Anyone know how you become an Independant Financial Adviser???

[thefabfour]

I've had a look at the Chartered Institute of Insurance website and its not exactly clear .

How much experience do you need and where would I get it?

Also, is there an option to become self-employed?

Just wondering if this was a viable career-change option.

My husband is one, I will ask him about it - when he get's up!!

dp says most people do it through a big company, pass your exams and then become independent by leaving and setting up yourself or join a different firm of IFAs

(I don't totally understand but perhaps you will)

he says it is difficult today as compliance is quite heavy
not many firms have big fleets of advisors as they used to

he says try reading Financial Advisor magazine (my that sounds like a gripping read )
find out if any big firms still have sales forces and you can get trained up and put through your exams
or look for local IFA group and start as something else, perhaps as a paraplanner or admin assistant and move to being an IFA later

(sorry I don't understand half of this, just transcribing dp waffling)

I would expect you would have to be FSA registered too. If you worked for a firm the firm would be registered. Here

Thanks for your responses.

I know the Financial services industry is heavily regulated but your responses make me think it is even more complicated than first thought!!

One to research a bit more, me thinks. Financial Advisor may yet become bedtime reading!

The first qualifications you need are CF1-5. If you get a job with a financial adviser firm, they will usually pay for you to go through those exams, or you can fund yourself - it's not horrendously expensive.

You also need to be FSA registered etc.

There can be enormous expenses involved in setting up as a sole trader, as liability insurance is enormously expensive, for example.

Your best bet, if you can't find the information on the web, is to phone up a couple of financial advisers and ask them about it. From my experience (write for them, so speak to them a lot), they're always very willing to chat!

If you've got any more questions, ask away, I'll try to find the answers.

Thanks Hopefully.

I've looked at the website but can't work our if I would need the certificate as well as the Diploma to become a IFA.

I also have a feeling that I would need to get some experience with a firm before brnching out on my own as I suspect the profession is a full of redtape and I could get myself in a bit of a twist if I just became qualified and went off into the sunset advising people.

I looked into this 2 years ago.

Phone up your local largest 6th form college, they probably have various courses you can do (Adult Education section). Usually Evenings, get various levels of relevant qualifications, but I don't think there's an industry standard on what qualifications IFA should have, yet(?)

IFA qualifications have changed a lot in recent years, so hardly any 2 IFAs have the same qualifications. A good place to start is as a paraplanner for a alrge IFA firm. Not sure where you can find vacancies for this, but maybe if you google?

this page is quite interesting for some basic information.

I know you said you looked on the CII site, but you may not have seen here

I think I said this, but googling local IFAs and calling them up is definitely a good idea!

Oh, and you're probably right about getting into a twist if you went straight out and started advising people!

Financial Adviser, Money Management, Money Marketing and new Model Adviser are all industry publications you may want to check out - I think local libraries quite often carry NMA and Money Management, not sure about the others...

The minimum qualification is the Certificate in Financial Planning - CFP. This was previously called the Financial Planning Certificate(FPC). If you have FP1 you will be exempt from CF1.

CFP is made up of five exams. Some of these exams are multiple choice. CF5 is a written exam.

If you want to sell certain products for example lifetime mortgages you would need to do an additional exam on top of the CFP.

The industry is pushing for the diploma and the Advanced Diploma at the moment. Personally I think this is a good thing. I have FPC and though it covers a lot of material I think you need more in-depth knowledge to sell.

The industry is heavily regulated. Training and Competence is in place for the front office; as well as the back office. Has been for quite a long time! Treating Customers Fairly is the latest FSA "initiative".

I would work for a company in the first instance. The company would train you up. You would go through their Training & Competence scheme. However, to increase you chances of getting a job in the first place I would try and get CFP, because as I've mentioned before this is the minimum qualification to have.