So You Want to Be a Financial Planner: Your Guide to a New Career (Eighth Edition) by Nancy Jones

Author:Nancy Jones [Jones, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2015-08-09T16:00:00+00:00

·

Chapter Seven

From Plotter to Planner in Less Than Five Years

Back in the early eighties, I was a Realtor struggling with my conscience every time a young family with a baby would want to buy a house I felt they couldn’t afford. Lenders would squeak their loan applications through with double-digit interest rates, and I worried the family would go bankrupt if they had another child or were laid off. On the other hand, if I didn’t sell them the house, I couldn’t afford to put food on my own table.

When the College for Financial Planning put on a presentation for the Board of Realtors, they got me all excited about the prospects of it being my job to tell people whether or not they could afford a house! I signed up on the spot. Half way through the course, I left real estate and began working as a financial planner.

I’ll never forget being wined and dined by a large Broker/Dealer, who promised to send me to New York for training and painted a glamorous picture of my exciting future with the firm! Stars were in my eyes, but I hadn’t even made it to my car when I realized that what he had actually promised was, “If it’s Friday and you haven’t made your quota, get out there and sell something to someone, whether they need it or not, or you’re outta’ here!”

It was quite a disappointment to learn that most financial planners really got paid by selling stuff. But hey, I got to do the financial planning part on the way to finding out how much money the client had.

Some of my study group went to work for a small, regional, independent Broker/Dealer, and I followed suit. I sold mutual funds and limited partnerships to friends, family, and eventually, a growing clientele. After a few years, a large, national Broker/Dealer bought out the company I was working for. At the first annual seminar with the new firm, the Chief Compliance Officer gave a wonderful talk. Right up until the close, when he reminded us all to, “Get out there and sell…sell…sell!” I thought, NO! I want to plan, plan, plan!

I stuck it out for a few years but finally went to my manager, John Jackson, and explained that I really just wanted to write financial plans for a fee. He gave me a big hug, said he’d miss me, and wished me success. John’s still on my list of all time neat people, and I’ll always be grateful for the solid training I received under his tutelage.

The next few years were spent proving people wouldn’t pay a financial planner just to write a plan. Why should they? Most Broker/Dealers would give consumers a “free” plan (so they could find out how much money the client had!). Things have changed.

Today, people entering the financial planning industry have some solid choices and options. Other chapters have dealt with compensation issues, and my personal experiences are terribly outdated, thank goodness! What follows

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.