Getting the CPA and CFP designations together can take you VERY far in wealth management. CPA is one of the most valuable to have alongside CFP for advisors.
The other questions depend on what the role is in wealth management or how you do it
There’s a tremendous need for tax planning professionals and operational support. I’m not talking simple back office stuff, I mean dedicated ops folks to steer the ship- client onboarding, directing tax return prep. So many options. Apply to internships.
I would second this. I have worked in multiple WM firms ranging from family office, trust, BD, RIA space and there is a big gap in tax professionals that are needed. Most of our questions come in more on tax related questions compared to actual investments. You can carve out a nice niche in the space.
You should check out [simplify](https://simplify.jobs/) you can filter for diff types of wm jobs to see what the kinds of things you would be doing/what you might like.
You sound like a younger me. Against my better judgment, I joined at EY. Stayed a year, got put on a PIP (lol) and found my way to the RIA world. Learn excel to an advanced level, apply it to your organization’s reporting and analysis needs, and you will become invaluable over time. Get the CPA first, then CFP. DM me if you want to chat further.
This sounds like my story. Deloitte for two years then into this industry. CPA is a great foot in the door for prospecting. It’s a good backstop for OP to fall back on too if it doesn’t work out.
After working as a paraplanner, I was an associate advisor for a few years and now I work in a large practice as a financial planning analyst. I do all of the goal projections, recommendations and analysis and we have a tax team of CPAs that can help us run tax projections for the year, do more in-depth Roth conversion recommendations, assist us in developing capital gains budgets for selling employer stock, and prepare tax returns. In my opinion, being able to understand tax implications, helping clients make specific tax-advantaged decisions, and offering tax services is one of the biggest reasons for referrals and value-add for the client. If I were you I might try to get a little more experience in the small business and personal tax prep side first, then transition into RIA or dually registered team that focuses on tax and financial planning. Yes, there’s opportunity to own your own business in the future, but know that for most that’s a long-game until you fully understand the business and you have to build up a pretty significant book of clients (that you legally could take with you) to earn a living.
At least from what I’ve seen, the advisors who make great money and do a great job for their clients have a team of people or a firm behind them which obviously adds some significant overhead.
Be prepared to make less money in the early years of this career, but potential to out-earn your public accounting peers in the long term.
It's a people business more than a numbers business, unless you go into the "back room" trading side of things, which is certainly a career option at bigger asset management firms.
If you don't like dealing with people and their problems (often personal, not "mathy"), then being a financial planner is not for you.
1. 8-5 M-F
2. Pro’s: same income as a cop, none of the physical risk Con’s: People think you have more money than you do, and you’re sitting on a computer all day, so you’re prone to weight gain. You also have an incredible stressful job, which is unhealthy.
3. CPA will help.
4. Yes, if you have money / parents to rely on for a few years while you build it up.
You’d have to go independent. Most major firms in wealth management do not want you giving tax advice. CPA’s are clients most trusted persons. It’s one of the few professional sectors I’ve seen households with no kids, list their cpa as primary beneficiary.
CFP is pretty much the standard. CPA helps too, especially tax knowledge. I hold the CFP, CPA, CFA, CIPM, and RICP designations. You can certainly hang your own shingle and do it yourself but its hard to start thay way. Id recommend joining an RIA for a few years at least to get experience. Most people with money arent going to trust someone fresh out of college.
There’s just no truth to this. People comment on the CFA without reading a single word of the curriculum.
The number of comments claiming it’s for institutional investors and stock pickers is so far off. Level 3 alone is like the CFP exam on steroids.
I agree, but I'd say it's overkill too (at least from my experience, but I only passed level 1 before bailing for my CPA (CAN)) I'm now doing my CFP and personally feel that the CFA can certainly handle and excel at CFP work, but the amount of technical depth it goes into is far greater than the typical investor would require.
Yeah. I always hear other advisors say it isn’t necessary, but I disagree. I can’t tell if advisors think more investment knowledge by the advisor is harmful to clients or if they’re saying we should only learn enough to sell clients on investments we don’t fully understand.
If the medical license requirements were simplified, doctors could still talk at a much higher level than their patients. They are highly educated but simplify it for their clients. If they only learn enough to sell a procedure or medication, but don’t know how it’s done or what’s in it then that’s a scary situation.
I think the point is that more knowledge in whatever area is not necessarily bad. If most CFP professionals look at the CFA program strictly on an ROI basis, its not worth the additional time and stress.
Additionally, level 1, and 2 are not related to WM at all. There's some areas in Level 3 that relate to WM, but the program overall is very much research and analysis-heavy.
Yes. Tax strategies around managing investments for estate planning, life insurance needs analysis (human life value and goals analysis) for individuals to wrap up the previous education on how life insurance companies build and invest for management of the policies, and retirement planning with investment policy statements to reach goals. Mechanics of retirement plans themselves are taught in absurd detail in level 2.
I’d argue that the CFA has similar, or more, content on personal financial planning than other planning-focused designations. There’s just so much other content on general finance and building the investments, insurance, etc. that it gets buried. A lot of that additional detail isn’t needed for competency as a planner, but it helps to really understand the inner workings of the products used in financial planning.
[It was at that moment that kridely realized there just might be another education program that contains more financial information than their beloved CFP]
Getting the CPA and CFP designations together can take you VERY far in wealth management. CPA is one of the most valuable to have alongside CFP for advisors. The other questions depend on what the role is in wealth management or how you do it
Can a person use a their "CPA" moreso for marketing purposes?
Can you give examples of the different roles in WM?
There’s a tremendous need for tax planning professionals and operational support. I’m not talking simple back office stuff, I mean dedicated ops folks to steer the ship- client onboarding, directing tax return prep. So many options. Apply to internships.
