Career in financial planning?

I’m debating toward an “ol faithful” government job or a career as a financial planner. I’m graduating with a degree in financial planning in less than a year. I’ve always been interested in helping people with their finances. I’m a little worried about how difficult it will be to acquire new clients. I’m not agressive and don’t like bothering people. Also, what happens if the country goes in a recession while I’m trying to start out. I’m planning on living/working around Grand Rapids, Michigan or a close city that is about half the size. I’ve heard good and bad things about different firms, what do you think? I know that only I can decide which to do, but I would like some input from some current financial planners. Thanks! Also, with today’s online society, can you be a financial planner “on the side” part-time. Is there a way have all the necessary resources without being affiliated with a firm? I am a financial planner. The hours are long and yes, it is very difficult to acquire new clients. Most job opportunities are commission-only. If you do not go into this field with a sales mindset, you are not likely to make a great deal of money. I love what I do, and if I measure success in terms of how I have helped people, I am very successful indeed. But because I am not aggressive, not a sales-orientated person, and not willing to work 70 hours per week, I am not making as much money as I did before.

As a manager of a financial planning business you have two financial planners

As a manager of a financial planning business you have two financial planners, Phil and Francis. In an ?

As a manager of a financial planning business you have two financial planners, Phil and Francis. In an hour, Phil can produce either one financial statement or answer 8 phone calls, while Francis can either produce 4 financial statements or answer 10 phone calls. Does either person have an absolute advantage in producing both products? Should these two planners be self-sufficient (each producing statements and answering phones) or specialize? Be sure to show your work.
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How would you encourage women to become more involved in their financial planning?
Most Canadian women are disinterested and unprepared when it comes to planning their financial futures, according to a recent survey by TD Waterhouse. If that’s true, how would you suggest encouraging women to become more ‘invested’ in their personal finances? Read more: “Many Canadian women avoid financial planning: study”

I am strongly interested in behavioral finance and this question has bothered me for some time. In my personal experience there are four gaps. First, and this applies equally to men and women, it is boring to most people. If it were exciting, everyone would know how to do it. So there is a large issue with the form of financial education. It is one of the areas I have worked on, eliminating the yawn. However, and this comes from studies on engineering education rather than finance, it appears that women learn topics similar to finance differently than men and that to some extent the way it is taught triggers self selection bias out of the field of study. I believe much of the skills needed are taught by men for men, in a way that is cognitively valuable primarily to men. There is no intended bias at all, but I am pretty sure it exists. In my experience, many life skills natural to “women’s roles” should make them superior investors to men, but unless you are a truly good investor with a decent idea of the behavioral elements behind good investing, you won’t notice them. I wish I had many of my wife’s skills, my portfolio performance would probably improve. The second issue is that women seem to embrace variance less than men. I have read research on commercial loan outcomes between men and women and there is less variance among women borrowers, in outcomes, than men. This would imply that women prefer lower natural variation. This may be a gender bias, but it could also be a consumption bias instead. The consumption literature implies that people are “risk loving” in transaction size. That is the larger the transaction, the more risk they are willing to take. It is counter-intuitive and does have a rational explanation, but true. If female income is less than male income, then other things constant, should engage in smaller transactions. It is simple to engage in low variability transactions, go to a bank and open an account. It requires little emotional, personal or educational involvement and satisfies an underlying emotional need, or utility as us very boring economists would say. The trick around this is rather simple, education which changes how they feel about a future outcome over what they feel about the present state. I have long found that people will not change their behavior from cognitive education. You have to feel the change to do the change. Everyone prefers to maintain their own misconceptions of the world, than change them. Watch “A Private Universe,” by the Annenberg Foundation and you will see what I mean. Third, to be “invested” in your personal finances it must appeal to you. If it does not already appeal to you as a topic, then the things around the topic need to change. The regulatory structure of financial institutions is very cold and impersonal, providing clarity and little in terms of feelings. Banks, for example, are the only sales driven organization in the world that beg their customers to go away (use ATMs, online banking, debit cards, automatic payroll deposit). There are even banks in the United States that bill their customers to walk in the door. Pick up a Wall Street Journal and pick up Oprah’s magazine, they have about the same circulation, they do not have the same gender distribution of readers. We do not have natural social structures, magazines or institutions that approach the world interpersonally in the field of finance. Investment clubs, unfortunately, are poor substitutes for professionally organized equivalents and the statutory structure limits what can exist. I have been working on curiculum to do just this, but it is still in its infancy in many respects and there hasn’t been an objective test to see if it matters either, other than student evaluations at the end of the semester. Finally, really talking about financial planning means talking about potential death, illness, disability, disease and loss. No one likes this, but in many respects women should have an advantage here. Women, more often, are the caregivers in a family and the well being of the family is of deep concern. While this should motivate engaging oneself in this issue, the day to day experience of maintaining a family is exhausting and so passing over this responsibility to a husband or boyfriend permits rest. It takes energy to engage and children love sapping your energy. So, remove the yawn, specify behaviors so they can feel the change, present in a way the audience needs it presented, permit a reordering of topics from how it is normally presented, play to natural strengths, and put it in either a social structure that is natural in groups of women, or in small bites so that it can be consumed between the time when one child takes another’s toy and scream for the referee and when the children notice they are hungry.

