Openwork has unveiled ‘Route to Wealth’, a new initiative to support firms to upskill mortgage advisers to fully qualified wealth advisers.

Route to Wealth is designed to encourage more mortgage advisers to move into the pensions and investment arena, enabling them to provide holistic financial planning.

Openwork claims that firms and advisers will benefit from expanded knowledge and career development, an increased ability to service pension and investment needs, and embed value in their business with recurring income.

A structured training programme, expected to last just under two years, will be provided for nominated candidates with all costs reimbursed by Openwork.

John Cupis, mortgage director at Openwork said: “Over the next 15 to 20 years we are entering an unprecented period of demand for advice for mortgage and pensions, as customers retire with questions about new pensions freedoms and how to manage their housing equity.

“Whether it is planning for inheritance tax, optimising tax free savings allowances, managing an interest only mortgage, planning to transfer wealth to children or grandchildren, the decisions regarding how to retire will become increasingly complex requiring high quality advice.”

Cliff Gray, managing director at Openwork firm Prosperity Financial Services, added: “Route to Wealth from Openwork is an easy choice for me to help grow my practice and develop my advisers. Mortgage customers of today are the wealth customers of tomorrow so this programme run by the excellent training team at Openwork will be fantastic for my business.”