what qualifies a person to be a financial consultant or adviser?

Answer 1

Go to this webpage:

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos259.htm

It's the Department of Labor information source for occupations.

Answer 2

After I retired I started to due fiancial consulting on a part time basis, 20 hours a week at the most. In my case I have an MBA in Finance (accounting), am a CPA and served as a SVP for a fortune 100 company. I tend to work with mid to small businesses in a role of CFO. They generally can't afford to pay $200,000 a year for a CFO but they can pay 5 hours every two weeks to get that expertise.

Answer 3

The possesion of an accounting qualification, of or a series 7 or 63 license, will be sufficient.

If, however, you are asking this question in the context of getting a position as a FC in a company like American Express, etc, be aware that these are primarily sales jobs.

Your main responsibility will be to get clients, and you will be compensated mainly from commissions. Base salary ( if they have one ) is extremely low and insufficient to cover cost-of-living, so you HAVE to sell to make a decent living.

They may help you, or even pay to obtain your licenses, so that is a good benefit.

Answer 4

Pursuant to federal statute, all such people need to obtain a license by FINRA (formerly NASD) and register in the states they do business in.

In order to obtain the license, one would need to be sponsored by a FINRA member (all brokerage firms are members) and pass a few hour test.

Obtainint the license would be the minimum qualification.

www.finra.org

Answer 5

mostly, the customer believes you are qualified.

some such persons have state issued licences [I have a CPA ticket, for example].

others have industry issued certifications [like issued by a brokerage concern or its teaching arm].

others are hybrid between the two.

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mind that many 'advisors' are paid via commissions for selling product. no sale, no income.


ugh

Answer 6

The only one(s) I would trust are the CFP from Denver.