There are so many designations out there for financial advisors, but the designation with the highest ethical and professional standards is the CFP® certification. If you want to become a financial advisor, you’ll first want to complete the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification requirements.

Education requirements

You are required to complete a bachelor’s degree program to become a CFP® professional, but it doesn’t need to be in a related field. There are additional education requirements to complete unless you graduate with a degree that satisfies those requirements (many universities, including the University of Georgia, offer financial planning degrees that satisfy the education requirements).

I was fortunate enough to graduate with a degree that met all education requirements, but most at our firm completed their financial planning coursework after college. Many education programs are available online. Boston University offers one of the more popular CFP® programs, but there are hundreds of programs available to view on the CFP Board website. Note: we are not affiliated with Boston University in any way, we have just had a lot of advisors choose and enjoy their CFP® program.

Passing the exam

You can take the exam as soon as you complete the education requirements, but that would be unwise. The CFP® exam is difficult, and completing a rigorous 3-4 month study program before the exam is highly recommended. The Brett Danko and Ken Zahn exam prep and live review are two of the more popular options available. These programs in particular have some of the highest success rates in helping advisors pass the exam. I took the Brett Danko prep and couldn’t be happier with how prepared I was for the exam and how thorough his prep and review were.

Passing the exam is not easy and is a very big accomplishment. It requires sacrifices from not only you, but family members, friends, spouse, or children that are in the picture. It is not uncommon for aspiring CFP® candidates to set aside at least a couple hours every day to study for the 3-4 months leading up to the exam. I remember how miserable I was when studying for the exam and am so glad I am on the other side!

Finding a job

To become a CFP® professional you must meet the experience requirement, which requires either 4,000 hours of experience on an apprenticeship pathway or 6,000 hours of experience related to the financial planning process. These experience requirements are outlined on the CFP Board website. We feel strongly that fiduciary, fee-only financial planning is the least-conflicted compensation method available for financial advisors.

Other advisors that are fee-based or commission-based may receive money from the products they sell to clients instead of being paid by the client for their services directly. This creates an obvious conflict of interest. Would you rather make more money selling an inferior product or recommend what is best for the client? It may be easier to make a living selling products, but if you are getting into financial planning for the right reasons you will likely want to work for a fiduciary, fee-only firm.

Our firm, Abound Wealth Management, is of course a fiduciary, fee-only firm. You can view currently available positions on our website. Networking is extremely important to landing your first job. Join groups like your local chapter of NAPFA, a group for fee-only financial advisors across the country. There are plenty of conferences and events across the country where advisors are looking to hire the next member of their firm. Independent, fee-only RIAs are growing nationwide, and they are hiring entry-level advisors who have or are working towards becoming a CFP® professional.

Do I need to have experience in finance?

One of the most commonly-asked questions we get is whether or not you need extensive experience in finance to become a financial advisor. The short answer is no, as long as you are willing to put in the work required to get there. We have several career-changers at our firm, including a former engineer, doctor, and several former clients. It is never too late to make a change if you are unhappy with what you do for a living or want to pursue something you have more passion for. It can be a humbling experience for career changers to essentially take a step back in both pay and career status when starting out. It takes years of working in the field and learning to develop mastery. That is not always easy when you have had previous success in another field and your training class includes peers that recently graduated.

Becoming a good financial advisor isn’t easy, but it is a career that can be incredibly rewarding. Expect to help families achieve their lifelong financial goals, like retiring early, paying for their kids’ college, or buying their dream home. You’ll be there for them in good times and bad, and will often feel more like a money therapist than a financial advisor. The need for financial advisors isn’t going anywhere, and is a path you can choose no matter what stage of your career you are currently at.

You’ve done an amazing job building wealth, but with your success comes new complexities and opportunities that you don’t want to miss out on. There’s no need to let the stress and gravity of your financial decisions take over your life. Rest easy knowing your financial life is on solid ground and start enjoying an abundant life of financial freedom!

How does Abound Wealth work?

We are fee-only fiduciary advisors. The services we provide are long-term in nature, as we believe ongoing holistic financial planning and investment relationships work best. We’ve tried both hourly and retainer-based models in the past and even though they were still fee-only, hourly fees felt very transactional. The time that we were able to think about and devote ourselves to the client’s situation happened when the next meeting was coming up or the next report was due. We’ve found that we’re able to deliver the most value when we have an in-depth, on-going relationship rather than a transactional, one-off engagement.

