Everything you need to know to succeed in today's fastest growingsector of the consulting market. Jim Ainsworth is an extremely successful financial planningprofessional with more than 30 years in the business. In How toBecome a Successful Financial Consultant, he tells you everythingyou need to know to move into financial consulting. He familiarizesyou with all the types of planning that financial consultants dealwith, as well as the various investment vehicles. And, based on hisown experiences and those of other successful financial consultantsacross the nation, he supplies you with a proven blueprint forsuccess. You get expert advice, guidance, and insiders' tips on howto: * Get the education, experience, and licensing you need to qualify. * Get certified (and whether you need to). * Develop a surefire success plan. * Set up a practice and attract clients. * Network, market, and sell your services. * Set fees and collect other forms of compensation for yourservices. * Avoid the 10 most common mistakes that beginners make. * Get the most out of meetings and professional conferences. Written by Jim Ainsworth, a financial planning professional with 30years in the business, this valuable guide provides professionalsinterested in making the move into financial consulting witheverything they need to know to make a living investing otherpeople's money. Drawing on his personal experiences and those of colleagues acrossNorth America, Ainsworth covers all the bases. He begins bydescribing the three major groups of financial planners and theseven different styles of asset management and helps you to decidewhich is right for you. You find out all about the various types offinancial planning that most consultants deal with--includingestate planning, retirement planning, and family financialplanning--and the best investment vehicles currentlyavailable. Ainsworth then cuts to the chase and provides the nuts-and-boltsinformation you need to make it as a financial adviser. Writing ina down-to-earth style, he tells you what type of education andexperience you need to become an effective financial consultant,how to become licensed, how to get started in business, how to setfees and receive compensation, how to market your services andpromote different financial instruments, and much more. He showsyou how to develop a surefire success plan, and he supplies expertadvice and guidance on how to avoid the top 10 beginners'mistakes. Throughout this book, Ainsworth advocates taking a holisticapproach to financial planning--one that takes into considerationnot just people's differing needs, but their contrasting attitudesabout money and investments. To that end, he provides insightfulprofiles of the different types of "money personalities" in thefinancial world and shows you how to identify and successfully workwith each type. How to Become a Successful Financial Consultant is your completeguide to making it in today's fastest growing sector of theconsulting market.

A must-have reference for financial advisors In step-by-step detail, Success as a Financial Advisor For Dummies covers how a current or would-be financial advisor can maximize their professional success through a series of behaviors, activities, and specific client-centric value propositions. In a time when federal regulators are changing the landscape on the standard of care that financial services clients should expect from their advisors, this book affords professionals insight on how they can be evolving their practices to align with the regulatory and technological trends currently underway. Inside, you’ll find out how a financial advisor can be a true fiduciary, how to compete against the growing field of robo-advisors, and how the passive investing trend is actually all about being an active investor. Additionally, you’ll discover time-tested advice on building and focusing on client relationships, having a top advisor mindset, and much more. Master the seven core competencies Attract and win new business Pick the right clients Benchmark your performance Start your own firm Brimming with practical expert advice, Success as a Financial Advisor For Dummies is a priceless success tool for any wannabe or experienced financial advisor.

Identify mistakes standing in the way of investment success With so much at stake in investing and wealth management, investors cannot afford to keep repeating actions that could have serious negative consequences for their financial goals. The Five Mistakes Every Investor Makes and How to Avoid Them focuses on what investors do wrong so often so they can set themselves on the right path to success. In this comprehensive reference, readers learn to navigate the ever-changing variables and market dilemmas that often make investing a risky and daunting endeavor. Well-known and respected author Peter Mallouk shares useful investment techniques, discusses the importance of disciplined investment management, and pinpoints common, avoidable mistakes made by professional and everyday investors alike. Designed to provide a workable, sensible framework for investors, The Five Mistakes Every Investor Makes and How to Avoid Them encourages investors to refrain from certain negative actions, such as fighting the market, misunderstanding performance, and letting one's biases and emotions get in the way of investing success. Details the major mistakes made by professional and everyday investors Highlights the strategies and mindset necessary for navigating ever-changing variables and market dilemmas Includes useful investment techniques and discusses the importance of discipline in investment management A reliable resource for investors who want to make more informed choices, this book steers readers away from past investment errors and guides them in the right direction.

