Training to Be IFA

[stc_bennett]

I was thinking of a career change, is anyone here a IFA??

I have been looking through the CII website and the FPC course to start off with, then to go onto the AFPC and onwards over the years. has anyone done this and made a success out of this???

I am good at finacial managment and interested in finance etc.

I would not get qualified till next year Summer time would this be time well spent bit bored with current job and fancy a change.

Steve

I will be keeping my other business going but i will be doing the admin/managment employing others to do the rest

[kojak69]

I started in the industry in 1988, after being fed up with engineering. Worked for a large insurance company as a financial consultant,until redundancy in 2001. Then went as an IFA. Have I made it pay? Yes. I've not looked back. However, the good days have gone. You are now in the 1% world where everything is low charges and low commission. Dont get me wrong, some contracts do pay well, but a lot dont. You can charge fees which is fine if you'll be dealing with high net worth clients.
You are also heavily regulated, and I mean heavily regulated. Compliance is a big thing. There's also a lot of costs involved, indemnity premiums with big excesses if you give bad advice.
You've also got to look at lead generation. I'm lucky because I know a lot of clients that I used to look after when tied to a company. If you can get professional conections such as accounts, great, but that doesn't happen easily, if fact rarely.
As I said earlier, i've made it pay, but I had a good grounding.
Would I recommend it? Maybe. But it will not be easy, and theres a lot of crap to put up with. Might be an idea to get a grounding working for a company to start of with, although times are different to when I started.
Good luck whatever you decide.

[ginettag27]

stc send me an e-mail and I'll put you in touch with someone..

[suffolkfox]

stc, if you are still looking at this, I am a partner in an IFA practice and AFPC training consultant (G10,20,30,60,etc,etc ((sad technical g1t))). email me off-line and you can call & chat if you want.