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Financial adviser

Alternative titles for this job include Independent financial adviser

Financial advisers help people and organisations to choose investments, savings, pensions, mortgages and insurance products.

Average salary (a year)

£23,500 Starter

to

£90,000 Experienced

Typical hours (a week)

35 to 40 a week

You could work

evenings / weekends attending events or appointments

How to become a financial adviser

You can get into this job through:

  • a university course
  • an apprenticeship
  • working towards this role

University

You could start by doing a degree in:

  • financial services
  • business management
  • accountancy

Once you finish your course you could apply to join a financial services company or bank as a trainee adviser.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

  • 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree

More Information

Apprenticeship

You could do a financial adviser higher apprenticeship or a financial services professional degree apprenticeship.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

  • 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) and A levels, or equivalent, for a higher or degree apprenticeship

More Information

Work

You could start as a financial services administrator or customer services adviser in a bank and work your way up.

To do this, you'll need to study for a level 4 qualification in financial advice recognised by the Financial Conduct Authority. These include:

More Information

Registration

Further information

You can find more on working in financial services through The London Institute of Banking & Finance.

What it takes

Skills and knowledge

You'll need:

  • customer service skills for finding out customer needs
  • knowledge of economics and accounting for understanding financial markets and products
  • maths knowledge for creating financial plans
  • the ability to sell products and services
  • excellent verbal communication skills
  • active listening skills
  • business management skills for negotiating product rates
  • to be thorough and pay attention to detail
  • to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

Restrictions and Requirements

You'll need to:

What you'll do

Day-to-day tasks

As part of your day-to-day tasks, you could:

  • talk to clients about their finances and plans
  • research financial products and explaining them simply and clearly
  • negotiate with providers of financial products
  • produce financial reports
  • update clients about their investments
  • meet performance and sales targets
  • keep up to date with new products and law changes

Working environment

You could work in an office, from home, at a client's home or in a contact centre.

Career path and progression

If you work for a large financial organisation, you could specialise in one area of work like retirement planning. You could also move into management, recruiting and training new staff.

With further specialised professional qualifications, you could become a director or partner in your firm.

Another option is to move into compliance work, making sure your company is following industry guidelines.

Current opportunities

Apprenticeships In England

We can't find any apprenticeship vacancies in England for a financial adviser right now.

The Find an apprenticeship service can help you with your search, send alerts when new apprenticeships become available and has advice on how to apply.

Courses In England

Financial Services Certificate

  • Provider: COOPERS SCHOOL
  • Start date: 01 September 2021
  • Location: Chislehurst
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Jobs In the United Kingdom

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Speak to an adviser

Call 0800 100 900 or use webchat

  • 8am - 8pm Monday - Friday
  • 10am - 5pm Saturday

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