How To Become a Financial Advisor/Planner (Real Interviews)

You can become a financial advisor by getting licensed, learning as much as you can, networking, and applying to quality jobs. Getting financial planning certifications, like the CFP®, gives you credibility to employers and clients.

What’s the Financial Advising Career Path?

The traditional financial advisor career path is similar to other professions. You start out supporting the advisor as a Paraplanner. You become an Associate Planner and do more in depth tasks. Those who want to manage client relationships can move on to Senior Financial Planner. And after some time passes, you might become an owner in the firm and make Partner.

(Financial Advising is the same thing as Financial Planning.)

This path can look a bit different if you start your own financial planning business. A common path is to work at a medium to large financial planning company for several years and then leave to start their own financial planning firm.

Here’s some of the day-to-day responsibilities in the Financial Advising industry.

Paraplanner

A Paraplanner (or Client Service Specialist maybe) supports financial planners by researching investments, preparing for client meetings, taking notes, entering data into financial planning software and contacting clients. Less experienced paraplanners might do more administration duties. Here’s my article on how paraplanners are different from financial planners.

Paraplanner jobs have been growing faster than the national average. It can be a great career and doesn’t need to be viewed as a stepping stone.

Junior Financial Planner / Associate

A Junior Financial Planner does more financial planning related activities than a paraplanner but doesn’t quite manage or own the client relationships. Their responsibilities could include onboarding clients, rebalancing portfolios, researching complex financial questions, using the financial planning softwares.

Senior Financial Planner

A Senior Financial Planner is primarily focused on managing the client relationship. They’re the face of the company to their clients. They present the financial plan and decide on the recommendations. They often have some responsibilities to find future clients or manage parts of the firm.

Partner

A partner is someone who owns or partially owns the firm. They likely spend most of their time managing client relationships like a senior advisor. But because they’re also owners, they spend more time on business development, networking with the community and other professionals, and making decisions for the firm.

How Do I Find Entry-Level Financial Advising Jobs?

You can find entry-level financial advising jobs on job boards and networking. Informational interviews with relevant professionals is some of the best networking you can do. Industry-specific websites will have better jobs than the generic job sites.

When applying for jobs on generic job sites, look at the responsibilities listed and the reviews for the company. I recommend you start your financial advising career in a support role, like Client Service Specialist, Paraplanner or Financial Planning Associate. It’s much better to start out in a team setting than to try to start your own financial planning business before you’re ready.

Michael Kitces did a study on the likelihood of someone succeeding as a financial advisor. His study showed that, on average, you need 7 years of experience and 3 years of savings to build a successful advisory firm.

Be careful when applying to jobs on large sites like Indeed.com and LinkedIn. You’ll probably find job postings that seem like wonderful entry-level roles but really they’re sleazy financial product sales jobs. Several financial (especially insurance) companies offer quick, month-long training programs and then have their new hires immediately start looking for clients. If that type of sales role interests you, go right ahead. They’ll take anybody. But try to interview with both their current and ex employees.

The Best Job Boards for Financial Advisors

The best industry-specific websites to find financial advising jobs are New Planner Recruiting, Simplyparaplanner, CFP Career Center, NAPFA, and FPA. They’re all run by reputable organizations who vet the employers pretty well. They have high quality job postings but sometimes a low quantity of them. And they’re free.

New Planner Recruiting specializes in placing applicants in fee-only, Registered Investment Advisor firms with a path to ownership. Fantastic positions for new financial advisors. Simply Paraplanner posts jobs for people who want to be virtual paraplanners. A paraplanner is someone who supports the financial planner. Think “paralegal” type of job. Paraplanners are in very high demand.

The CFP Board is the organization behind the CFP certification. It’s a very popular and demanding certification that drastically increases your employability.

NAPFA (National Association of Personal Financial Advisors) is a professional group of fee-only financial advisors. Fee-only means that they only get paid by the fees they charge the client; they don’t get paid any commissions. FPA is the largest professional group of financial planners.

Informational Interviews

An informational interview is when you have a conversation with a professional and ask them questions about their job. You can ask about their job responsibilities, how they got there, or any number of things. You can ask them if they have 20 minutes to call and talk about their firm.

Informational interviews teach you about the field and help you build connections. Those connections might offer you a job or refer you to someone hiring, either today or someday down the line.

