Career advice from Financial Planners please

[Pornstar]

I am seriously considering moving from stockbroking into financial planning and i was hoping somebody in the industry could offer some helpful advice. I have a commerce degree and a diploma in financial planning, and i have just enrolled in an advanced diploma in FP. I figured i would start off with a role in paraplanning and then move into an advisory position a few years down the track.

Does this sound like a good/realistic plan?
Could i move straight into an advisory/trainee advisory position with my qualifications?
What is the industry like to work in?
What are the best roles within the industry? ( it seems that specialising in superannuation for HNW clients would be one of the biggest plums )

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

[Bodicifer]

I'd certainly be going down the paraplanning path to start with. That way you'll be able to get up to date on the legisltaive side of the technical advice that you may have missed out on in the stockbroking. Things like super and retirement planning, estate planning, risk planning and so on. Obviously your knowledge is going to be more investment based than strategy based so paraplanning is going to be the way to go. You would probably only need 6 months in that sort of role to get ou up to speed to move into advice.

Independent practices that aren't aligned to any fund manager or bank are best because it will generally mean there is no bias to any one sort of platform or product etc.

Retirement planning is going to become increasingly important as will estate planning, given the baby boomers, so I would be tending to look at practices with a focus in that area.

The industry is good and has variety. As with any industry there are the minority of rogues that will piss you off when you see or hear about what they are doing but other than that, as a whole, it is a good insutry to work in. Its much more personal than straight up stockbroking, more face to face, but obviously you will still be able to trade.

Good luck!

 

[Karl Pilkington]

Yep, you've got it figured mate. Just stick with your plan, with your qualifications you should be right.