Career Research Personal Financial Advisor

Career Research Personal Financial Advisor The first position that I will explore is that of the personal financial advisor. This position typically requires at least a bachelor's degree, and often benefits from having more advanced education than that. Usually, the education is in a related field like finance, economics, accounting, or business. Mathematics might work as well. Personal financial planners also must undergo extensive supplementary education related to the profession. This involves taking courses in investments, taxes, estate planning, risk management and in many cases insurance as well.

Often, there are also going to be courses related to the licensing the position requires, such as to receive a license to trade stocks or to sell insurance. Often, one must receive professional certification as well, such as being a Certified Financial Planner. There are essentially two elements to day-to-day work as a personal financial advisor. The first element is sales and service. The position often entails running your own business, so sales is important and so too is customer service and fostering trust.

Communication skills are therefore very important to success as a personal financial advisor. Developing and executing marketing programs are an essential part of the business. The second part of the business is a combination of analytical and administrative. This is the actual building of portfolios, managing investments, trading, and other activities that are related to the customer assets rather than to the customers.

Most of the training for the job relates to this aspect, and there is significant work to be done here -- to be successful it helps not to lose the customers' money. The working conditions are generally good. Advisors work in offices. Field work tends to be reserved for sales calls, and networking activities. There is little to no physical risk involved in this position. There is a significant amount of self-employment, so the risk is mainly financial. The median annual wage for personal financial advisors is $64,750.

This does not include self-employed advisors. This wage is above average for the financial industry and well above the average for all occupations. There are often bonuses for those who work for a financial institution, and those bonuses are not recorded here. Additionally, an advisor will also earn financial benefit by having strong market expertise and access to information -- one can expect to do better on one's personal investments than if a different profession is chosen. The job outlook for personal financial advisors is good.

This career is expected to have 32% growth from 2010 to 2020, much faster than average. The driver of this growth is demographic change, as the core customers in this industry are in their latter working years and retired. The industry will likely experienced stagnation beyond this point as baby boomers begin to pass on, but by that point anyone entering the profession today will be well-established. Challenging markets can also be a drive of growth, as fewer people will attempt to manage their own finances.

With this much growth in the industry, it can be relative easy to find a job, if one is qualified. The qualification process is challenging, and acts as a barrier to entry. This bodes well for anybody with the relevant formal education and industry qualifications. If you have access to money (rich family who will invest with you, for example), your career path will be smoother. Most major financial institutions will advertise for entry-level positions in the industry.

It should not be hard to identify opportunities in such a growing industry. The OOH states that there is going to be competition for new job openings because of the desirability of the career -- only the formal barriers should limit this somewhat. The work is similar to financial analysis, financial managers, and insurance sales. Economist Economists often start with just a bachelor's degree but for most jobs at least a Master's degree is required, if not a PhD.

The work involves a mix of analysis, critical thinking, mathematics (sometimes quite advanced) and the ability to write. The position is mostly office work, so no physical risk. The typical work involves analyzing economic data and identifying trends, often making recommendations for actions based on the analysis. The median annual wage for economists is $89,450 per year, well above the norms for the social sciences industry. Even the low end is over $60K. The career is expected to have 6% growth in the years 2010-2020.

Job prospects for those with Master's or higher,.