Sun Life Advisor | Metro Manila  

Financial advisors assist individuals with their investment strategies by assessing clients' financial situations and making recommendations. Advisors often execute strategies for clients. Clients' needs can be varied, including both short-term and long-term goals, and advisors will need to present a strategy that addresses all needs. For example, a client may want to build a retirement fund in addition to saving for children's college expenses that may be only a few years in the future.

To be successful, financial advisors need to have a deep understanding of investment markets and a knack for identifying the best stocks, bonds, or funds.

Financial advisors accomplish this through traditional advertising, mailings, or cold calling. They also might hold seminars on financial planning or speak at seminars held by others. As financial advisors build a client base, they can do more to build their business through word of mouth, assuming their current clients are happy with the investment advice they are receiving.

Education, Training, & Certification

Education: At a minimum, financial advisors need a bachelor's degree, and finance, economics, and accounting generally represent the best paths to get started in the field. Earning a master's of business administration or a master's degree in finance will help with advancement or with marketing and recruiting clients.

Certifications: Anyone selling financial products such as stocks, bonds, and insurance policies need licenses to do so.

Skills & Competencies

Analytical Thinking: Much of the job involves tracking data and projecting future performances of various stocks, bonds, and funds. Financial advisors need to be able to apply this analysis to the needs of their clients. Assessing those needs also involves analyzing where clients are at, where they want to be, and how much time they have to get there.

Communication: Working with clients and prospective clients one-on-one is a big part of the job. This includes good listening skills since it is vital that financial advisors thoroughly understand the goals of their clients. Public speaking also is a factor if financial advisors participate in seminars or workshops to attract new clients.

Computer skills: Multiple computer programs are available for tracking market data, and financial advisors need to be efficient with any or all of these. Additionally, expert proficiency with spreadsheet software such as Microsoft's Excel is important to the job.

Salesmanship: Clients need to be convinced that whatever advice they are getting from their financial advisor represents the best strategy for their money. It's the financial advisor's responsibility to be able to show clients why the advice they are giving is the best course of action.