I'm interested in becoming a Financial Advisor, but I'm not sure of the best way to become one. I'm told that I will need to take certification exams, but do I need to get certified, then look for a job? What are some of the companies I would contact about a job once I have my certifications. Are there any companies who hire people as "trainees", in which you get paid and prepare for the certifications at the same time?
Thanks Sam
Many folks get involved as Financial Advisors by joining one of the big firms, going through their excellent training programs, and then working there for a few years. The company formerly known as American Express has a notable training program that teams new advisors with successful older advisors to help them jumpstart their business.
There are other options. You can go the insurance route, and then pretend to be an advisor. Or you can join Primerica and do it the multi-level way.
Most places expect you to take the exams during or at the end of the training program. It is helpful to have some education in the field, but some very successful people have come in cold and done well. For example, my advisor was a CPA before joining his firm. Suze Orman was a waitress in Oakland before becoming one of the top stock brokers at Merrill Lynch in San Francisco.
-john-
If I remember correctly some of the certifications require "experience." For example, the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation requires 3 years of full-time qualifying work experience. This alone can make it tough for someone to "jump in head first". There are also minimum education requirements (bachelors, masters, etc) and pre-approval courses must be completed just to sit for the exam (with limited exception).
Internships, assistantships, and entry-level training programs are all a good start. You will see CPA, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CFA and a number of other designations attached to the names of many financial planners. CPA leans towards taxes, CLU is insurance oriented, CFP is comprehensive (little of this, little of that), ChFC is close to CFP, and the CFA trends towards investments. Any and all are worthy and compentent titles. I most often see CFP and CPAs doing comprehensive financial planning.
I wouldn't recommend earning one or more of these titles BEFORE looking for a job. As I stated, its not even an option in some cases. Also, the costs of these programs can be very high. Even though I have Economics and Business admin undergrad degrees I was not even close to covering the pre-requisites for a CPA cert. Our company estimated the costs to be > $70k for the accounting pre-reqs, a masters of accountancy, and the CPA certification process. On the other hand my CFP was easily less than $10k. Companies will sometimes pay the expense for you also!
Good luck in your endeavours. I am sure I forgot a designation or two, and I apologize in advance. If you want to know more, google any of the common designations and you should hit paydirt.
Research the company and the jobs before commiting to their training program. A few years ago, when I was laid off, I looked into a program at AXI (which may have been part of AmEx). One of the "graduates" told me that once you completed training, you were expected to make 100 cold calls per day, which an expected hit rate of ~3%. The successes were then turned over to the more experienced planners to handle.
Definitely research the firms, but the you'll experience a similar situation with many of the large firms (not all, of course).
Before you have the necessary SEC/NASD licenses (series 6, 7, 63, 24 etc etc) you are not legally allowed to talk to a prospect about certain topics. Add this to the fact that you won't have these licenses before your employ means that you have no choice but to hand over the sale. Telemarketing in this fashion is common, but is more associated with brokerage firms than it is comprehensive financial planners.
In the FP industry look more for a mentor environment than a sales environ. You may start out with just a small salary and you'll assist the CFP/teacher with his cases. Plugging in numbers, doing the math, learning the right questions to ask, and perfecting the process are all part of learning.
OK how else are you going to acquire clients? You exhaust all your friends and relatives? Whether you work for a big firm or small firm or strike out on your own, you have to have clients in order to make a living. Don't tell me you think the company has a list of clients just waiting for you to service them.
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