Thinking on a career in Financial Planning?

We spoke to Karthica Underwood,
Chartered Financial Planner at Principal Financial Planning to find out more about the job and how her career has panned out over the last 13 years.
How did you get into
Financial Planning?
I
left university with my degree in Statistics and Management Studies but without
a firm idea about what I wanted to do.
After a year’s stint at the Office of National Statistics I was offered
a job providing administration support to a couple of advisers. That was my first exposure to financial
planning and where my training began.
How long have you
been in the industry?
About 13 years. My early years were spent supporting the advisers I worked with and that
together with the exams I was doing gave me a really good grounding in financial planning. When a
colleague retired 7 years ago, an opportunity to move into an advisory role arose which turned out to be my break.
I started my career with a very large firm but since then the
companies I have worked for have been much smaller - on average a team of 4 or
5 people.
What does your job
involve?
In short my key objective is to help my clients achieve financial
freedom. It’s about helping them get
from where they are to where they want to be…but not just in a few years’
time but throughout their lives.
At Principal Financial Planning we take a holistic approach
to help our clients so we look at all areas from cash savings, protection needs
to investment and pension planning. Our
primary ‘product’ is our advice and planning for the client. Our secondary product is actual products such as some
income protection cover or pension plans.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I love getting to know people and the variety of the planning
solutions available. I get this in
bucket loads from my clients and other professionals that I meet.
Who are your clients?
They tend to be individuals, couples of families or small
businesses. For individuals, the needs typically range from
protecting to investing. For businesses
the needs typically tend to focus around contingency planning such as key
person cover or group life cover and pensions.
What qualifications
and skills do you need to be a financial planner?
From 1 January 2013, all advisers/ planners need
to have a Diploma in Financial Planning as a minimum. You need to be personable, a good listener
and have confidence in yourself and what you do.
What are the earnings
like?
You will either be salaried, earn a % of the fees you
generate or a combination of the two. Dependent on qualifications and experience, you can expect to earn a
base salary of around £30-£40k plus bonuses.
Any advice for those
wishing to join the profession?
Talk to other people in the industry and try to get some work experience with a finacial planning firm because the key to knowing
if this is for you is to get exposure to the work itself. Your actual role is likely to be
in one of the other areas of the firm but it will give you a good
overview. Also see if you can sit on
some client meetings to get a feel of that side of things.
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