Financial Planning Careers: Education is not Enough
A career in financial planning sounds attractive to many people. They think that a position as a financial advisor will pay well but often set their sights on the job without knowing much else. However, there are many aspect of a career in financial planning that should be considered before attempting to find employment with a financial institution or attempting to find work as an independent.
Working in financial planning can mean working for a variety of institutions. Banks, credit unions, investment companies, major corporations, and government agencies all employ financial planners in some capacity. The may be involved in helping customers plan a personal or business budget, helping people decide how invest their money wisely, determining budgetary needs for a company, or deciding how a budget is used in order to maximize its effectiveness.
Getting a job in the financial planning field requires a proper education in a related field, such as accounting, finance, or business management. As with many other professional fields, the more education someone has, the more they stand to earn. Experience is another necessity to earning a large yearly income. Many new to financial planning begin relatively low, usually between $25K and $30K a year. Within a decade, the successful ones earn between $100K and $200K.
But education and experience are not enough. People skills are one of the most important aspects of the job that is often overlooked. An advisor must be able to effectively build a relationship with a client before that client will trust him or her with large sums of money. You can have all the education in the world, but if you can’t convince people to trust you, you will not be a successful financial planner.