Should You Choose A Career In Financial Advising in 2023?

POV: you’re sitting at your desk and still can’t believe it’s the year 2023. You are not necessarily hating where you are in your career but you’re not loving it either. 

Let’s be really cliché and have the New Year, new career mentality.

Here at Consolidated Planning, we’ve been helping advisors navigate with grace any challenges or roadblocks that may arise in their career. With internal resources and open lines of communication throughout the firm, we help financial advisors build that successful and meaningful practice they’ve been dreaming of.

Learning the benefits, disadvantages, and even the outlook for financial advisors stepping into the industry in 2023 is a good place to start in determining if you’re ready to move forward and choose a career in financial advising.

4 Benefits Of Becoming A Financial Advisor

Let’s start with the good news first. Becoming a financial advisor can be incredibly rewarding if you’re aligned with the right firm for you.

#1 Making An Impact: For those of you wanting a meaningful career, making an impact in the lives of others should be at the top of your list. Especially as a consultative financial advisor that puts clients before products, you have the ability to protect not only someone’s life and finances, but the future outlook for their family as well. And that’s no small thing.

#2 Industry Growth: Now, more than ever, consumers are paying more attention to their finances. According to Investopedia, the industry was valued at $22.52 trillion in 2021, and is expected to reach $28.53 trillion in value in 2025.

In addition to the industry as a whole, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that from now to 2031, job opportunities for financial advisors are expected to grow much faster than employment in other occupations, at a rate of 15 percent.

#3 Flexibility: One of the benefits of being a financial advisor is the flexibility that comes with the job. As a financial advisor, you will have the freedom to set your own schedule and choose when and where you work that best serves you and your clients. This can be especially appealing for those who value a good work/life balance.

#4 Income Potential: The world is your oyster when it comes to your earnings potential as a financial advisor. While you have the ability to make a great living, it’s important to note that building a practice, expertise, and a reputation all take time. Your earnings potential might also be dependent upon how much work you put in. Along with the benefits of having flexibility comes the need for holding yourself accountable.

3 Disadvantages Of Becoming A Financial Advisor

Just like the career you’re currently in, becoming a financial advisor may have its disadvantages as well.

#1 Long Hours: Especially in the early days of building your practice, you may find yourself working long hours. As a new financial advisor you will spend a lot of time learning the industry, the products, attaining your licenses, prospecting and building rapport, in hopes of getting your practice off of the ground.

Once you start building your client base, this may require setting meetings outside of typical work hours to accommodate your clients schedule. 

#2 High Stress Industry: Between the considerable effort to build a client base, market changes and trends, and managing client expectations, being a financial advisor is deemed to be a stressful job. In fact, according to the Financial Planning Association, 71% of financial advisors admit to facing moderate to high levels of stress in their careers.

#3 Continuous Prospecting: This is something that will never cease in this career. In order to keep the ball rolling as a financial advisor, you should always keep prospecting. Your practice is built on advising people and for that to happen you must have clients.

You may have heard the saying that every no you hear from a prospect is a step closer to a yes. You will never know when your ‘yes’ will come.

What Are Some Current Trends In The Financial Advising Industry?

Since the financial landscape and outlook is always changing, it’s important as an advisor to stay on top of current trends. 

Here’s what we’re hearing as we move into 2023 for our advisors:

#1 Financial Wellness: Just as we care for our mental, physical, and emotional health, financial wellness needs to be part of that puzzle. The idea behind financial wellness is learning to live within your means and managing your money in a way that gives you peace of mind.

As a financial advisor, it’s your duty to act in the best interest of your clients which includes helping them understand where their money is going and how to better allocate those dollars to achieve financial wellness, both short term and long term.

#2 Technology And Tools: It should come at no surprise that technology and tools are at the forefront of how financial advising should look in 2023. Technology is continually making it easier for financial advisors to provide recommendations and also help their clients have more hands on access to these recommendations.

At Consolidated Planning, financial advisors utilize The Living Balance Sheet® software to help clients organize, protect, and focus their resources toward their goals. This proprietary software was built on the eMoney platform to deliver our planning process to clients in a meaningful way.

#3 Client Engagement: This emerging desire is speaking to the level of involvement and commitment that clients are seeking from their financial advisor. High levels of engagement can lead to better financial outcomes for the clients and stronger, more long-lasting relationships.

Ways to prioritize client engagement include:

• Understanding your clients needs
• Consistently communicating
• Empowering your clients to ask questions
• Using technology to make it easier for your clients to monitor and track their financial plan

#4 Defensive Planning: Defensive planning is just that, proactively protecting your clients assets while minimizing risks. This approach to planning can be done across all types of a client’s portfolio.

We call this protection first at Consolidated Planning. Our planning philosophy prioritizes protection first, meaning advisors believe that you must protect what you have today before you can worry about tomorrow.

Here we take a closer look at the protection domain of your client’s financial world. Your goal is to assess how well your client is protected against several eroding factors. In other words, you’ll examine everything that could go wrong and derail your client’s chances of successfully achieving their goals.

Is A Career In Financial Advising The Right Fit For You?

Becoming a financial advisor is not for the faint of heart. You have to decide if the rewards are worth the risk, and your time and energy.

The potential in a financial advising career is limitless but it also requires a good deal of self discipline, grit, and dedication. If you feel that you embody the work ethic it takes to build a financial advising practice, the next step is to determine the right firm for you.

Is that firm Consolidated Planning? Reach out to our recruiters to continue the discussion on the outlook of your career in 2023.

 

2023-149942 Exp. 2/2025