As a consumer standpoint, my question to you is, are you going to treat this as a career or a part time job? Ask yourself truthfully. In fact, I always ask the FAs I meet about this before we start our convo.
I would say getting certified is not difficult. As you mentioned, you have many friends in the industry. Likewise I have alot of friends as FAs too. Some of them are going through the course now.
However, the sad truth is that some people dont treat this seriously as a career and they are the ones that tarnished the name of FAs. Honestly, ask yourself, you see those FA at MRT stations, roadshows, IT shows, do you even bother to stop and listen to them? Did you see anyone voluntarily walking up to them and talk to them? People avoid them like enemies. They do hard-selling for commissions and pushing products to consumer without proper analysis and considerations.
Because of those black sheep, people lose trusts in FAs. When I was young, I was one of the victims too. They sold me the typical Insurance Saving Plan (aka Endowment Plans) without full information of the policy. They only talked about the good stuffs but not the fine prints that consumer should take note of.
I am not against FAs at all. In fact, I felt that they play a very important role in everyone's life. They help to spread the knowledge of financial planning and help people to ensure that they are well protected and adequately insured.
On side note, those senior FAs on this platform are really kind and helpful FAs. They are truly ethical and I would 200% recommend them to anyone I meet that requires proper financial planning.
As a consumer standpoint, my question to you is, are you going to treat this as a career or a part time job? Ask yourself truthfully. In fact, I always ask the FAs I meet about this before we start our convo.
I would say getting certified is not difficult. As you mentioned, you have many friends in the industry. Likewise I have alot of friends as FAs too. Some of them are going through the course now.
However, the sad truth is that some people dont treat this seriously as a career and they are the ones that tarnished the name of FAs. Honestly, ask yourself, you see those FA at MRT stations, roadshows, IT shows, do you even bother to stop and listen to them? Did you see anyone voluntarily walking up to them and talk to them? People avoid them like enemies. They do hard-selling for commissions and pushing products to consumer without proper analysis and considerations.
Because of those black sheep, people lose trusts in FAs. When I was young, I was one of the victims too. They sold me the typical Insurance Saving Plan (aka Endowment Plans) without full information of the policy. They only talked about the good stuffs but not the fine prints that consumer should take note of.
I am not against FAs at all. In fact, I felt that they play a very important role in everyone's life. They help to spread the knowledge of financial planning and help people to ensure that they are well protected and adequately insured.
On side note, those senior FAs on this platform are really kind and helpful FAs. They are truly ethical and I would 200% recommend them to anyone I meet that requires proper financial planning.