Even if you don’t get an offer from someone, the information and interview practice is invaluable. Learning about the industry is key for knowing how to make yourself more employable and for looking like you know what you’re talking about during interviews. It may not be a formal job interview but it helps you become more comfortable with talking to financial advisors.

Many of the good financial advising jobs in the RIA (Registered Investment Adviser) world are never even advertised. They’re just given to the most qualified candidate in the advisor’s network. So you have to find these jobs by networking.

In the Broker Dealer side of financial advice, most of the large companies have a referral program, like Fidelity, Vanguard, Edward Jones. So if you have a good informational interview with someone at a big company you’d like to apply to, mention that you’re planning on applying and ask if you need a referral. This will encourage them to offer a referral so they can collect the referral bonus.

Informational interviews are the most impactful lever you can use to get a financial advising job.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is invaluable for creating and maintaining connections. It’s easy to find interesting people to have an informational interview with. But most LinkedIn users are too passive; it’s like going to a party to sit in the corner. Be sure to comment frequently, post questions about the industry and message connections to request an informational interview with them. That’s how you can use LinkedIn to effectively network and increase your chances of getting a financial advising job.

What Education Does a Financial Advisor Need?

Technically, there is no education requirement necessary to be a financial advisor. You can pass the tests, get licensed and start practicing. You don’t need a Bachelor’s nor a high school diploma. However, a career in financial services is much more difficult without a degree.

Trust is a necessary part of working with clients. The unfortunate fact is that most clients will trust you easier if you have a college degree in something they don’t understand. A degree also makes it easier to get hired. Around half of financial advisor jobs require a Bachelor’s.

The CFP certification is an industry designation that requires a bachelor’s degree and some financial planning courses. It’s considered almost necessary in the industry and most advisors (even the ones who don’t have their CFP) will encourage newbies to get their CFP certification.

Many advisors have a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Business Finance, Financial Planning, Business Management, etc. But you can do well in financial advising with any degree, Marketing, Psychology, or even no degree.

Which Licenses Do I Need to Be a Financial Advisor?

You don’t need necessarily a license to get an entry level job. But some employers expect it. Having your licensing out of the way is much more attractive to employers. It only takes 2-5 months and $200-$500 to get the licensing tests done.

Many of the licensing exams required for this industry are only allowed to be taken once a firm is sponsoring you. So you can’t take some of the tests until you get hired. The good news is, there’s at least one exam you can take before you need an employer to sponsor you. The test you should take to attract employers is determined by which kind of firm you want to work for: RIA or Broker dealer.

Getting Licensed for an RIA firm

An RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) is a company that sells financial advice to clients. (Here’s everything you need to know about RIA’s.) RIA firms can have anywhere from 1 person to 1,000s of employees. But the majority of RIA firms are 5 to 25 employees.

If you want to work at an RIA or sell your financial advice to clients, you’ll have to get your Series 65 license eventually. The Series 65 exam is also known as the Uniform Investment Advisor Law Exam. Most people study for the Series 65 for 2-4 months, depending on previous experience. It has 130 scored questions. You don’t need a firm to sponsor you for this test.

To take the Series 65 exam (or any of the licensing tests), you’ll need to get some study materials. Kaplan and Achievable are two common options. Whatever study provider you go with, expect to spend around $200+ on the study materials. This is money very well spent.

How to Get Licensed for a Broker Dealer firm

A Broker dealer firm is usually part of a large brokerage company, bank or insurance company. They also give financial advice to clients. Broker dealer financial advisors can also get paid for selling investment products (like mutual funds) and insurance products. It’s common for broker dealers to also be an RIA. This is called “dually registered”. It allows them to legally give financial advice.

The SIE, Series 7 and Series 66 exam is required if you want to work in any financial advisor role that also makes money off commissions of stocks, mutual funds or other securities. Because you’re technically a stock broker.

The only test in this fee-based route that you can take before you’re hired is the SIE. It’s easy compared to other official tests. It takes 1-3 months to study for. It has 70 questions. Here’s the free study site that I used to pass the SIE.

You can’t take the Series 7 or Series 66 until you’re “sponsored” (already hired) by a firm. It’s a pretty silly rule. But this means you have to beef up your resume with the SIE test and other certifications or experience.

Commission-Only Financial Professionals

Besides RIAs and broker dealers, there are also people who sell insurance or investment products but don’t provide financial advice. They might call themselves “Financial Planners” or “Financial Consultant” or “Retirement Specialist” because there’s no laws stopping them from misrepresenting themselves as financial advisers. However, they aren’t registered to give financial advice. This practice is most common among insurance salesmen and certain insurance companies.

