The Steps to Becoming a Financial Consultant: How to Decide Your Route - Part 1

Show Notes:

For the month of March, we're going to tackle the question of how to become a financial consultant.

So many of you have reached out for advice, so I'm going to provide you with the exact steps you need to take to begin a career as a financial consultant.

The Current Landscape

There are so many hats financial professionals can wear and because of this many paths have been decided.

At last count, there were 300,000+ "financial advisor" titles within the industry but I'm going to simplify this for you.

When it comes to working with individuals and their money in any capacity you can either be a financial advisor or a financial coach.

The Traditional Route

The financial advisor may also be known as a wealth manager, a registered rep, a financial planner. However, rather than the title being the main distinction, the key is whether they provide investment advice. Because for that you need to be licensed per the Securities Act of 1940.

Providing and charging for financial advice will necessitate that you have at least a Series 65 license. This is offered through FINRA. After you take this exam you can either work for a broker/dealer firm as an investment advisor representative (IAR) or you could create your own entity and start building a practice.

However, it is more common to enter into some type of training program that allows you to gain the experience to sell financial products and services. You may see many financial advisors at this point supplement their knowledge by obtaining a designation or getting an advanced degree (there are several) that can enhance your knowledge of products, and the overall process in wealth management and financial planning.

So if you go this route you will be viewed as taking the traditional route.

The Non-Traditional Route

Within the last several years there has been a movement of financial professionals that offer budgeting, credit repair, debt consolidation and other services that consumers of financial services demand. These are also financial professionals.

There is no current regulatory standard governing their interaction with the public.

A financial coach can provide a great bit of assistance to someone not quite ready to work with a financial advisor. They may need help with building a budget and organizing their bills, etc.

Financial coaches can provide the type of guidance that these individuals need in order to get in control of their finances.

If you'd like to learn more about how to decide your route, you can register for a free preview of my course "How to Jumpstart Your Financial Services Career" at djh-capital.com/jumpstart.

Thanks for listening, reading and watching.

Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!

Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).

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