So You Want to Be a Financial Planner: Your Guide to a New Career

by Nancy Langdon Jones

Finally, together in one place, a comprehensive step-by-step career as a financial planner. Here is everything you need to know - from getting the right credentials to getting the right clients. Over the next few decades, billions of dollars will be changing hands as millions of Baby Boomers retire. Learn how you can play an important role in ensuring the financial health of future generations.

So You Want to Be a Financial Planner:
* Tells you what credentials you need
* Shows you where to find the best schools for licensing and registration
* Clearly defines how commission and fee-only planners differ
* Provides a planner's "toolbox" of hardware, software and internet sites
* Cuts through the maze of regulatory red tape
* Gives you proven marketing techniques to jump-start your practice

Genres: Finance

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2013

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been thinking of changing careers and started looking at becoming a financial planner. After doing a lot of internet searches for what I needed to do I was very frustrated. The gist of my searches was: 1)become CFP certified 2)make money. The problem with that approach is that to become certified (in addition to taking classes and passing an exam) you need 3 years of experience. If you're coming from the financial industry that might not be too bad but for a career changer from a non-financial field, that's hard to do.

After I found this book I realized how little I knew about what a financial planner was and how many different kinds there are. She also talks about the different places to take CFP classes, where you can look to get experience in order to get certified, and what you'll need to set-up shop. I am much more knowledgeable about the profession and what steps I need to take.

On the other hand, the book is full of magazine articles, responses to surveys, and personal stories by others. It almost seems like a bunch of filler. Also, the style was too informal and disjoint. It was hard for an engineer like myself to read.

Overall, I gave it 4 stars because it had much more information than I found in hours of internet searches but the style really turned me off.

[Stephen Drew]

For personal reference:

“best books for financial advisors” according to Michael Kitces