Personal Financial Advisor Advise clients on financial plans using knowledge of tax and investment strategies, securities, insurance, pension plans, and real estate. Duties include assessing clients' assets, liabilities, cash flow, insurance coverage, tax status, and financial objectives. May also buy and sell financial assets for clients.
Personal Financial Advisor is Also Know as
In different settings, Personal Financial Advisor is titled as
- Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
- Financial Advisor
- Financial Consultant
- Financial Counselor
- Financial Planner
- Investment Advisor
- Portfolio Manager
- Wealth Advisor
Education and Training of Personal Financial Advisor
Personal Financial Advisor is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Personal Financial Advisor
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Education Required for Personal Financial Advisor
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Degrees Related to Personal Financial Advisor
- Bachelor in Family Resource Management Studies, General
- Associate Degree Courses in Family Resource Management Studies, General
- Masters Degree Courses in Family Resource Management Studies, General
- Bachelor in Finance, General
- Associate Degree Courses in Finance, General
- Masters Degree Courses in Finance, General
- Bachelor in Financial Planning and Services
- Associate Degree Courses in Financial Planning and Services
- Masters Degree Courses in Financial Planning and Services
Training Required for Personal Financial Advisor
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Personal Financial Advisor in different industries are
- Financial and Investment Analysts
- Credit Counselors
- Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents
- Financial Risk Specialists
- Loan Officers
- Investment Fund Managers
- Financial Managers
- Insurance Sales Agents
- Accountants and Auditors
- Financial Examiners
- Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel
- Credit Analysts
- Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks
- Tax Preparers
- Brokerage Clerks
- New Accounts Clerks
- Management Analysts
- Budget Analysts
- Loan Interviewers and Clerks
- Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists
What Do Personal Financial Advisor do?
- Analyze financial information obtained from clients to determine strategies for meeting clients' financial objectives.
- Answer clients' questions about the purposes and details of financial plans and strategies.
- Interview clients to determine their current income, expenses, insurance coverage, tax status, financial objectives, risk tolerance, or other information needed to develop a financial plan.
- Implement financial planning recommendations, or refer clients to someone who can assist them with plan implementation.
- Prepare or interpret for clients information, such as investment performance reports, financial document summaries, or income projections.
- Guide clients in the gathering of information, such as bank account records, income tax returns, life and disability insurance records, pension plans, or wills.
- Contact clients periodically to determine any changes in their financial status.
- Meet with clients' other advisors, such as attorneys, accountants, trust officers, or investment bankers, to fully understand clients' financial goals and circumstances.
- Devise debt liquidation plans that include payoff priorities and timelines.
- Open accounts for clients, and disburse funds from accounts to creditors as agent for clients.
- Conduct seminars or workshops on financial planning topics, such as retirement planning, estate planning, or the evaluation of severance packages.
- Inform clients about tax benefits, government rebates, or other financial benefits of alternative-fuel vehicle purchases or energy-efficient home construction, improvements, or remodeling.
- Recommend environmentally responsible investments, such as cleantech, alternative energy, or conservation technologies, companies, or funds.
- Recommend to clients strategies in cash management, insurance coverage, investment planning, or other areas to help them achieve their financial goals.
- Review clients' accounts and plans regularly to determine whether life changes, economic changes, environmental concerns, or financial performance indicate a need for plan reassessment.
- Manage client portfolios, keeping client plans up-to-date.
- Recruit and maintain client bases.
- Explain to clients the personal financial advisor's responsibilities and the types of services to be provided.
- Investigate available investment opportunities to determine compatibility with client financial plans.
- Monitor financial market trends to ensure that client plans are responsive.
- Recommend financial products, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or insurance.
Qualities of Good Personal Financial Advisor
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Tools Used by Personal Financial Advisor
- 10-key calculators
- Desktop computers
- Notebook computers
- Personal computers
- Personal digital assistants PDA
- Tablet computers
Technology Skills required for Personal Financial Advisor
- ACT! ACT4Advisors
- Advent Axys
- AdviceAmerica AdvisorVision
- Advisory World ICE
- ASI Client Acquisition Solution
- Asset allocation software
- Automatic Data Processing ProxyEdge
- Brentmark Stock Option Risk Analyzer
- Cabinet NG CNG-SAFE
- Cheshire Financial Planning Suite
- ComplianceMAX
- Corel QuattroPro
- Cygnus IncomeMax
- DataViz Beyond Contacts
- Education planning software
- EISI NaviPlan
- eMoneyAdvisor AdvisorPlatform
- Estate Capitol Needs Analysis
- Estate planning software
- ExpenseWatch
- EZ-Data Client Data System
- FileMaker Pro
- Finance Logix Education Planner
- Finance Logix Insurance Planner
- Finance Logix Retirement Planner
- Financeware AASim
- Financeware Finance File Manager
- Financeware WealthSimulator
- Financial Planning Consultants Practice Builder
- Financial planning presentation software
- Financial planning software
- Financial Profiles Profiles+ Professional
- Financial report generation software
- Fund accounting software
- Getting Things Done GTD software
- Host Analytics Host Budget
- Ibbotson Analyst
- Ibbotson Portfolio Strategist
- IBM Domino
- IBM Lotus 1-2-3
- Impact PlanLabX3
- IMPACT Wealth Distribution Analysis
- Investigo
- Investment and business valuation template software
- Investment tracking software
- J&L Financial Planner
- Junxure CRM Software
- MasterPlan
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Business Contact Manager
- Microsoft Dynamics
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Money
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Visual Basic
- Microsoft Word
- MoneyTree Silver Financial Planner (financial analysis feature)
- MoneyTree Silver Financial Planner (presentation feature)
- Monte Carlo simulation software
- Morningstar Principia
- Needs analysis software
- Net Worth Strategies Stock Opter Pro
- Optima IAS
- Oracle E-Business Suite Financials
- Oracle Hyperion
- Oracle PeopleSoft Financials
- PIE Technologies MoneyGuidePro
- Pimlico Software DateBk
- PlanPlus Pro
- PlanScan Portfolio Pathfinder
- Portfolio management software
- Practice management software PMS
- ProTracker Advantage
- Quicken
- Redtail Technology Our Business Online
- Retirement planning software
- Sage 50 Accounting
- Salesforce software
- Sawhney ExecPlan
- ScanSoft PaperPort Pro
- ScenarioNow RetireNow
- Structured query language SQL
- SunGard Frontier
- SunGard LockBox
- SunGard PlanningStation
- SunGard WebPlaid
- Swift
- Tax planning software
- The Omni Group OmniPlan
- Thomson ONE Advisor
- Torrid Retirement Planner
- Unger Software Methusaleh
- WealthTec AllocationPro
- WealthTec Foundations
- WealthTec WealthMaster
- Web browser software
- Web Information Solutions Pocket Informant
- World Software Corporation Worldox