How does a pension plan work?

When you work in a company and they have a pension plan, how does it work? Could someone explain it with numbers as example, e.g. I earn this amount per month, so I would get this amount per month when I retire? Thank you. the few existing company pension plan furnish are arrange so the employee gets xx number of dollars for each year work and they have to work for a set amount of years before they are entitle to the plan — bad thing about the plan is most do not have a cost of living link and so if you start out receiving 600 twenty years later you will still be receiving 600 dollars!!! What resourses are available to figure how much of a 401k contribution it would take to replace a pension plan What resourses are available to figure how much of a 401k contribution from the company it would take to replace a defined benefit pension plan ? In other words, you want to know how much is the stream of payments worth today in a lump sum. This is a really simple calculator that can tell you what that stream of payments is worth as a lump sum. If the stream of payments was going to be for lifetime, you would have to know what age their actuarials came up with for their calculation. I hope this helps. Good luck. Which is the best pension plan available in Indian Life Insurance Market. Please mention the company & the pla? I am 26. Want to invest minimum 10k to 12k a year for 30 years in a pension plan. Which company has the best product in this product segment.

Stick to a financial plan

Seriously, how do you stick to a financial plan?

This question is for those who are financially worry-free. I don’t mean wealthy people or those who don’t take care of their own finances. I mean people who are working, raising families, and yet on top of their financial situation. I am married with 2 young sons. What we make in take home pay covers well over our usual bills. Groceries and gas are budgeted, but a little looser. Saving money seems like a joke.

I budget out our finances to the point I get obsessed with it. It doesn’t seem to matter how much out of debt we get, we can always find some place to use the extra money instead of using it to pay off another debt. I’m really frustrated because I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. Why can I figure it on paper, but can’t make it happen? I write out a meal plan for an entire month and stick to it very closely, we don’t eat out, and we don’t go out. Because of our situation, I really worry about how my sons will learn to manage finances. Give me a clue!

It’s hard. I know what you’re going through because this is what I teach people for a living so I’ve heard every story you could possibly imagine about finances. Have you done a detailed tracking of where your money is going? If not, both you and hubby need to write down every penny you spend for the next month. Put it into an excel spreadsheet and categorize it.

See if you can figure out where the money it going. Additionally, here are some suggestions I have for you:

1 – you need to sit down with your family, including your kids (get them involved in family finances early), and figure out what your family’s financial goals are. Make a list of them, prioritize them, assign due dates and come up with a plan on how to meet them. Then implement your plan. 2 – make everything automatic. On the day you get paid, set up automatic payments to your credit cards, loans, savings accounts, retirement accounts, etc. Everything that you want to pay towards should come out of your account the day you get the money. Whatever left after you pay towards all of that is how much you have to spend that month. 3 – tracking every penny will make you insane. Instead, implement #2, set aside your grocery money and then the rest is fair game. 4 – give yourself an allowance. You and hubby both get $X/month to spend on whatever you want. Once that’s gone you’re done. No robbing peter to pay paul. When the money’s gone you’re done. You and your husband should both read Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach. It will make you take a look at your relationship with money and give you tips on how to make it work. You can do this. You just need to get control of where your money is going.

