Ivan M. Illan - Success as a Financial Advisor For Dummies

Success as a Financial Advisor For Dummies

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Copyright 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018960656

ISBN 978-1-119-50410-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-50409-2 (ebk); 978-1-119-50413-9 (ebk)

Success as a financial advisor requires that you practice as a financial advisor. Most people unfortunately who practice as financial advisors arent really financial advisors. At best, theyre portfolio managers. At worst, theyre salespeople looking to score big commissions. Thats not what I mean when I use the title financial advisor, and its certainly not the measure of success in this field.

The problem is that no single standard authorizes someone to practice as a financial advisor. Unlike other professions including medicine, law, and accounting, financial advisory has no single governing or regulatory authority charged with their members oversight. Doctors have medical boards, lawyers have bar associations, and accountants have the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), but financial advisors have no equivalent. As a result, you can find plenty of people in this profession who, for example, sell only insurance products or who are raising money in an unregistered private placement investment offering. No wonder that consumers are so confused and leery of financial advisors; too many who operate under this designation are just commissioned salespeople, not actual advisors.

When I say success as a financial advisor requires that you practice as a financial advisor, I mean you can achieve success in the profession by always placing your clients needs above yours and by providing superior comprehensive and cohesive financial advice. This advice covers all aspects of a clients family finances, including buying a home, paying for childrens education, saving and investing for retirement, protecting assets against unforeseen tragic events, reducing the clients tax burden, and more. Simply put, you achieve success as a financial advisor by delivering consistently superior holistic service to your clients. With this point of differentiation, you can just about corner the market wherever you practice.

Welcome to Success as a Financial Advisor For Dummies, where you discover how to achieve your success by helping clients achieve theirs. The two key terms in the title of this book capture what this book is all about:

• Success means not only financial success, but also personal satisfaction, job satisfaction, self-respect, and personal and professional fulfillment. The more you work with clients, the more you realize that money and what it buys is only one key component in achieving happiness and fulfillment. My guidance in this book, just as the advice you give (or should give) your clients, is holistic. By following my advice, you can achieve success in your career however you choose to measure it.
• Financial advisor means a professional who delivers holistic financial advice to clients and upholds the fiduciary standard always advising and recommending products and solutions that are in the clients best interest and with total compensation transparency.

This book covers all aspects of being a successful financial advisor, from deciding whether youre a good fit for the profession to starting your own firm and everything in between. To make the content more accessible, I divided it into six parts:

• brings you up to speed on the basics. Here, you conduct a self-assessment to figure out whether this is the right career for you, decide whether to join or firm or start your own practice, and scope out the regulatory landscape.
• guides you in developing the foundational knowledge you need to practice as a financial advisor. Here, I identify the core competencies, point you in the direction of where to go to obtain your formal education and get licensed, and explain asset and liability management, budgeting, estate planning, taxation, and behavioral finance.
• leads you through the process of onboarding new clients, so you can target your services to their unique needs; developing a personalized financial plan for each client; and offering collaborative advice by teaming up with your clients lawyer, tax advisor, and other professionals. Here you also discover how to tier you service to different clients to optimize efficiency and how to measure performance.
• presents three ways to acquire and retain clients, the most effective of which is to