What Is Required to Become a Financial Planner?

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Bill Rae. I'm with Alumni Financial Services at the Seminole, Florida. I've been in the business in the finance world for over 30 years. Your question is, what is required to become a financial planner? Well, would start off by telling you in today's environment, states are now requiring people who want to go out and call themselves a financial planner. When you're dealing with the public to actually carry a license, almost every financial planner I know has a good background and a good understanding and is licensed in the life industry or in the insurance industry. Once you have that and you begin to gain experience, you have some choices. There are so many advanced courses that you can take, that will lead you to designations that will help you improve your knowledge of how money works. You can even start at a local college. Some good courses are at local junior colleges or at a regular 4 year college and generally can lead you into a degree in accounting or planning. Financial planning is a growing need and a growing field in this country of ours. It's unfortunate that most of the people who really are good at what they are, are facing retirement or looking towards retirement. So, this generation really needs young blood to come in. We talked to folks all the time, trying to convince them to enter the field. There's a high need for it as more and more financial dealings get more and more complex. People need to understand how all their products or their insurances work together . What I mean by that is, does your life insurance need to talk to your health insurance? And do they coordinate with your retirement? What's the difference between an Iran and Iraq? And all this different worries that are thrown around. Somebody needs to read and understand them, and then help the general public get a good understanding so that at the end of the day they get what they're looking for. It's a wonderful career and there's several ways to actually become a financial planner, and then move on to a certified financial planner and different designations we have in our field. I, myself, I'm a member of the Certified Senior Financial Planner Association. Simply means we take advanced courses to really understand how money works and more importantly, how it impacts you. My name is Bill Rae. I'm with Alumni Financial Services. As always, we're here to help you build through wealth."