financial advisor working with a couple

What does a Financial Advisor do?

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A financial advisor assists a client plan their short and long term financial goals both. Additionally, these goals may include saving for retirement, college, or ensuring a client has the appropriate insurance plan for a sound financial future. As you can guess, their primary goal is to provide advice for financial security. Watch a video to learn what a financial advisor does.

How to Become a Financial Advisor

In order to be a certified financial advisor, a bachelor’s degree in finance, economics, accounting, business math, or law is required. However, a master’s in business administration may certainly improve your career opportunities as well. Additionally, taking courses in taxes, estate planning, investment and risk management is highly recommended.

Job Description of a Financial Advisor

financial advisor working with a couple

Financial advisors assist clients with their financial planning. For example, a client’s life may change unexpectedly and a financial adjustment be needed. Additionally, they can craft a plan for parents to save for their child’s college. Although most financial advisors work in offices, some are self-employed. They may also attend conferences and seminars in order to network and market themselves in order to meet potential clients.

If you are interested in learning more about financial advising, you can visit the National Association of Personal Advisors. Additionally, this website shares why financial advising is important and what an advisor can help a client with.

Financial Advisor Career Video Transcript

The responsibility of investing individuals’ savings and helping them build a secure retirement takes both financial knowledge and interpersonal skills. Personal financial advisors provide advice on investments, homeownership, estate planning, and more to help people manage their finances and plan for the future. They start by determining a client’s financial needs and how much risk they’re comfortable with, then helping set short and long-term goals.

Advisors are experts on the benefits and limitations of many different types of investments, such as mutual funds, stocks and bonds, real estate, and related issues such as insurance and the tax implications of different investments. Marketing their services to potential clients is an ongoing part of the job. To build their client base, personal financial advisors give seminars, participate in networking events, and seek referrals from current clients. Typically, advisors meet annually with clients to discuss their investment portfolio and make adjustments.

Most personal financial advisors work in the finance and insurance industry, and many others are self-employed. They usually work full time in offices, and some may meet with clients during evenings and weekends. Personal financial advisors typically need a bachelor’s degree; majoring in finance, economics, accounting, math, or law are all good preparation. Finance is a highly regulated field: specific licenses are required to sell different investment or insurance products. Advisors may need to register with state regulators or the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Article Citations

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Financial Advisor.

National Center for O*NET Development. 13-2052.00. O*NET OnLine.

The career video is in the public domain from the U. S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.

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