I am currently a Senior at public university majoring in Business Administration with an option/focus in Finance. I have always enjoyed working with people and money (and everything that entails: interest rates, stocks, mortgages, etc…)
Throughout college, I have gone through a few different career choices: nutritionist, personal fitness trainer, and teacher, among others. I guess the things I liked about the jobs would be: people come to me for help and I get to tell them what to do. I don’t mean this in a negative, bossy way. I just want to encourage people to live the life they are looking for.

That is why I would like to become a financial planner. I could spend all day in my (managerial) finance class and learn present values, future values, interest rates and the whole works. When a (prospective) client comes in and needs financial help, I want to be able to sit down and discuss everything from discussing a basic household budget to retirement planning to wealth building.

The reason I created this post was to get input from the FW community. I know some will offer helpful tips while others won’t, which is fine. I am sure there are people who have had bad experiences with one type of professional while others have had success in the very same area. I just want to learn how to be an expert in my field that people can come to because they trust me. I want to learn what makes a good financial planner and what people look for and don’t look for in one.

I will be graduating with a Bachelor of Science after this next Spring term. I know eventually I would like to get to the status of Certified Financial Planner. How important would you say this is for me to attain for both myself and future clients? What steps would you recommend me following as I get ready to move into this field and when I am part this field?

Thanks in advance for the input; I appreciate any and all helpful comments!

my suggestion would be to go work for somebody for a few years

a financil planner needs to experience life before taking the responsibility of planning somebody's future. Your "clients" will have much more life experience for which textbook learning will not prepare you.

What I would suggest is getting a course completione certificate from your university, assuming that its program is CFP certified, so you have something to submit to the Board to get your ticket. No sense taking the classes over. If you have not taken all 8 classes at your school, take the ones that you are missing next semester.

A CFP is more liable than a non-CFP. word of warning

The first question I would ask anyone who wants to be my CFP is "What is your net worth?"

If its less than mine, you had better be prepared to give a strong reason why.

With that said, Im sure that someone right out of college probably wouldnt pass that test.

Make 200 cold calls a day for 6 mo. Then you'll know if you want to be a financial planner or not

yurgreat said:i asked the same question in 2006:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/arcmessageview.php?catid=52&threadid=588022

basically, its a SALES JOB.

I am a CFP, and I haven't worked in a sales position in 5 years. I just do plans, design portfolios of no-load mutual funds, and earn my salary + a little christmas bonus. If I was in sales I would make at least twice as much $ but I would have a lot more stress, and risk burn out. Most people don't make it in this busness very long.

kidchico said:I would definitely plan on working for someone else for a few years. What is a course completion certificate? Is that a pre-FP sort of document? I'll have to look into that myself. How is a CFP more responsible than a non-CFP?
Thanks!

edit: I don't know if this could replace the classes you were talking about, but would you also recommend taking the test?

The best way to get into the field is to work for someone else as a "para-planner." Basically just working with an experienced planner-putting together plans behind the scenes and leaving the advising up to the planner.

A course completion document would be issued by your college IF their curriculum is CFP accredited. If not, you will need to go through the CFP board's extensive coursework to be eligible to sit for the CFP exam. If your college curriculum IS CFP accredited, you will be eligible to sit for the exam after a few years of 'real world' experience in the field.

And a side note...most of FWF holds financial planners in the same regard as ambulance chasers.

yurgreat said:i asked the same question in 2006:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/arcmessageview.php?catid=52&threadid=588022

basically, its a SALES JOB.
Ok, there's probably some confusion out there regarding the sales nature of this profession. Basically, we need to understand 2 important aspects of a financial plan:

1. the creation of the plan per se.
2. the implementation of this financial plan.

You, as an FA, can limit yourself to the first part: meeting with clients, identifying goals and objectives and targeting risks. After the FA gathers all this information, s/he develops a comprehensive financial plan. The second part, which is the implementation, is where the strict sales portion comes; it is here where you can sell your client different investment and insurance products that the financial plan needs to have to be effective.

If you decide to do participate in these 2 steps of the process, then it is going to be mostly a sales job. If on the other hand you stick to the mere planning part, then you could certainly say that it is not a sales job; however, some people (including me) consider that the process of getting new clients is a sales activity since you are trying to sell your services; but isn't this what lawyers, CPAs, dentists, etc. do?

diazfranco: I guess I am planning on doing more of financial advising than money management. But I still don't think I would do "sales." I guess what I am planning on doing, tell me if this really off-base, is giving advice for mostly every type of financial situation (like I mentioned before: basic budgets to wealth building). So far this would just be fee-base. After that, I would then offer my knowledge and skills by helping manage their money. For instance, say they have a 401(k) at work and have no idea what to put their money in. For something like 1%, I would figure out what to buy given their situation and goal. (commission-based)

I could then continue to advise them to change their current investments when I felt it may do them better. Does that sound different than sales? To me, it does because I won't really be forcing on them a few different products. They would, in a way leave that to me. If they said, I want to retire in 20 years with X amount of dollars, I could go into whatever account they have and decide what area of their 401(k) choices best suit that desire. And of course I could do this with an IRA or a post-tax account. Does that make sense?

texasaustin: As part of my plan, I would definitely include fee-based consultations. So maybe instead of "managing" their money, I could give a set price each time they came in and asked what to do with it? That doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'm sure some people have a fairly firm grip on their finances, but have a question that a qualified professional can answer best.

Thanks for your replies, I really am thankful for the input!

As mentioned previously by diazfranco said:some people (including me) consider that the process of getting new clients is a sales activity since you are trying to sell your services; but isn't this what lawyers, CPAs, dentists, etc. do?

I don't plan on cold calling people and I hope it doesn't come to that. What I WOULD plan on doing is advertising. Probably LOTS of advertising (and word-of-mouth, as well.) I guess the question is: what do most newer professionals when trying to get more business?

Let's not forget that I plan on working with/under someone for the first 5 years or so. By then, I should be able to use the tricks of the trade to help gain clients.
I will start checking out the types of books you suggested. Do you have any recommendations? Also, what about advising for small businesses? Would you consider that a possibility?