Financial Planning... Any value?
I am a consultant looking to break into the financial services industry. I'm not sure if it's due to a lack of finance experience or the job market, but job interviews are few and far between. I was recently pushed by my recruiter for a Financial Planning position with a well-known Insurance firm, with the claim that it will help "get my foot in the door". After the first six months on the job, the pay becomes almost exclusively commission-based (big red flag, I think). On the other hand, they will sponsor me for insurance licenses, series 7/63, etc., and claim product knowledge and a book of clients that I can take anywhere.
It looks like things are progressing towards a job offer... I might be playing with fire here. In your experiences, do opportunities like this serve as a stepping stone to more desirable (read: stable) opportunities?
And please do take this with a grain of salt.
I looked into becoming a financial planner before grad school presented itself as an opportunity. From my research, being a financial planner is like being a real estate agent and just about as prestigious.
In real estate you are considered at best a mild annoyance at worst the enemy. Nobody respects your opinion and would just as soon show you the door than let you in their house.
Like real estate the only real future in financial planning is if you plan to open your own brokerage firm and have agents working for you. Other than that its not a stepping stone to anything. Its actually kind of a dead end.
I have my time as a real estate agent on my resume to show that I have people skills and I know how to sell (cause lets face it ibanking is essentially a sales function). Other than that I lean more on my MBA and my CFA before I start yaking about my time in real estate.
But like I said..that’s just my opinion formulated from my limited experience.
Every wirehouse, everybank, has this service. You will be a dim a dozen at best and if you dont have a book or strong referral sources...it will be extremly difficult. It is not financial planning, its selling. Can you make money at it? Sure but it will take you a ton of time and a ton of rejection.
Just my two cents.
-'And if you want a friend, get a dog"-
G.G.
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