How do I become a financial advisor?

Question

I am currently a Senior Math Major at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and I am also interning as an Accounts Receivable Analyst. I would like to about becoming a financial advisor. Where do I start?

Answer 1

Check out Kaplan University.com (I'm not affiliated with them) to get information on becoming a certifed financial planner.

You might also consider taking your Series 7 (stock broker) or Series 65 (investment advisor) tests. Search on Series 7 test or Series 65 test to find home study courses. You can also check on the SEC web site for details on qualifying criteria.

Answer 2

Most financial advisors get their training on the job. You'll start as an associate with an insurance company, an estate planning company, a legal firm, or a financial services group. They'll get you through your licensing and show you the ropes as far as they want to take you.

Building a financial advisory takes about five years. You'll often get good leads and good work to start with as you start with a new company, and then you'll be responsible for creating customer retention and referrals from there.

Some of the best sources I've seen for this is Bill Good's Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success (it's a little cheesy, but fundamentally sound book mostly focused on financial advisory-type people), and The New Conceptual Selling (a very thorough and principles-based approach to working with clients over the long-term).

When you're picking a firm, both parties are trying to filter out the other group. These types of companies tend to have a lot of turnover, which costs them money. Because of the high rate of turnover, you're going to want to work with groups that are going to give you the kind of training and mentorship you'll need to survive in the business.

As rules of thumb, I'd check out a few things first: is the company well-known in the industry, do they have a good reputation, are the advisors working there successful, what kind of training/commitment are they offering?

Finally, you may want to check out a name-brand firm like Merril Lynch to get started. A lot of people start with the big boys for their first 5 to 7 years, then branch out on their own after they're established.

Whatever you do, good luck!

PS, if I've misplaced this advice, and you want to use some more of your technical background to do the analysis rather than the advisory work, then you're going to end up working for one of the big firms, probably in New York, and work through a very structured career path. You'll find great information on this at vault.com

Answer 3

An important part of being a licensed financial advisor is obtaining your Series licensing.

Primerica and most other "Financial Advisor/Insurance Reps" are more than willing to provide u with the how-to's in exchange for your services as a commisions compensated representative of thier company.

You are not obligated to be thier rep unless they sponsor your licensing etc.

Answer 4

you probably want to get an intership with a group of financial advisors. lots of them.

financial advising is a sales driven profession. if you are good at networking, sales, and generating leads, you'll do well.

if you like the analyst side, you'll probably want to look at eventually taking the Chartered Financial Analyst exam.

Answer 5

call up a couple of recruiting firms- and ask if they ever see Jr. roles from their clients, or if they have project work and need cheap people. just don't believe them all the time-