Financial Advisor Interview: Expert Insights and Advice

This document presents a detailed interview with a financial advisor. The interview covers the advisor's background, their role in assisting clients with financial planning, investment strategies, and wealth management. The advisor explains the importance of their role, the services they offer, and the qualifications required. The interview also addresses common financial mistakes made by individuals, particularly Canadians, such as lack of proper financial planning, inadequate insurance, misuse of credit, and failure to create backup plans. The advisor provides valuable advice for post-secondary students and average Canadians, emphasizing the importance of budgeting, responsible use of credit, and the need for emergency funds. The interview concludes with the advisor's recommendations for improving financial outlook and achieving financial goals, making it a useful resource for anyone seeking financial guidance.

Financial accounting

Interviewer: Good morning Sir.
Interviewee: Good morning! How can I help you?
Interviewer: Sir, for better understanding for job role of financial advisor I want to ask some
questions and associated factor.
Interviewee: Ok. Go ahead.
Interviewer: Thanks. From how many years or month you are working as a financial advisor?
Interviewee: From past five years I am providing financial assistance to public and prior to that
I was in banking company for serving similar post.
Interviewer: According to you what is role of financial advisor?
Interviewee: Financial advisors play an important role in assisting individuals in utilizing their
best of financial assets and help them in knowing their own investment and
savings alternatives by building reasonable and suitable financial strategies. A
financial advisor is a person who is involved in operating with clients to know
their short-long term objectives, lifestyles, and their risk capability so as to
provide personalized advice and improvise their financial plans so they can meet
financial goals and objectives1.
Interviewer: So they are directly associated with the clients?
Interviewee: Financial advisors have a direct link with their clients but sometimes they might
recommend financial planner so they can work together to prepare financial plan
for their client. This structure of teamwork seems to be depended on the strategy
and design of an organization for both role and experience of financial advisor.
Interviewer: Will you tell me the reason?
Interviewee: It is sometimes complicated to manage investments, individual is not able to
invest on its own, so there is a need for expertise financial advisor. They can
assist in creating a sophisticated financial plan which is inclusive of considering
1 Foerster, Stephen, Juhani Linnainmaa, Brian Melzer, and Alessandro Previtero. "The costs and benefits of financial
advice." In an Oxford-Harvard-Sloan Initiative on International Comparative Household Finance conference (Mar
13-14). 2014.

the current performance and determination of current and future requirement and
goals. Further they give advice regarding the best financial product by evaluating
and updating investments over time. Selecting the right advisor at the right time
totally rely on what help is required.
Interviewer: What qualification this role required apart from academics?
Interviewee: The role also needs a powerful entrepreneurial character as Financial Advisors
has to sell services and products to get new clients. Financial advisor career is
based on maintaining and improving better relationship with its clients by giving
them proper advice and satisfaction, this part plays a significant in attaining
success in the career of financial advisor2. Financial advisor can give advice on
various financial products relying on the financial institution type they are
associated with.
Interviewer: What kind of services and product you provide to public?
Interviewee: As a whole financial advisors provides following type of services;
Investment decisions: Most of the financial advisors provide assistance in making
investment decisions by considering financial goals of clients and their earnings.
For them, they develop investment portfolio through which optimised return and
capital value can be earned with taking minimum risks.
Insurance products and services: These financial advisors are associated with
insurance companies and sell insurance products and services to clients by giving
them various options on the basis of their requirements of risk and return.
Wealth management Services: In these firms financial advisors are licensed to
sell products to several companies. For example, they cans sell funds from
different mutual fund companies and can provide a variety of products and
2 Roberts-Lombard, Mornay, Estelle Van Tonder, Theunis Gert Pelser, and Jeremia Jesaia Prinsloo. "The
relationship between key variables and customer loyalty within the independent financial advisor
environment." The Retail and Marketing Review 10, no. 1 (2014): 25-42.

options while advising clients. Financial advisors with investments or securities
traders are classically licensed permitted to sell different ssecurities that are
inclusive of bonds or stocks3. Further licensing necessities should be satisfied to
sell derived products.
Interviewer: Do you think all individual need financial advice?
Interviewee: Not all but almost all people need financial assistance at some point of life as they
have several mistakes due to which they make major financial mistakes.
Interviewer: Can you specify major mistakes?
Interviewee: The most common mistakes made by Canadians is not maintaining a proper
financial plan as without financial planning they are spending more than they
earn. Further, they do not appropriately consider their requirements and market
situation simultaneously. However, they also do not have insurance plan or have
wrong plans which will not provide them desired protection. Canadians also do
not make use of tax shelters due to which they are required to pay higher tax
charges4. Canadians also face high risk of debt crises and issues as they do not
allocate their funds properly and they abuse credit cards and the major mistake
they make is taking debt at higher interest rate. In this situation they need
expertise advice from financial advisors. Further they do not have any backup
plans for emergency and crises. They also not maintain a portfolio for themselves
regarding their savings and future.
Interviewer: From your working experience, what advice you will provide to Post secondary
students and average Canadians
3 Beyer, Max, David De Meza, and Diane Reyniers. "Do financial advisor commissions distort client
choice?." Economics Letters 119, no. 2 (2013): 117-119.
4 Gray, Wesley R., Jack R. Vogel, and David P. Foulke. DIY Financial Advisor: A Simple Solution to Build and
Protect Your Wealth. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.

Interviewee: As per my working experience; Post-secondary students and average Canadians
are required to consider following aspects in order to make improvement in their
financial outlook:
 Budget should be developed on regular basis to manage their financial
resources to achieve desired goals. These budgets must be developed by
considering realistic life goals instead of having hypothetical dreams5.
 Viable loans and credit cards should be used as per their financial status
and risk bearing strategies.
 Maintaining a balanced budget to ensure that they are not spending more
than their earnings.
 Backup plan must always be there for emergency and crises.
 There should be stability and balance in every financial aspect.
Interviewer: I will apply this strategies in my life and will recommend the same to my
acquaintances.
Interviewee: That would be great.
Interviewer: Thanks for your time. I will take leave now.
Interviewee: Happy to help you.
5 Heyman, Susanna, and Henrik Artman. "Computer support for financial advisors and their clients: Co-creating an
investment plan." In Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social
Computing, pp. 1313-1323. ACM, 2015.

REFERENCES
Beyer, Max, David De Meza, and Diane Reyniers. "Do financial advisor commissions distort
client choice?." Economics Letters 119, no. 2 (2013): 117-119.
Foerster, Stephen, Juhani Linnainmaa, Brian Melzer, and Alessandro Previtero. "The costs and
benefits of financial advice." In an Oxford-Harvard-Sloan Initiative on International
Comparative Household Finance conference (Mar 13-14). 2014.
Gray, Wesley R., Jack R. Vogel, and David P. Foulke. DIY Financial Advisor: A Simple Solution
to Build and Protect Your Wealth. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.
Heyman, Susanna, and Henrik Artman. "Computer support for financial advisors and their
clients: Co-creating an investment plan." In Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on
Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing, pp. 1313-1323. ACM, 2015.
Roberts-Lombard, Mornay, Estelle Van Tonder, Theunis Gert Pelser, and Jeremia Jesaia
Prinsloo. "The relationship between key variables and customer loyalty within the independent
financial advisor environment." The Retail and Marketing Review 10, no. 1 (2014): 25-42.