New Financial Advisors

A Big Collection of Articles on what you can expect

I did a pretty broad search on the net today to find some of the best resources possible on what you can expect in your new career as a new financial advisor or a new insurance agent.  My results cover a fairly broad spectrum of producers with wire houses on one end of the scale — traditionally producers here collect assets in the form of mutual funds, 401(k) accounts, IRAs, stocks, etc.  On the other end of the spectrum we have property and casualty (P&C) who traditionally sell home owners insurance and car insurance. There are a variety of roles in between who sell a mix of investments and life insurance.  Your job probably lies somewhere along this spectrum.

Forums for New Financial Advisors or New Life Insurance Agents

My largest area of surprise is how many forums exist for producers in the financial services industry.  One in particular is Ampminsure.com.  I managed to find one thread on the challenges that life insurance agents face.

The National Association of State Farm Agents also has a forum that is an invaluable resource for new life insurance agents in the P&C world.

InsuranceForums.net is another forum that even includes a section for General Agents. New insurance agents will want to check out the Getting Started Selling Insurance section on the forum.

There is even one small exchange on new life insurance agents on Indeed.com.

Interviewing with companies?  For those of you who are considering becoming a new life insurance agent or a new financial advisor, this exchange between newbies and interviewees is very enlightening.

Articles for New Financial Advisors or New Life Insurance Agents

Fins.com has a pretty good collection of articles for new financial advisors, in particular.

The First 365 Days: How to Set Up For a Successful Career as a Financial Advisor is a great read for those of you who want an inside scoop on what it is like to work for a firm that gathers assets. The first sentence says it best, “Say goodbye to your friends.”

From Rookie to Retiree: Financial Advisor Lifecycles gives a great end-to-end perspective on what to expect.  I particularly enjoy the quote from Joe Matthews who advises new recruits to “Hit the ground running”.  Peter Izzo also points out that “its a meritocracy.”

This next article is a little dated, but brings up a great point in the hiring and training of new financial advisors.  The article, The Future of the Industry is a general state-of-the-industry look at financial advisory services, and it quotes a price tag of $250,000 for launching a new financial advisor.

Videos

First Year Insurance Agent is a text-to-movie animation.  While the language here is a little off-color at times, the video hits on a number of really relevant points including the expectations of management, and the need to market products outside of your company’s core portfolio. A little long at nearly 7 minutes.  I feel the first 5 were well worth the time.

New Insurance Agent Mistakes to Avoid is a well-done video by what appears to be a mother-daughter team.  At 2 minutes it is worth the time.  This video illustrates a good point about avoiding competition with the internet.