SMSF-knowledgable planners secure higher salaries

Planners with self-managed super management capabilities should be able to command a competitive salary in the next year, due to skills shortages, a survey shows.  

According to the Hays annual Salary Guide, planners and mortgage brokers were in good stead to receive a salary increase as the industry gets its head around regulatory and operational changes.   

The survey showed the financial services sector is among the most likely to reward its employees, but not with a generous pay rise.  

More than half (54 per cent) of the surveyed financial services employers signalled their intent to give their staff increases of less than three per cent. 

"Employers are attempting to do more with less," Hays Banking director, Jane McNeill, said.   

"They are still under pressure to manage costs and the ceiling for salary increases has lowered in many organisations across Australia." 

But it won't be long before skills shortages start emerging, forcing employers to loosen their salary policies, McNeil said.  

This is particularly the case for the mortgage sector, with high demand for brokers, mobile lenders and relationship managers.