Life as a Financial Advisor: Non-Face-To-Face With an FA A good financial advisor is one of the most sought after professionals in life because of the value that…
A career as a financial advisor is unlike any other career. As I look back on my journey, I was thankful to have chosen this career over other career options at that point in my life. One of the reason is because of the skills you can learn as a financial advisor. If you are thinking about embarking on a financial advisory career, let me share with you some of the perks which I have picked up as a financial advisor.
As a financial advisor, your primary role is to help your client achieve his/her financial goals (e.g. financial independence). In order to do that, you need to first learn how to put together a financial plan for yourself. After all, how can you convince someone to put their money with you when you can’t even get your own act together?
That’s why, in the early stage of your career, you will learn how to create your own financial roadmap to achieve your own financial goals. Once you have drawn up the roadmap for your own financial plan, you will have the necessary skill to start managing your client’s finances for them. You will soon realize that this will be the most important perks that you pick up in your life.
The challenge you face as a financial advisor is ever-changing. That’s because the client that you are dealing with every day is different. Each of them has its own financial and emotional needs that aren’t the same. Thus, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach.
In order to help your client better manage his/her finances, you will need to help him/her create their own personalized financial roadmap. This requires you to master the right analytical skills to help your client analyze his/her current financial situation. After which, you will need to create a personalized financial roadmap for him/her so that he/she can achieve his/her financial goals from his/her current financial situation.
A financial advisor isn’t just someone who’s good at numbers. More importantly, a good financial advisor also needs to have the skill of being human. Being human means having empathy to put yourself in your client’s shoes to feel what he/she is feeling.
Let’s say you have a client who bought life insurance with you and named his wife as the beneficiary. Recently, he just passed away because of an accident. As a financial advisor, not only do you have the obligation to help your client’s wife file for claims against his life insurance, you also need to provide moral support for his family. You need to be emphatic to his family’s circumstances. Sometimes, you even need to go out of your way to support his family in this trying period because that’s what humans do for each other.
The more I learn about insurance, the more I realized that it is important for everyone to have their own insurance. That’s because insurance is a financial safeguard that is essential to avoid falling prey to financial problems in the event of unforeseen accidents or health problems.
However, since not everyone is a financial advisor who deals with insurance day-in-day-out, they might not have that same level of understanding as you. How do you then engage a client and simplify insurance to something that he/she can relate to? This requires you to learn the art of persuasion and convincing to convince him/her of the importance of insurance and why he/she needs to make that investment.
As you become a more experienced financial advisor, you will be given the chance to lead your own team. This is where you will have the chance to hone your people management skills.
When you start managing your own team, you will soon realize that every individual is different. Everyone has their own personality, strengths, motivation and goals. Because of the difference that each individual brings to the team, you will need to manage them differently. You need to think of ways to engage them and bring the best out in them in order for them to excel as a financial advisor. Moreover, as a leader, you need to create opportunities for them and pave the way for them to achieve their goals.
As you can see, life as a financial advisor is unlike any other job. It provides you with the opportunities to grow in both your human-to-human skills and your financial literacy skills. At the same time, it gives you the ability to help others better manage their finances and put their life in better shape. Not only can you grow on the job, but you can also make a meaningful impact on the life of others.
If that’s what you are looking for in a career, then look no further. Take your first step towards a career of growth and impact today by indicating your interest here to join the team. If you are accepted, you will be paired with an experienced mentor to guide you in your journey as a financial advisor.
