At a base level, a financial advisor is an individual who leverages their expert-level knowledge in a specific area of finance to aid clients in making optimal decisions regarding how to manage their money. However, a financial advisor’s day-to-day role and responsibilities are much more. They’re tasked with key duties, from prospecting to administrative tasks and servicing their clients.
If you are considering a career in finance, here is a look at a day in the life of a financial advisor.
1. Pre-Planning the Day Before
A financial advisor does a lot of planning. The day or night before, you’re already scheduling tasks for the next day. There is never a shortage of things to do, so pre-planning is important to staying productive and making things happen. This way, when your work day starts, you’re ready to kick things into gear immediately. There’s no wasting energy finding things to do.
2. Servicing Existing Clients and Customers
The most important aspect of being a successful financial advisor is treating your current clients like gold. After you start to fill out your book of ongoing clients, a financial advisor will typically begin their day by reviewing client portfolios and reports, responding to client inquiries, and attending meetings. Happy clients are your goal. They are what keep you in business and can also lead to referrals in the future.
3. Utilizing Your Communication Skills
A financial advisor has got to be a great communicator because they’re always creating new relationships and engaging with people. Communication isn’t just talking, either. It’s dressing professionally, delivering on what one promises or commits to, and staying in contact with important stakeholders. This last point means clients, wholesalers, regulatory officials, customer service representatives, and compliance officers.
4. Maximizing Meal Times as a Financial Advisor
You have your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You don’t have to eat alone. Use that time to set up meals with strategic stakeholders. This could be team members, accountants, attorneys, real estate agents, brokers, or anyone in this same vein. This way, even in your off-time, you’re still building relationships. It’s a smart way to maximize every moment.
5. Financial Analysis and Administrative Recordkeeping
You will spend a part of your day at your desk as a financial advisor doing administrative tasks. Examples include authoring compliance reports, updating client records, answering emails, and processing trade tickets.
There are also various calculations regarding entering data into financial planning models and processing information inside tax programs. A financial advisor must have the care and attention to detail to enter data accurately and be able to correctly interpret the reports being returned to them.
6. Prospecting and Networking For New Clients
A financial advisor’s day will likely be spent cultivating relationships and networking. Prospecting may make up as much as 60% of it in an eight-hour day. Looking for new prospects is particularly important for new financial advisors. It can take time to develop a book of clients.
Every day, interacting with new leads and engaging in outreach is important. Popular outreach strategies include attending relevant networking events, writing a blog, posting on social media, and looking for sponsorship opportunities to gain visibility.
7. Designing Financial Plans For Clients
Here is the fun part – creating or advising on a financial plan. You collect information from clients, getting to know their families, career, job, and how they manage money. You ask them about their short-term and long-term financial objectives. From there, you can look at different ways to help clients get from their present to where they want to be. You offer different scenarios and products, ensuring they’re fully informed on what’s realistic in their current predicament.
8. Continuing Education as a Financial Advisor
In financial advising, you’re always learning. New products come out. Regulations change. The dynamics of the economy are always shifting. You may also have the required credits to continue working as a financial advisor. A part of your day-to-day may be spent reading articles, educating yourself on something new, or participating in either online or in-person courses, seminars, or industry events.
9. There’s No Typical Day in Finance
We didn’t map out specific times for each of the priorities above because there’s no standard day for a financial advisor. You may have days where you’re almost singularly prospecting. It’s a big part of the job. You may have other days where you’re tied up in a course or at a seminar.
Ultimately, your success as a financial advisor relies heavily upon your ability to juggle these responsibilities and set aside the time to finish the work. The best advice we can give is to plan. Pre-plan, write out your day and execute. That’s the right way to plan a daily routine for a financial advisor.
