Mortgage and protection firm, Access Financial Services, has appointed Peter Phillips as the new training manager for its academy in a bid to have over one thousand advisers in the next three years.

Access FS has doubled its broker number in the past year from 100 to 200. This is the third year running that it has doubled in size with 100% year-on-year growth, with its academy bringing new people into the mortgage and protection industries.

The academies now run monthly with up to 15 people on each one, so Peter Phillips has been brought in to manage the academy programme and to structure the ongoing mentoring that newly qualified Access brokers receive. This in turn will help Access to accelerate its further growth.

Phillips will work with the firm’s senior management to provide Access FS advisers with training and support. He joins with over 20 years in the industry, having previously been part of Simply Academy and Countrywide, and will spearhead the firm’s academy.

Karl Wilkinson, CEO, said: “Peter’s role will be invaluable for our expansion plans as we look to meet the demand of our academy signups.

“We are thrilled to reach the 200 milestone, the number of advisers wanting to join Access this year surpassed expectation. We are ambitious, and expect to have 300 advisers by the end of this year, while laying the ground work to achieve 1,000 advisers over the next three-years.

“Protection is a priority – all advisers start their journey with us focusing on protection. The protection gap is as large as ever, according to Statista 60% of the country lacks life assurance with many not even considering it until purchasing a house with a spouse.

“The gap for other protection products such as critical illness and income support is even wider, so we are bringing in bright young people and training them to be excellent in both protection and mortgage sales, to ensure people always receive the best advice not only for their mortgage but across the suite of protection and insurance products too.”