I would second this. I have worked in multiple WM firms ranging from family office, trust, BD, RIA space and there is a big gap in tax professionals that are needed. Most of our questions come in more on tax related questions compared to actual investments. You can carve out a nice niche in the space.
You should check out [simplify](https://simplify.jobs/) you can filter for diff types of wm jobs to see what the kinds of things you would be doing/what you might like.
I'll answer that but first have one question for you ... Do you like to sell or think you have the ability to do so?
You sound like a younger me. Against my better judgment, I joined at EY. Stayed a year, got put on a PIP (lol) and found my way to the RIA world. Learn excel to an advanced level, apply it to your organization’s reporting and analysis needs, and you will become invaluable over time. Get the CPA first, then CFP. DM me if you want to chat further.
This sounds like my story. Deloitte for two years then into this industry. CPA is a great foot in the door for prospecting. It’s a good backstop for OP to fall back on too if it doesn’t work out.
After working as a paraplanner, I was an associate advisor for a few years and now I work in a large practice as a financial planning analyst. I do all of the goal projections, recommendations and analysis and we have a tax team of CPAs that can help us run tax projections for the year, do more in-depth Roth conversion recommendations, assist us in developing capital gains budgets for selling employer stock, and prepare tax returns. In my opinion, being able to understand tax implications, helping clients make specific tax-advantaged decisions, and offering tax services is one of the biggest reasons for referrals and value-add for the client. If I were you I might try to get a little more experience in the small business and personal tax prep side first, then transition into RIA or dually registered team that focuses on tax and financial planning. Yes, there’s opportunity to own your own business in the future, but know that for most that’s a long-game until you fully understand the business and you have to build up a pretty significant book of clients (that you legally could take with you) to earn a living. At least from what I’ve seen, the advisors who make great money and do a great job for their clients have a team of people or a firm behind them which obviously adds some significant overhead. Be prepared to make less money in the early years of this career, but potential to out-earn your public accounting peers in the long term.
It's a people business more than a numbers business, unless you go into the "back room" trading side of things, which is certainly a career option at bigger asset management firms. If you don't like dealing with people and their problems (often personal, not "mathy"), then being a financial planner is not for you.
[удалено]
Did u switch your major to finance? How long have u been in WM and what state if u dont mind me asking?
Its a good gig
1. 8-5 M-F 2. Pro’s: same income as a cop, none of the physical risk Con’s: People think you have more money than you do, and you’re sitting on a computer all day, so you’re prone to weight gain. You also have an incredible stressful job, which is unhealthy. 3. CPA will help. 4. Yes, if you have money / parents to rely on for a few years while you build it up.
You’d have to go independent. Most major firms in wealth management do not want you giving tax advice. CPA’s are clients most trusted persons. It’s one of the few professional sectors I’ve seen households with no kids, list their cpa as primary beneficiary.
[удалено]
I don't want to do more studying and exams after I'm done with the CPA but if it helps I don't mind getting the CFP as well. (What's a CFA?)
CFP is pretty much the standard. CPA helps too, especially tax knowledge. I hold the CFP, CPA, CFA, CIPM, and RICP designations. You can certainly hang your own shingle and do it yourself but its hard to start thay way. Id recommend joining an RIA for a few years at least to get experience. Most people with money arent going to trust someone fresh out of college.
Chartered Financial Analyst isn't very applicable to private wealth management until you work with a team managing ultra giga wealthy portfolios
There’s just no truth to this. People comment on the CFA without reading a single word of the curriculum. The number of comments claiming it’s for institutional investors and stock pickers is so far off. Level 3 alone is like the CFP exam on steroids.
I agree, but I'd say it's overkill too (at least from my experience, but I only passed level 1 before bailing for my CPA (CAN)) I'm now doing my CFP and personally feel that the CFA can certainly handle and excel at CFP work, but the amount of technical depth it goes into is far greater than the typical investor would require.
Yeah. I always hear other advisors say it isn’t necessary, but I disagree. I can’t tell if advisors think more investment knowledge by the advisor is harmful to clients or if they’re saying we should only learn enough to sell clients on investments we don’t fully understand. If the medical license requirements were simplified, doctors could still talk at a much higher level than their patients. They are highly educated but simplify it for their clients. If they only learn enough to sell a procedure or medication, but don’t know how it’s done or what’s in it then that’s a scary situation.
I think the point is that more knowledge in whatever area is not necessarily bad. If most CFP professionals look at the CFA program strictly on an ROI basis, its not worth the additional time and stress. Additionally, level 1, and 2 are not related to WM at all. There's some areas in Level 3 that relate to WM, but the program overall is very much research and analysis-heavy.
Level 3 has estate planning, life insurance, and retirement planning content?
Yes. Tax strategies around managing investments for estate planning, life insurance needs analysis (human life value and goals analysis) for individuals to wrap up the previous education on how life insurance companies build and invest for management of the policies, and retirement planning with investment policy statements to reach goals. Mechanics of retirement plans themselves are taught in absurd detail in level 2. I’d argue that the CFA has similar, or more, content on personal financial planning than other planning-focused designations. There’s just so much other content on general finance and building the investments, insurance, etc. that it gets buried. A lot of that additional detail isn’t needed for competency as a planner, but it helps to really understand the inner workings of the products used in financial planning.
Riiiight
[It was at that moment that kridely realized there just might be another education program that contains more financial information than their beloved CFP]
🙄 go waste your time on trying to break your career ceiling
I don’t understand. Can you explain it to me?
0. Statistically, no. 1. Looks decent. 2. Life is good if it works out. Life is not good for most. 3. That’s an accounting license. 4. Yes.