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RECRUITMENT GUIDE

Financial Planner

Financial planners help clients and businesses to implement strategies to help them achieve their financial goals. Through analysis of income and expenses, financial planners set realistic and effective strategies to help clients effectively manage their financial objectives. Their job is to examine all impacting factors, and help clients to reach both short and long term goals.

A financial planner can specialize in different areas, but ultimately must always act in the clients best interest, and never try to advise strategies that benefit themselves, instead of the client. Financial planners can help advise clients on budgeting tactics, tax, retirement planning, insurance, super, investments and much more.

Day-to-day tasks of this role:

  • Organise and schedule meetings with clients.
  • Inform clients about options and risks.
  • Research and implement the best saving/investment plans.
  • Make recommendations about how the client can reach their goals.
  • Monitor clients actions to see how well they are sticking to their plans.

Recruitment Process

UNDERSTAND THE ROLE

Skills profile for a Financial Planner

A financial planner will need to obtain a Bachelor degree in either accounting, economics and finance, mathematics, or business before being hired in a firm. Some organisations may also require employees to have previous industry experience, or to have completed a relevant internship. It is also sometimes required that employees have certifications and licences from the Financial Planning Association of Australia. There are some common skills required for this position.

A financial planner will need to have excellent relationship management skills. They must develop strong relationships with clients to ensure they establish trust, and have an open, communicative relationship to ensure clients are transparent about their financial position. They must also build relationships with other professionals such as real estate agents, solicitors, banks and valuers to be able to provide the best advice possible to clients.

It is also essential that a financial planner has strong communication skills. They need to have the ability to clearly communicate trends and recommendations to clients without jargon, and answer any questions in a clear and articulate manner. They must be prompt when responding to clients and other stakeholders, and be transparent and informative when doing so.

Financial planners must also be very analytical. They must be able to look at a large amount of information and decipher what is and is not important to make decisions, and also analyse client’s financial positions, goals and market trends to make recommendations. They must be able to analyse their own performance to help with future clients and learn what strategies work, and what do not.

Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. ​

SOURCE APPLICANTS

Financial Planner Job Description

Summary:

  • Why is this role being filled?
  • How does this role fit into the organization and the team?
  • What makes your company unique?
  • What would it be like to work for you?

Requirements:

  • What technical skills are needed for this role?
  • Which soft skills are applicable?
  • What are the nice-to-have experiences of your ideal candidate?
  • Include availability preferences in this section

Responsibilities:

  • What are the key deliverables for this role?
  • What does the day-to-day of this role look like?

Benefits:

  • Compensation & bonuses
  • Employee benefits & perks
  • Ongoing training benefits

PRO TIP #1
Many financial planners tend to specialise in specific areas such as superannuation, debt management, tax planning, etc. It is important that you specify in the job application if you are looking to hire a specialised financial planner in one of these areas. This will help to ensure everybody who is applying is aware of the scope of the role, and the business can ensure they are hiring the candidate who is best fit.

PRO TIP #2
Ensure that the entire recruitment process from job description to assessment to interview reiterates your company vision and values. This will help you identify the right people for the role, and applicants will know whether your company is the right fit for them.

SKILL ASSESSMENT

Sample skills assessment

Financial planner 1
Question 1

Analytical

Question Type: Document

What information do you consider when looking at a client’s financial position? Why? Please outline this in the document below.

Financial planner 2
Question 2
Communication
Question Type: Text

Describe a situation where you have had to communicate an unpopular message. How did you go about this?

Financial planner 3
Question 3
Relationship Management
Question Type: Video

How would you manage a relationship with a client who fails to listen or take your professional advice?

INTERVIEW

Interview guide for a Financial Planner

Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The PDF interview guide contains structured questions against each of the competencies for this role.

This interview guide is intended to be used in conjunction with the Vervoe skills assessment. Where a candidate has scored Low – Medium on a skill, focus on asking more questions from that skill to gain deeper insight into their level of competency.

PDF INTERVIEW GUIDE
Get your copy of the  interview guide to complete the hiring process. Includes questions against each of the skill competencies for the role.

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