Dream Job
My dream job is to be a personal financial advisor. This position is appealing because it is well-compensated, provides a useful service to the public, and because it is an in-demand job. The fact that the job is also independent is another significant attribute of the personal financial advisor position. Becoming a personal financial advisor requires a lot of different educational and training experiences, including getting a college degree, preferably is something like finance or economics that is related to the field, and then there is further training in order to gain an investment advice license (OOH, 2013).
Job Description
The personal financial advisor position works within the investment advice office of the bank, and involves meeting with clients in order to help develop investment strategies that will meet their investment needs. The role combines strong interpersonal skills, sales skills and financial knowledge. The duties for this role include:
Meeting with clients to discuss their risk preferences, investment knowledge and financial objectives.
Explaining the different types of financial instruments that are available
Helping to educate the clients about these instruments, including the pros and cons of each and their respective risk levels
Helping clients with special circumstances such as retirement planning, tax planning estate planning and insurance services
Monitor client portfolios to ensure that the portfolio is always meeting client objectives
Researching different investment opportunities
Executing trades in a wide range of financial products including stocks, bonds, derivate instruments and mutual funds
Seeking new clients
Behave within both the law and the ethical guidelines of the host institution
This role is largely office-based, but there will be times when you are required to meet clients off-site, including home visits. Some client visits may need to be conducted outside of normal business hours. As a personal financial advisor, you are expected to be in the office and on duty when the stock markets are open, or designate an assistant with a trading license to handle client trade requests.
A job description should also feature the skills, knowledge and competencies that are required for the position (SBA.gov, 2013). The following apply to the personal financial advisor position:
Be capable of working independently to build your own book
Strong interpersonal communication and sales skills are mandatory
Expert knowledge of financial instruments is required
Personal Financial Advisors must be fully licensed to give financial advice and to execute trades
Strong organizational skills
Excellent computer skills including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, Word and Excel. In-house training on proprietary account management software will be provided
Compensation Package
There are two distinct compensation models for this role. With some banks in particular the personal financial advisor is largely a salaried position, servicing the bank's clients with bonuses for productivity. The other model is primarily a commission model, where the advisor pays a rights fee to the financial institution that covers the cost of the office space, the use of the institution's name and its equipment and staff as well. This latter model is more common, because it has more upside and personal financial advisors tend to have a lot of intrinsic motivation. Thus the model that will be used will be for me to essentially retain a percentage of every trade and then pay a flat fee for the various financial institution resources that I will be using.
The flat fee per trade covers the cost to the bank of executing the trade.
The payout scale will be 40% for basic instruments, 37% for derivative instruments and 48% for mutual funds. These are in line industry norms, for example that used at Raymond James (2013). This payout scale will allow me to earn from my work, giving me the upside that I need to really grow my business. There are no bonuses built into the structure.
There are, however, some benefits that come with being an employee of the financial institution. The benefits package will consist of a benefits menu plan. There will be a number of health care options, dental care, life insurance and other small benefits. The total benefits plan value will be $20,000, and it is highly likely that most of it will go into health care. The option to join with the bank's insurance programs in particular will allow me to receive better prices on my insurance than I was compelled to purchase my own insurance without the...
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