Are you someone who has a genuine interest in finance, appreciates structure, and enjoys working with others? Are you organised and meticulous in your work? Do you thrive working with a high level of responsibility? Then a career as a financial planner might be the career kick start you’re after.
What is a Financial Planner?
Financial planners work as an advisor to clients, helping them to manage and structure their finances so they can better navigate their way to achieving their financial goals. To help their clients achieve their long-term financial goals, a financial planner will assist clients with anything from saving and budgeting to reducing their tax liability, planning finances for their children’s future, while building and protecting wealth.
Financial planners are qualified and licensed professionals who work independently or with a larger organisation. With the constantly changing economic landscape of the world, financial planners are becoming highly sought after. If managing finances is something that interests you, now is the time to take on this career path.
What does a financial planner do?
Working as a financial planner in Australia, you will help your clients to better understand their financial goals and help them to plan out a pathway to reach them. The typical goals that clients will have are things like purchasing property, investing in stocks, saving for retirement, selecting the right insurance cover and planning to fund their children’s education or build wealth for the future.
Financial planners comprehensively analyse their client’s entire financial situation so they can provide their clients with professional advice regarding setting budgets, creating savings objectives, better managing expenses while also building and protecting their wealth. In doing so, financial planners help their clients to implement the necessary steps to create and sustain their wealth both now and in the long term.
A financial planner will often work alongside other professional advisors and investment specialists to help their clients achieve their long-term financial goals. Part of being a financial planner is keeping up to date on current legislation, including superannuation and tax, in addition to financial management strategies across the board.
To succeed in this role, you must have good people skills to attract new clients and maintain existing ones. Being articulate and keeping up to date client records is also required. To achieve this, financial planners must have strong relationships with their clients and regular communications so they can be across their client’s current financial situations, while balancing the changing investment environments and their future needs..
Who uses financial planners?
While almost anyone would benefit from having a financial planner, the reality is, not everybody can necessarily afford one and some people may not be in a position to need one. Yet, there are many people out there who require a good financial planner. The types of people who use and or need a financial planner are people with complex finances, whose finances are changing or those simply seeking direction.
For example, if people are getting married, they may need a financial planner to help them find a way to save for a home loan, navigate their way through existing debt, while also establishing the foundations for their financial future and updating their wills and estate plan. Financial planners also help people who are getting divorced by assisting with dividing their property and other assets in the most tax effective and equitable way possible.
Some people may find themselves with a sudden influx of wealth from an inheritance or perhaps a significant bonus from their work. These people often go to a financial planner to receive guidance on how to manage their funds to reach their financial goals.
Another reason one might seek a financial planner is if their income changes. Sometimes people will get a new job and their income can change significantly in either direction. By going to a financial planner these people can receive help when developing a new budget.
Benefits of becoming a financial planner
Job Satisfaction
One of the many benefits of a career in financial planning is job satisfaction. The emotional rewards of helping people personally or in business to achieve their financial goals and sustain a better financial life is what makes financial planning a great career. Job satisfaction comes from watching your clients achieve goals such as saving enough money for their first home deposit. You get to experience the sheer joy and excitement of this process with them. Watching your clients succeed is what will make all the hard work worth it.
Great earning potential
A career in financial planning is lucrative and your hard work will be financially rewarded. In fact, financial planners can have unlimited earning potential. This is because your income will be based on the number of clients you see each year. Being a financial planner, your salary will either be commission-based, fee-based or a mixture of both.
Flexibility in working environments
Many of us have different preferences when it comes to working environments. Some may enjoy the hustle and bustle of the corporate world while others enjoy working for smaller firms. The good news is, there is a variety of both in financial planning. You can choose to work in the boutique-style firm you’ve always seen yourself in or you can dive straight into the corporate world. Or maybe you would rather work for yourself as an independent financial planner. The choice is yours.
What can you do to become a financial planner?
First and foremost, you must complete your qualifications to become a financial planner. This may sound daunting but what’s great about it is, there are a few options of courses you can take to become qualified to work in the financial planning profession. Having multiple options means you can choose the learning path that best suits your situation.
Advanced Diploma of Paraplanning
This is a new nationally recognised qualification and was finalised in August 2020. Studying this course will provide you with the skills and knowledge to take on the role of a paraplanner. Completing this course will give you a good idea of whether you want to commit to further studies to become a financial planner.
This particular course is designed to be completed within 1 to 2 years. There is no minimum timeframe to complete it, so if you’re highly motivated, committed and have the time, you may be able to complete it at a much faster pace.
You can use this course as a pathway to further studies, including university degrees such as a Bachelor of Commerce.
To find out more about this course visit Advanced Diploma of Paraplanning.
Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning
This course has been designed by financial advisors and is 100% online and is taught through videos and webinars. You will receive support from your course lecturers via phone, email or zoom.
Throughout this course, you will apply your learning using practical case studies which will set you up for a successful career in financial planning.
There are entry requirements for this course because it is a postgraduate qualification.
To learn more about the Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning please visit our website.
Bachelor of Commerce (Financial Planning)
A Bachelor of Commerce degree is suitable for new entrants, existing financial planners looking to upskill and for those looking for a career change. This is the most comprehensive financial planning curriculum available.
Through Monarch, this course is 100% online allowing flexibility around work and home life. You will receive support from trainers throughout the course.
For more information on this course please visit our website.