How to … find a financial planner

In the past, relatively unqualified people could set themselves up as financial advisers – and live off the high commissions many of their products delivered. But regulations have been tightened, and the industry now boasts a growing body of well-qualified professionals. This week, in our series on how to manage your money, we show you where to find one. Just as you would use a map for directions on how to get somewhere, you should have a financial plan to make sure that your financial affairs are in order and your financial needs can be met. However, a plan or map by itself is not nearly as handy as one that is implemented on an ongoing basis with the assistance of a guide, and your financial planner can be your guide. Financial planners come from varying backgrounds and operate in many different ways. It is critical, when choosing the right planner for your circumstances, to find out exactly who you are dealing with, whether they are qualified and licensed, where their field of expertise lies, and which institutions they are authorised to represent. You can use either an independent financial planner or a planner who is affiliated to a financial services company. A planner affiliated to a financial services company will be able to advise you only about products from that company whereas someone who operates independently is in a position to give you objective advice and can draw on investment and risk cover solutions from a range of financial institutions. Until some years ago there were no legislative requirements for financial planners, and many brokers or product-peddlers claimed to fulfil the services of financial planners – to the detriment of their clients. However, this scenario changed in 2002, with the implementation of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act, which introduced minimum qualifications and operational requirements as well as a code of conduct for financial planners. Anyone practising in this field has to, in terms of the FAIS Act, have a licence issued by the Financial Services Board to operate as a financial services provider (FSP). Sometimes, you will find that a company holds an FSP licence. The FSP will employ both representatives and “key individuals”, who must ensure that all the representatives are fully aware of the requirements of the FAIS Act.

PNB Launches Global Gold and Global Classic Credit Card

Expanding its product portfolio, the country’s second largest public sector lender, Punjab National Bank, has launched a global credit card.

“To start with we are launching two varieties of credit cards– Global Gold and Global Classic, which will meet the needs of its customers and will cater to the requirement of different income groups, “PNB Chairman K C Chakrabarty said yesterday during the commercial launch of the cards.

He said, the bank had done soft launch in November but with the commercial launch it would be available across 1,200 branches of the bank across the country. The card would be initially offered to existing customers of the bank, he said.

With VISA as a payment gateway, the card will be accepted in over 29 million merchant establishments and a million ATMs across the worldwide. The fully loaded photo credit card comes with a host of features like free credit period of up to 50 days, no annual fee and attractive reward points.

HDFC Bank surpasses ICICI Bank in terms of branch network

The country’s second largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank, which added 658 branches in 2008, has pipped ICICI Bank in terms of branch network.

As per the information available on its Website, HDFC Bank has a nationwide network of 1,412 branches spread across 528 towns and cities. At the same time, ICICI Bank, the largest player in terms of asset and market capitalization, has a network of 1,400 branches.

ICICI Bank has already got permission to open another 587 branches, a spokesperson of the bank said.

HDFC Bank has almost doubled its branch network last year through organic as well as inorganic growth route.

Last year, the Mumbai-based bank acquired Centurion Bank of Punjab leading to the integration of 404 branches, while it opened 254 new branches of its own during the year.

The bank also opened its first overseas branch in Bahrain during the year to provide trade financing to corporate clients and wealth management services for NRIs.

Financial Services Advertising budget dropped

The ongoing downturn has forced firms to cut back on advertising expenses. The banking, financial services and insurance segment (BFSI) has cut advertising budgets by nearly 40 per cent.

An analysis of AdEx data, a comparison of the volume growth over the June-October period in 2007 with the corresponding period in 2008 , shows that bank advertising on TV decreased by 3 per cent, advertising for loans went down by 39 per cent and mutual fund advertising was down 84 per cent.

