Are You Thinking About Being A Financial Consultant? A Financial Management Trainee or Associate? There A Few Things You Need To Consider.

Financial Services

Careers in the financial services industry have several titles. Financial consultants, finance management trainees and associates, financial services sales professionals, financial executives, investment advisors and financial planners.

These positions are entrepreneurial by nature and can be considered difficult initially. But they can also be extremely rewarding.  Starting off in the financial services industry is very much like starting your own business.  Broker/dealer companies will help you attain the necessary licenses, and provide training and support. But it is up to the individual to succeed, as it should be.

Much like starting your own business, there are risks and expenses.  It most definitely takes a special personality type in order to succeed, but it can hardly be called an employment scam.

Is It A Scam?

If you search the internet you will find people who believe that this type of employment opportunity is a scam. Many don’t succeed in this type of career, but just because they didn’t make it, doesn’t make it a scam.  Of course that doesn’t stop them from writing about their own bad experience. Sometimes with a selfish, unfair or skewed point of view.

One website I read recently asserted that Independent Capital Management, Inc has behaved in a way that could be considered a scam.  However they fail to mention that Independent Capital Management, Inc. has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and has never had a complaint filed against them since inception in 1988.

This person complains of “slaving” for 60+ hours a week with financially unsatisfactory results.  Yet their self-description is that of a “Star Performer”.  How do you correlate unsatisfactory financial results and star performer?

As a former manager for restaurants, hotels and country clubs, I can tell you that 60+ hours was the norm for that line of work.  Owning your own business, in most cases, requires even more time.  This person also complains that they were unaware of costs and fees.  That said expenses were only revealed as they cropped up. The financial services industry is heavily regulated, and labor laws in most states are very intensive, especially where it concerns compensation and fairness.  Someone who is not aware of expenses and fees associated with their own career is someone who hasn’t done their homework.

Lastly, they complain that they did not receive commissions on clients they brought to the firm after they quit.  That a “Non-Compete” Agreement was a condition of employment, which prohibited them from retaining clients.

I can’t think of any company that disperses commissions to non-employees, why would a company pay someone who doesn’t work for them?  A Non-Compete Agreement is just good business sense and standard practice in the financial industry, among others.  A Non-Compete Agreement prohibits you from soliciting clients at your previous company, but it does not prohibit the client from moving over to wherever you land. It is a free country after all.