How can I reach out to Abound Wealth?

If you are interested in working with Abound Wealth, we have everyone start by filling out this form on our “Work With Us” page. This lets us get to know you a bit better and helps us guide you to the right next step. After filling out the form, an Abound team member will follow up with you within in a few business days.

Here are a couple of videos explaining how to start working with Abound Wealth.

Video: When Should You Hire a Financial Advisor?

Video: How and When to Hire a Financial Advisor!

Video: Take Your Finances to the Next Level! | Work with Us

Video: At What Level of Wealth Does Money No Longer Matter?

The Money Guy Show believes that during the early stages of building your army of dollar bills, it’s important to focus on the behavior of being a diligent saver. Understanding the Financial Order of Operations (Available for free here) is a great way to prioritize and maximize how and where you are saving. Since building these good habits early on will be the main driver of your growth, there may not be a need for you to hire a financial advisor… yet.

As your financial life gets more complicated and your investable assets become more substantial ($500k is a simple rule-of-thumb), you may begin to have a need for more sophisticated management and planning. Here are some ideas to help you know if you are ready to take the next step.

1. Impact. The gravity of your decisions is at a level where you don’t want to go it alone anymore. As your assets grow, the impact of every decision gets amplified and becomes more critical to your ultimate success. Making a mistake with $5,000 is much different than making a mistake with $500,000.
2. Time. There isn’t enough time in the day to give your finances the attention they deserve. Many successful and intelligent people hire an advisor, not because they don’t have the ability or aptitude to handle it themselves, but because they simply don’t have the required amount of time. Typically, they are busy… busy being successful!
3. Sophistication. As things get more complicated and your financial situation advances, opportunities may become available that aren’t practical or even possible for those in the early stages. These include tax-loss harvesting, asset location, a deeper granularity of investment diversification, retirement distribution planning, capital gain management and Charitable giving strategies.

OK, it sounds like I need an advisor, where do I start and how exactly will they help?

If you think you are ready to work with an advisor, it’s important to understand the difference between investment management and true financial planning. Financial planning is comprehensive and typically involves multiple areas including Estate, Insurance, Education, Retirement Planning AND Investment management. A financial planner will take a holistic approach and be able to provide advice and guidance for each of these areas in a way that maximizes how they all work together, as opposed to a piecemeal approach.

As you begin the process of finding an advisor, make sure to check out the 8 Questions To Ask Your Financial Advisor document available as a free resource at MoneyGuy.com.

Check out these videos for some basics on how to know when you are ready to hire an advisor.

Video: When Should You Hire a Financial Advisor?

Video: How and When to Hire a Financial Advisor!

We’ve tried both hourly and retainer-based models in the past and even though they were still fee-only, they felt very transactional. We’ve found that we can deliver the most value when we have an in-depth, ongoing relationship rather than a transactional, one-off engagement.

If having an ongoing financial partner sounds like something you’d be interested in, consider taking the next step to becoming a client so we can get to know a little more about you and if we would be a good fit.

Check out our free resource “8 Questions to Ask Your Financial Advisor.” It’s a tremendous one-page document designed to help you navigate the conversation as you’re getting to know an advisor you might work with and make sure you’re hiring a good one!

Check out the video below to learn more about what working with Abound Wealth looks like.

CFP® Certification Requirements:

Education – complete a bachelor’s degree program and required financial planning coursework

Exam – pass the CFP® exam

Experience – meet the professional experience requirement

Ethics – agree to the high ethical and professional standards of the CFP® board

As you begin researching this career field and scouting positions, keeping in mind that we feel the fiduciary and fee-only financial planning approach is the least-conflicted compensation method available for a financial advisor. We encourage you to learn more about this terminology and look for employment opportunities that ascribe to these practices.

Many entry-level advisor jobs were commission-based in the past, but the industry is currently seeing a shift away from the transactional/commission business.? Fully independent, registered investment advisory firms are seeing major growth, and these firms are hiring entry-level advisors who have or are working towards their CFP® credential.

Here are some relevant videos to start you on your path to being a financial advisor:

Video: How To Be a Financial Advisor | Part 1 | Before You Get Started

Video: How To Be a Financial Advisor | Part 2 | Knowing Where You Fit In

Video: How To Be a Financial Advisor | Part 3 | How To Make Money