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General Description

This is an ideal career for analytical thinkers. As a financial planner, you devise and implement financial plans to ensure your clients make the best use of their savings, income and investments. Financial planners advise individuals, retirees and business owners on all areas of finance. These include risk management, pension plans, retirement, superannuation, cash flow management, education, investment strategies, insurance, business planning, real estate and tax..

Financial planners may work within financial planning businesses, or may be employed by insurance companies and financial institutions, such as banks or investment companies. You may also work as a self-employed consultant, aligned to a global company and using their suite of products, on either a non-exclusive or an exclusive basis.

What you do every day

You could perform a number of tasks during a standard working day. If you are a self-employed consultant, you may hold workshops in order to teach people how best to manage their funds. This involves explaining how to analyse their financial situations, and determine the most beneficial financial plan to suit their circumstances. 

Financial planners will often deal with specific clients, whether individual or representing a business or organisation. If the client is new, then you will initially conduct an interview, to gain knowledge of their needs and goals. You will need to gain their trust so they feel comfortable sharing their personal information, such as income, assets and liabilities, and lifestyle requirements. With this information, you must determine a financial plan to meet their needs.

You deploy different strategies to meet differing client needs, as it unusual for two clients’ needs to be the same. You might consider investments, insurance policies, or taxation planning strategies. You develop and recommend a plan to your client, and once agreed it is your job to complete the required paperwork, and finalise the agreement. If you work for a financial institution, then you might be required to sell their products, such as mutual funds, insurance, family budgeting schemes, or individual retirement accounts.

Personality that best fits this career

As a financial advisor, you have a keen interest in making money for your clients and yourself. You are an analytical thinking person, with a capacity to carry numeric data in your head. You should be interested in learning about financial and legal documents. Your job will require you to have strong computing skills, as much of your financial modelling will take place on specialized computing programs.

The best financial planners also have good communication skills. You need the ability to persuade and influence clients to adopt your recommendations, but more importantly to convince them they can trust you with their most personal details. However, not only do you need to communicate effectively to your clients, but you must also be able to understand and interpret their financial needs.

You will also need self-motivation, articulation, persuasiveness, discipline, and the ability to work with others. If you are considering self-employment, you will need a high degree of self- motivation, capacity for long hours and hard work, and be highly persuasive and well reasoned in your communication skills. You will also need to have a background that can only come from a genuine keen interest in financial markets and investment outcomes.

Best thing about this career

Without the professional work of planners, people would find themselves falling into financial disrepair, without knowing how best to manage their funds. Your work is fascinating and often challenging, and the clever plans you devise will often give clients a significant return on their investment, and you a great sense of job satisfaction. No two clients will be the same, and so your work will always be different and interesting. Clients are grateful for your educated input, and respect your judgement.

Worst thing about this career

It can be difficult working in a position where many clients are so completely reliant on your choices and judgement. Your clients trust you to make sound recommendations for their financial situation, and this pressure and expectation can cause stress. If the judgements you made prove to be inappropriate for their particular situation, then it could mean financial hardship for your client, and blame for it landing on your shoulders.

Many planners underestimate the work required to establish sufficient foundation for their own business. The extra hours, stress, and dedication it takes to get a business up and running can be frustrating and disheartening.