the profession.

The solution to this problem, Mr Cummings believes, is the Retail Distribution Review. Once the RDR is implemented next year, it is likely to draw a clear line between independent whole-of-market advisers and company representatives, who are able to offer products and services for a firm and, most importantly, are clearly labelled as salesmen.

“Having an advice profession that’s clearly labelled will put us in a unique position, on par with solicitors, accountants, medics and other recognised professionals,” he says. “Consumers will be able to understand why we are different, which will lead to a growing confidence in advice and bolster the profession because more people will want to join it when they leave university.”

While the financial-advice industry may indeed have an image problem, many IFAs, both young and old, believe the lack of any clear-cut inroads into the profession is of far greater concern. A university graduate weighing up the pros and cons of becoming an IFA does not ultimately decide against it due to the industry’s reputation - or lack thereof. If, in the end, the graduate opts for another career, it will be chiefly because there is no obvious path to becoming an IFA.

Positive Solutions, an IFA based in Newcastle, has taken a step toward filling this void. The company, owned by Aegon UK, announced last week that it has launched an apprenticeship scheme that will train more than 500 new IFAs over the next two years.

According to Positive Solutions chief executive Jim Reeve, the programme is totally unique. “Nobody else does what we’re doing,” he says. “No bank, no financial institution, no insurance company has an apprenticeship scheme such as ours.”

The problem for the financial advice industry is the fact Mr Reeve is, by and large, correct - his apprenticeship programme is unique, and its very uniqueness throws into stark relief what is perhaps the major reason why the industry is failing to attract the next generation of IFAs.

Mr Cummings would be the first to admit that the lack of training opportunities for IFAs is a “massive” problem in the UK. “It’s a fundamental weakness of the sector,” he says. “It’s very expensive to train someone to become an IFA, and, far too often, companies headhunt qualified personnel from each other rather than invest in training programmes.”

Until recently, Aifa has worked hard to resolve this very problem, collating best practices for IFA training. But the association has had to suspend its efforts in order to focus its limited resources on the evolution of the RDR. Once the review goes into the implementation phase next year, Mr Cummings says, Aifa will be able to focus its efforts again on “galvanising" the advice industry into investing in its own future.