Certificate in Financial Planning: How to Build Wealth Strategically

When do you need a financial advisor?

A financial advisor, also known as a financial planner or certified financial consultant, is a professional who helps people and businesses manage their money so they can map out their future, including planning for retirement.

Some financial planners focus on specific financial services, such as retirement planning, while others offer a wide range of services depending on their clients’ needs.

Some of the tasks that financial advisors may undertake include the following:

• Plotting a long-term financial strategy for their clients
• Researching, identifying, and recommending good investment
• opportunities and managing investments. Studies show a quantifiable increase in return on investment for individuals with financial advisors
• Handling their clients’ financial matters, such as devising a tax plan, buying a house or car, taking out insurance, or saving for their kid’s college fund

Thus, financial planners can help people and businesses build and maintain wealth so they spend their money wisely and don’t make any expensive financial mistakes.

If you enjoy the financial environment but want to work in a more corporate setting, you can also consider accounting as a career path.

Understanding the Role of a Certificate in Financial Planning

Getting a Certificate in Financial Planning can help you become a financial planner and allow you to work with businesses and individuals. There are many reasons why people and companies would want to work with financial planners.

• The financial planning process: Financial planners help businesses and individuals with their financial planning processes and consider factors their clients may not. They consider everything from investment portfolios to expenses and insurance while complying with the latest regulations and laws.
• Setting goals and priorities: They help clients set realistic goals by looking at their financial information. They also determine which tasks must be prioritised for their clients to achieve the best financial outcome.
• Budgeting and income tracking: Financial advisors help their clients budget properly and track their income and expenses so they know exactly how much money is coming in and going out. This gives their clients a far better understanding of their financial situation and how they can approach it. After assessing their clients’ financial situations, they can advise a plan of action to build wealth.
• Implementation and monitoring of the plan: Lastly, they help clients implement their financial goals and monitor progress throughout the weeks and months to ensure everything goes according to plan. If they see a significant change in the market, they may advise their clients to take a different course of action. For example, if there’s a substantial shift in the investment market, financial advisors will notify their clients of the change and devise a different solution.

4 strategic ways a financial planner builds wealth

Financial planners can use the following strategies to build wealth for their clients.

1. Building wealth through investment

Financial advisors build wealth for their clients through investment by designing and managing investment portfolios on their behalf. They ensure these portfolios align with the client’s financial goals, timeframe, and risk tolerance.

They may advise their clients to invest in stocks, equities, bonds, real estate, etc. The process involves assessing the client’s financial situation, setting goals, allocating assets, selecting investment opportunities, and monitoring these investments.

It also ensures these investments are as efficient as possible regarding tax payments and overall cost management.

2. Wealth preservation

This strategy involves helping the client preserve and protect their wealth by safeguarding their existing assets and ensuring they remain intact over the long term.

This may involve several action plans, including:

• Asset protection: This involves implementing strategies to protect the client’s assets from various risks, such as market volatility, inflation, and health-related expenses.
• Estate planning: The financial planner helps clients create or update their estate plans to seamlessly transfer their assets to beneficiaries. This includes wills and trusts.
• Emergency fund: This involves having an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses or income disruptions. Having access to immediately available fees means clients can prevent taking funds out of their investment during times of crisis.

3. Risk management and insurance

Financial planners help clients build wealth through effective risk management and insurance that protects their assets from potential risks.

This process involves assessing risks and determining insurance needs based on these risks. Some insurance policies that financial advisors often recommend include health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, liability insurance, and property and casualty insurance.

Financial planners also do regular insurance reviews and cost-benefit analysis to ensure that insurance plans remain the best option for their clients.

4. Retirement planning

This involves pension fund considerations, including determining retirement goals and income needs and creating a retirement saving strategy. Some strategies that may be used include:

• Maximising the client’s retirement accounts
• Investing smartly to achieve post-retirement financial stability
• Doing tax planning to minimise taxes in retirement
• Coming up with a retirement income distribution plan

By following this plan, financial advisors help their clients create a comprehensive retirement plan that provides future financial stability and peace of mind.

Study financial planning with MANCOSA

There’s a growing need for financial advisors — for individuals and businesses alike. By pursuing a certified financial planner course online, you can specialise in a particular field or offer various services, significantly increasing your own income potential.

Look at our Advanced Certificate in Financial Planning or our Bachelor of Commerce in Financial Management to open doors to a career in financial planning.