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//Financial Planning - Your opportunity to make a difference

Are you passionate about helping people?
Do you have great communication skills and love learning?
Do you manage your time well?
Do you have a strong sense of ethics?
Do you enjoy networking?

If you answered yes to most of the above, then a career in financial planning may just be for you as these are the key attributes of a great financial planner.

A career in financial planning gives you the opportunity to combine skills, knowledge, and qualifications relating to finance, with a desire to help others and make a difference to society.

Financial planning is jam packed with variety - you'll never get bored because all your clients and their lives and needs are different.

Planners wear many hats throughout each working day - life coach, financial guide, money management trainer, and even providing your clients with emotional support when they need it the most.

You don't have to chain yourself to a desk day in, day out - and you can choose to work at a big financial institution, a smaller boutique firm, or start up your own independent practice.

Working in foreign countries is an option too; financial planners are in demand all around the world.

Financial planning provides an opportunity to earn a relatively high income and the flexibility to work part time.

Click here to read more about careers in Financial Planning

Education requirements to become a financial planner

Your first step to becoming a financial planner is to complete an accredited course in financial planning such as a Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning), or an undergraduate degree offered by universities and other accredited institutions.

To be a qualified financial planner and give financial advice, as a minimum you will need to comply with the Governments Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146). Many financial planning courses incorporate RG146, but to view a full list of providers visit ASIC's training register.

Your next step would be to continue your studies and become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. To become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional you need to complete the CFP® Certification Program. This is the highest certification available to a financial planner world wide.

For a complete list of degrees that have been assessed and approved by the Financial Planning Association (FPA) as satisfying the education pre-requisite for the CFP Certification Program, visit the FPA's accredited education register at www.fpa.asn.au.

Job opportunities and roles

Your job as a financial planner is to coach your clients in expressing and clarifying their lifestyle goals and thus their financial ones. You'll help them achieve those goals while making contingency plans for the unexpected events that are inevitable in everyone's life.

Before you become a qualified financial planner, usually you will undertake the following roles:

Client service and administration

These roles are a great way to start your financial planning career - providing support and assistance to the financial planning team will give you a broad understanding of what a financial planning practice involves, and help you choose your next step after that. Here are some typical duties of client service and administration people:

Handle enquiries from new and existing clients
Help create newsletters and client updates, assist in running seminars, creating marketing campaigns and materials
Ensure that client files are kept up-to-date and compliant
Assist in writing and preparing financial plans

Paraplanning

Although paraplanning is a support role that often becomes the stepping stone into financial planning, it's increasingly becoming a career in its own right. As the industry grows, some paraplanners are taking on management and training roles within groups of paraplanners.

Paraplanners' duties include:

Researching new financial products and services
Preparing financial plans based on information provided by the financial planner
Ensuring adherence to compliance procedures, such as internal codes and practices as well as government regulations

Financial planning

Professional financial planners use a six-step process to help a client work out where they are now, what they may need in the future and what they must do to reach their goals. Financial planners help their clients:

Increase their savings
Reduce their debt
Ensure financial security in case of illness, disability or death
Plan for taxation effectiveness
Maximise returns from investments

A financial planner can offer overall wealth-creating and wealth-protecting advice and assistance across all financial markets, or specialise in areas such as:

Retirement planning
Superannuation
Estate planning
Small business financial management and planning
Trusts
Taxation
Investing on the share market
Debt and risk management
Core, life and general insurance
Managed investments, securities and future markets

In order to fully understand your client's life and financial situations, you'll often work closely with accountants, stockbrokers, lawyers, and mortgage brokers in developing the best strategies.

Real life case studies - Meet a planner!

View a range of interviews with professionals (from young planners to experienced CFP® professionals), and hear how they became financial planners and get the insights into what it's really like to be a financial planner.