However, insurance grew by 74 per cent. So the decrease in advertising spend from the financial sector is countered to an extent by the insurance advertising increase to some extent.
BFSI sector contributes 5 per cent to the total advertising on TV. This financial year the estimated contribution is 350 crore.
Insurance has seen a drop in sales from 70-80 per cent to 30-40 per cent in the last quarter, but it hasn’t deterred companies’ spend on advertising. Debashis Sarkar, senior director and CMO, Max New York Life, says: “Insurance is a need rather than investment. Who can do without financial planning? In a downturn, while advertising is the first thing to bear the brunt, I believe otherwise. Brand building is a strategic investment.” Max’s advertising budget for this year is around Rs 60 crore.
Insurance sector advertising is growing for a host of reasons. Three new players entered have the sector this year: AEGON Religare, Sahara India Life Insurance and Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance.
Chandradeep Mitra, president and head, Mudra MAX (media buying arm), Mudra, says: “Earlier insurance companies used to advertise in the tax saving period of January to March. Now the ads run throughout the year. Companies have also added a slew of new products.”
Sarkar adds: “Tax-saving period does not need advertising, it just requires a more aggressive sales force. Advertising is done to attract people ltowards real saving from a long term perspective.”
Max alone contributed half of the total insurance advertising on TV, which is a very unusual spend from an insurance company. Max was the exclusive telecast sponsor of the IPL.
Sujit Ganguly, senior vice-president and head-marketing, ICICI Prudential, says: “For us the trend is not new. We have always been communicating that insurance is not a tax saving tool, it’s a long-term saving goal. On the back of strong advertising, we have reached a market share of 13.5 per cent from the last year’s 12.7 per cent. Our advertising budget is intact this year.”

SBI Q2 profit grows by 40 per cent

Beating projections, India’s leading financial conglomerate State Bank of India has posted 40 per cent growth in net profit for the second quarter of this fiscal on high interest income.

Crediting the good numbers to income from high interest rates and fee-based income, SBI Chairman O P Bhatt said bank has been giving good returns consistently in the last 5-6 quarters and growth has beaten projections by analysts.

SBI has posted a net profit of Rs 2,259.72 crore for the quarter, a growth of 40 per cent against 36 per cent in the same quarter a year ago. The bank’s profit in the September quarter last year stood at Rs 1,611.42 crore.

The total income rose to Rs 17,909.64 crore in the second quarter from Rs 13,658.22 crore a year ago, an increase of 31 per cent.

The bank registered a deposit growth of 67.93 per cent at Rs 57,861 crore. Its current and savings account (CASA) ratio was up by 26 basis points to 39.71 per cent. Advances of the bank grew by 162.35 per cent to Rs 51,020 crore.

Return on assets was flat at 0.99 per cent, while return on equity was at 14.64 per cent at the end of September 2008.

Besides, home loans grew by 23.47 per cent, auto loans by 30.48 per cent and education loan by 43.81 per cent.

Submit KYC details to avoid account freeze: SBI

Country’s largest lender State Bank of India on Thursday asked its customers to immediately comply with the Know-Your-Customer guidelines, failing which their accounts would be freezed.

“All account holders of the bank who have not yet complied with the KYC guidelines are hereby requested to make their accounts KYC compliant by contacting their home branches and completing the required documentation latest by October 31,” SBI said in a notice.

As per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 and the direction given by RBI, all customers are required to comply with KYC guidelines.

Banks were advised to follow certain customer identification procedures for opening of accounts and monitoring of transactions of suspicious nature by the RBI in context of the recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force on Anti-Money Laundering standards and on Combating Financing of Terrorism.

Failing to comply with the guidelines would result in freezing of account operations, it said.

“Several account holders have still not submitted local address and identity proofs, thereby violating the KYC guidelines issued by the apex bank on account opening,” a senior SBI official said.

Despite repeated reminders sent by the bank through registered and regular posts to such customers, there has not been any response yet and it seems they are not interested in operating the accounts, he said.

It is a final notice after which the accounts would be freezed, the official added.

The largest bank having a branch network of about 10,400 has over 13 crore customers.