The Career Path of a Financial Advisor

To become a Financial Advisor


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A financial advisor career offers you an opportunity to be your own boss. There are many financial services firms in Canada, looking for energetic and enterprising candidates who are willing to work as independent financial advisors. Once they bring new talent onboard, they even invest in their training and development. 

A successful financial advisor career may begin as soon as you get your provincial life insurance agent’s license. For this, you would first need to enrol in the Life License Qualification Program (LLQP). The license is required for the sale of life insurance products. However, in order to deal in securities, you would need to obtain your mutual funds license. So, you may also enrol in the Canadian Securities Course and sit for the Canadian Securities Course Exam to obtain this license.

The career of a financial advisor depends on whether or not you obtain the appropriate licenses.

If you want to offer services other than those related to investments and insurance, financial planning is the next in your career path. However, you need to qualify as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) – an internationally recognized standard for financial planning that is granted by the Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC). For this, you need to complete an approved Core Curriculum Course and a Capstone Course, pass the two-staged Financial Planning Examination, must agree to abide by the CFP Code of Ethics and CFP Financial Planning Practice Standards, and complete at least three years of work experience in financial planning. There are firms that offer jobs to young and uncertified financial advisors and help them build a successful career in this service-oriented business. 

Choosing a reputable financial services firm is important for building a successful financial advisor career. This is because you get an opportunity to benefit from the support program and on-the-job training provided to the financial advisor trainees. Also, you are allowed to work independently with your clients. For this, they would train you on some of the proven methods to develop leads. Some of the important areas covered in their training program include product specific training, business coaching, client service plans, and sales and marketing systems development. Thus, a financial advisor career offers you an entrepreneurial opportunity with good compensation.    

It is important to keep improving in this field. While the training and support program provided by the financial services firm usually proves to be beneficial, you must also continuously look for classes or seminars offering tips and instructions in dealing with financial instruments and for closing a sale more effectively.    The independent financial advisor jobs are the best way to start your career in the fast growing financial services industry. It involves minimal start-up costs with no associate desk fees. Besides, you get to work with an experienced team. The work experience not only helps you qualify for the CFP certification, but also equips you with the relevant skill set and knowledge necessary to offer the solutions that best serve your clients.

For more information on how to start a career in financial services, please visit http://www.canadafinancial.ca.