The following article will give you all the information about the salary, job description and education of a chartered financial consultant. Read on to find out all the details.
Every person craves for financial stability. Nobody wants to suffer at the hands of some poor financial decision, taken either by themselves or by their financial advisers. It applies not just to individuals but also to all the firms and organizations, small and large.
In this scenario, the job of a financial adviser takes center-stage. If the financial adviser is a certified professional like a chartered financial consultant (ChFC), then our job of keeping the financial health strong becomes easier and trustworthy. Many individuals are, nowadays, opting to get certified as ChFC for better career prospects, and to have a detailed knowledge of the financial world. Before getting into the details of his salary, let’s have a look at what it means.
Qualifications
A chartered financial consultant is, primarily, a financial adviser armed with a vast knowledge of the financial field. They study the most comprehensive syllabus in their certification course with respect to the financial field. The American College of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, confers the chartered financial consultant designation for advanced comprehensive financial planning study. Requirements include experience in the financial industry for at least three years with a bachelor’s degree.
The ChFC program includes completing seven compulsory courses on the fundamentals of financial planning, income taxation, insurance planning, investments, planning for retirement needs, estate planning and financial planning applications. Besides two elective courses out of four have to be completed, which are the financial system in the economy, estate planning applications, executive compensation and financial decisions for retirement.
The average study time for this program is 400 hours and financial advisers spend years obtaining this designation. From the vast coverage of courses, we can understand that a chartered financial consultant has the know-how of the entire financial sector.
Job Description
Chartered financial consultants are expected to do their job with the highest level of professionalism. The Certification Committee of the Board of Trustees of The American College grants the permission to use the ChFC mark to the candidates, who successfully complete their program. They are expected to adhere to strict ethical guidelines, wherein, they are expected to give the same advice to the clients which they would themselves follow in similar circumstances.
Their job includes building a comprehensive financial and investment approach, protecting clients’ assets and managing risk with proper levels of insurance, managing taxes, mortgage-advice, stocks and mutual fund advice, estate-planning and retirement-planning. They ensure that no bad financial decision is taken even at the times of crisis or market fluctuations.
Being a highly interactive job, ChFC requires excellent interpersonal communication and HR skills along with good analytical skills to stand up to any and every query posed. Personal financial advisors are not required to be licensed. But if you plan to be an advisor in stock broking and estate-planning areas, you will need to take the appropriate license.
Salary
Given their excellent skill and knowledge, chartered financial consultants are paid a highly lucrative salary. Their salary is certainly one of the best in the financial field. Their average salary in USA is about $1,10,000 per annum. However, it depends on a number of factors like location, type of employer, experience, etc. Let’s have a look at the salary range based on each of these factors.
Location
This is the single-most important factor which helps in deciding the salary. Their job opportunities are limited to urban areas in majority. The cost of living differs in every state and city. So, it is important to know the cost of living in a particular city before accepting any job offer. There are many websites available, which can help you compare cost of living in different cities. For instance, the average salary in Chicago is $110,000, while in New York it goes up to $125,000. This difference is mainly due to the higher cost of living in New York. Also, we can see that average salaries vary as widely as $80,000 in Omaha to $110,000 in Los Angeles, thus depicting the significance of location.
Employer
Chartered financial consultants can be hired by anyone from a top firm or organization to an individual. The organization’s size and area of functioning has a huge influence on the salary they offer to him. Any self-employed chartered financial consultant has a good scope to earn anything above the average of $110,000 annually, especially if he works in an urban location. Also it’s up to you to choose the number of clients you work for and the fees you take as their financial advisor. If you have confidence in your skills and abilities, then as a self-employed ChFC, you can earn anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 annually.
Experience
Experience, of course teaches you all the minutest details, which you may have missed when you had started out in your career. The knowledge you gain through experience is rewarded through an increment in salary. As a beginner, ChFC can earn anywhere from $40,000 to $90,000 depending on the experience, he had as a financial advisor before getting certified.
An experienced chartered financial consultant can go on to earn in the range of $100,000 to $150,000, which is a lot higher than the average salary of a financial adviser. In this job, the clients you get depend on the personal referrals from your earlier clients. And as you get the requisite experience, the trust factor in your work increases, which is the most critical factor in a financial consultant job. Once you establish trust in your clients’ minds, be sure, the flow of clients will never stop for hiring your services.
If the financial recommendations you made for your earlier clients worked well for them, then be certain that you will not have to worry about the salary. This job is for those people who wish to know every trick of the trade related to the finance and business world, and want to learn comprehensively about the advanced financial planning approach. If you are one of them, go for the ChFC program. All the best for a successful career ahead!