Dave Ramsey explains those scriptural guidelines for handling money.

Over the past 40 years, Tom Stanley and his daughter Sarah Stanley Fallaw have been involved in research examining how self-made, economically successful Americans became that way. Despite the publication of The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Mind, and others, myths about wealth in American still abound. Government officials, journalists, and many American still tend to confuse income with wealth. A new generation of household financial managers are hearing from so-called experts in personal financial management due to the proliferation of the cottage industry of financial blogs, podcasts, and the like. In many cases, these outlets are simply experiences shared without science, case studies without data based on broader populations. Therefore, the authors decided to take another look at millionaires in the United States to examine what changes could be seen 20 years after the original publication of The Millionaire Next Door. In this book the authors highlight how specific decisions, behaviors, and characteristics align with the discipline of wealth building, covering areas such as consumption, budgeting, careers, investing, and financial management in general. They include results from quantitative studies of wealth as well as case studies of individuals who have been successful in building wealth. They discuss general paths to building wealth on your own, focusing specifically on careers and lifestyles associated with each path, and what it takes to be successful in each.

This book is going to challenge you and everything you think you know about succession planning. For independent advisors, succession planning is quickly becoming the cornerstone to a strategic growth strategy designed to perpetuate their business and their income streams beyond their own lifetime, while providing a multi-generational service platform that attracts and rewards younger advisors. This makes succession planning one of the most, if not the most, important practice management tools in this industry today. As an independent financial advisor, now is the time to address the question of what will happen to your practice and your clients after you “exit the building.” In most cases, the answers are right in front of you. Thankfully, Succession Planning for Financial Advisors: Building an Enduring Business has arrived to transform today’s practices into businesses designed to endure and prosper and serve generations of clients. Learn how to create a “Lifestyle Succession Plan” that can provide a lifetime of income and benefits to the founder even as he/she gradually retires on the job Unlock the power of equity management – the best planning and building tool an independent advisor owns Learn how to attract and retain the best of the next generation to help you build a great business and to support your succession plans and care for your clients and their families Determine precisely when to start a formal succession plan and related continuity plan so that your business can work for you when you need it most Understand why succession planning and selling your business are completely different strategies, but how they can complement each other when used correctly 95% of independent financial service professionals are one owner practices. To the positive, these practices are among the most valuable professional service models in America. But almost all advisors are assembling their practices using the wrong tools – tools borrowed from historically successful, but vastly different models including wirehouses, broker-dealers, and even OSJ’s and branch managers. Revenue sharing, commission splitting and other eat-what-you-kill compensation methods dominate the independent sector and virtually ensure that today’s independent practices, if left unchanged, will not survive the end of their founder’s career. It is time to change course and this book provides the map and the details to help you do just that. For independent practice owners and staff members, advisors who want to transition to independence, as well as accountants, attorneys, coaches and others involved in the financial services space, there are invaluable lessons to be learned from Succession Planning for Financial Advisors. Written by the leading succession planning expert in the financial services industry, former securities regulator, M&A specialist, and founder of the nationally recognized consulting and equity management firm, FP Transitions, David Grau Sr., JD, has created an unmatched resource that will have an enduring and resounding impact on an entire industry.

Financial planning is a young industry. The International Association of Financial Planning—one of the predecessors to the Financial Planning Association—was formed less than forty years ago. But as the profession's first tier of advisers reaches maturity, the decisions that may be part of transition planning for their firms loom large. A sale? A partner buyout? A merger? No matter what the choice, its viability hinges on one critical issue—the value of the firm. Unfortunately, many advisers--whether veteran or novice—simply don't know the worth of their practice or how to influence it. That's why How to Value, Buy, or Sell a Financial-Advisory Practice is such an important book. It takes advisers carefully through the logic and the legwork of coming to a true assessment of one of their most important personal assets—their business. Renowned for their years of experience helping advisers tackle the daunting challenges related to the valuation, sale, and purchase of advisory firms, Mark C. Tibergien and Owen Dahl offer guidance that's essential and solutions that work.