If you want to become a financial advisor, I recommend you become a real financial advisor. Don’t take the easy route with the 6-week training, garbage permanent life insurance quotas, and harassing your friends and family to sign insurance deals.

There are absolutely tons of great insurance professionals out there who care about their clients. But starting your own insurance practice with a sleazy (but very large) insurance company with zero experience is an objectively bad idea.

Before you start a client base at an insurance company, I recommend you learn the foundations of all areas of financial planning, investments, taxes, insurance, budgeting, estate planning, retirement. This will allow you to provide much better advice to your clients than the in-house training would provide. Taking some time before starting your book of business will allow you to learn what kind of company you want to work for.

Selling insurance requires that you get take the relevant insurance tests: Health/Life, Property/Casualty, etc.

What Financial Planning Certifications Should I Get?

Since the licensing requirements aren’t that difficult, certifications are how financial advisors set themselves apart to employers and clients. The CFP, Certified Financial Planner, is a difficult and popular certification. Advisors often acquire certifications to specialize in their client niche.

In the advising industry, the CFP is regarded as both the gold standard and the bare minimum. That’s because many firms won’t let you start managing client relationships until you get your CFP. The ChFC, Chartered Financial Consultant, is just as comprehensive as the CFP but doesn’t require a degree.

Requirements to get the CFP Designation

There are four requirements to get the CFP: Education, Exam, Experience, and Ethics.

Education:

You need a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university in any field to become a CFP. They have certain financial planning courses. You can take the financial planning courses through an approved university either in person or online (here’s the list of approved schools). There are many flexible options. Many professionals change careers into financial planning. If you already have a degree, you can simply take the required classes online to fulfill the education requirement.

Exam:

The 170 question test is very difficult. It’s set up as two 3 hour sessions in one day. You’re expected to fully understand topics like Investments, Taxes, Estate Planning, Retirement Planning, Insurance, and Regulations. You’re allowed to sit for the exam once you’ve passed all or most of your financial planning coursework.

Experience:

You need 6,000 hours of work experience being involved in a part of the financial planning process. That’s about 3 years of full time work. Some examples of this work includes: assistant in a financial advising firm, teaching financial planning courses, interacting with clients, or an internship.

There’s also a 4,000 hour route called the Apprenticeship Pathway. If your job is involved in the whole financial planning process and you work directly under a CFP®, then your hours may qualify for the 4,000 hour requirement. You may fulfill either the 6,000 or 4,000 hour route, it won’t affect your designation. Here’s more info from the CFP Board about getting your work experience.

Ethics:

They’ll run a background check on you. You’re also required to commit to their fiduciary standard. Fiduciary means you are legally required to put the interests of the client above your own interests.

What Other Financial Planning Certifications Should I Get?

Once you have the CFP or a different general financial planning certification, you may want to get additional certifications to show your specialty in specific topics. You can specialize in a financial planning topic such as investing or estate planning. Or you can get certified in something specific to your client niche such as selling a business or divorce. There’s hundreds of certifications out there. Here’s an article of some of the best secondary certifications.

Getting smaller certifications with specific financial planning softwares looks great on a resume for someone with little relevant experience. Excel, eMoney, and Morningstar are all examples of softwares that provide certifications or badges to show a base level of skill and commitment to the industry.

Is Financial Advising Right For Me?

Financial advising is a wonderful mix of money and people. Helping real people with their real money problems is very emotionally rewarding. Even when I’m doing an annoying calculation or something boring, I know that my efforts will help someone make a difficult money decision. Every time I hear a client talk about their life goals, my motivation is renewed.

Here are the qualities of a good financial planner. If you have some of these, you should thoughtfully consider it as a career.

• Likes helping people
• Good listener
• Naturally curious
• Takes initiative
• Likes solving problems
• Can predict the future of the financial markets* (That’s a joke.)

If you have only a couple of these qualities, don’t feel discouraged. Skills and knowledge can be learned. The most important question is “Do you deeply care about people?” Everything else is details.

Whether you’re introverted or extroverted, young or old, entrepreneurial or salaried, there’s plenty of opportunity in this field for you. If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a financial “advicer”, follow Earnest Earnings on LinkedIn and start networking with us. Thank you for reading.