What Financial Advisors Do
Learn More About Financial Advisor Careers and Financial Advising Schools
When you select a career as a Financial Advisor, you’re choosing a profession that is constantly ranked one of the best business jobs. In fact, U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 job rankings list Financial Advisor as the No. 4 best business job.
Now is an ideal time to pursue a career as a Financial Advisor, but first, what do financial advisors do? We will answer that question and others — including comparing a Certified Financial Planner vs. a licensed financial advisor — to help you decide if this noble profession is right for you.
What Is a Financial Advisor?
Before you learn more about what do financial advisors do, it’s important to know what exactly a financial advisor is.
Financial advisors are experts in helping others limit financial risk and build wealth over time. These experts may offer assistance — or handle complete management — of a person, company, or organization’s financial decisions. Simply put, financial advisors give you a game plan for the future through financial methods.
The term financial advisor can cover numerous roles and job titles, including:
- Asset, investment, and portfolio manager
- Broker-dealer and broker
- Financial coach, consultant, and planner
- Investment advisor and manager
- Robo-advisor
- Wealth advisor
What’s to Expect from a Certified Financial Planner vs. licensed Financial Advisor?
What do financial advisors do compared to financial planners? First, you’ll notice a lot of similarities.
Both financial planners and financial advisors work with companies, individuals, and organizations to help them achieve their financial goals. These professionals might work with others on planning for retirement, saving to open a business, affording college expenses, and much more.
These professions have some key differences, too. The most notable way to distinguish a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) vs. a licensed financial advisor is with certifications. According to Kiplinger.com, a long-standing financial advice website, over 100 different financial advisor certifications and designations are available.
That means you have a lot of options when building a career as a financial advisor. When you’re looking at financial planning schools, know that the Financial Advisor Training Institute prepares you for nearly any certification and licensure exam. FATI offers their certification program as the foundation, as the first step, to enable you to obtain future certification and designations, such as the CFP and many others.
So, What Do Financial Advisors Do?
No matter the client, the goal of any financial advisor is to educate and help them to best use their finances to achieve their goals. As a financial advisor, you may find yourself working for a bank, investment firm, or financial services company. Or, you may be self-employed.
Your day-to-day tasks will vary greatly as a financial advisor, but you can expect to:
- Advise and communicate with your clients on strategies that can help them achieve their financial goals.
- Identify and pursue new clients to grow and maintain your portfolio.
- Manage portfolios and prepare financial documents, including income projections and investment reports.
- Perform market research to stay up to date on current financial trends.
- Research and recommend financial investments based on market activity that best fits your client’s financial situation.
Can I Specialize as a Financial Advisor?
Much like doctors who work with patients of various ages and medical conditions, financial advisors can focus their practice based on the degrees they pursue at financial planning schools and certifications they earn. You can also focus on working with groups of people that share the same, industries, professions, interests, hobbies, or life-stages that appeal most to you.
You can also choose to focus on areas such as:
- Estate planning
- Health and long-term care planning
- Inheritance
- Investments
- Retirement planning
- Tax planning
What Knowledge and Skills Do I Need to Succeed as a Financial Advisor?
When you’re looking at financial planning schools and financial advisor schools, you want to find a program curriculum that provides you with industry knowledge and works with you on your soft skills — all in an effort to help you help others reach their financial goals.
Our CEO, Terry Lindner, has worked as a financial advisor for more than three decades, and he knows firsthand what knowledge and skills will set you up for success. At the Financial Advisor Training Institute, you can expect to:
- Analyze market data and practice your customer service, presentation, and sales skills
- Become more informed on employer, industry, and federal regulations
- Gain expertise in financial planning and various investment strategies
- Learn more about insurance options, investments, mutual funds, stock options, and much more
- Practice working with the tools you’ll need to succeed, including CRM, database, and financial planning software
- Work on your communication skills — whether it’s listening, speaking, or writing
How to Become a Financial Advisor: Choose One of the Best Financial Advisor Schools
Now that you know, what do financial advisors do, get ready to start a career where you can help others achieve their financial goals. At the Financial Advisor Training Institute, the only online financial advisor training program in the United States, you can gain the knowledge and skills to pass certification exams and pursue a new job in as little as 14 weeks.
Unlike many financial planning schools and financial advisor schools, our program is online and guarantees job placement when you complete our program curriculum and gain professional certification. It’s an accelerated program that can get you into a new career in just 3.5 months.
What Our Graduates Are Saying
"I had been thinking of becoming a Financial Advisor for years, FATI gave me the support and structure to make it happen"
"I'm so excited for my new career, FATI set me up with a wonderful company, thank you for making this happen!"
"Starting my new career, my boss is impressed with how much I know about the industry and I'm off to an amazing start business-wise. All I have to do is run the game plan FATI helped me develop"
