23 Oct 2007 | Comments | Wealth Management | Comments feed

Financial Planner is a hybrid of Salesperson and Specialist

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Financial planner is a profession that requires high level of social skills, and at the same time requires strong technical knowledge.

Social skills are a proficiency in finding common ground with others and building rapport. Financial planners with social skills are able to build vast personal networks and are usually experts in managing relationships. They need high emotional intelligence to be successful in financial planning industry. Motivation, self awareness, empathy and self discipline are some of the quality of a successful financial planner. Undeniably, a great salesperson possesses good social skills, which is known as the “soft skills”.

But in order to provide the best advice for their clients, financial planners must be competent in many financial areas. These includes taxation, investment, trust, business agreement, estate planning, retirement planning, and insurance planning. Some of those skills are the expertise of other profession, such as accountant in taxation and lawyer in agreement. But normally a person who is strong in technical knowledge, might not be proficient in his social life. Think of a technician, a specialist, a researcher who spends most of his time in the laboratory. Social skills are not so important to be a successful specialist. They definitely need a great amount of “hard skills”.

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Financial planner is a qualified professional who assists individuals and corporations meet their long-term financial objectives by analyzing the client’s status and setting a program to achieve these goals. They must possess admirable social skills and competent technical knowledge - “soft + hard” skills.

In Malaysia, a person with such a high capability are always neglected by consumers, and sometimes avoided. Furthermore, I found no employment opportunity for these professionals.

Please give them a chance to talk to you. It is thoroughly for your own benefits.

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