Career Information, Company Profiles and Contacts

How to Become A Successful Financial Consultant

by Jim Ainsworth

Jim Ainsworth is an extremely successful financial planning professional with more than 30 years in the business. In How to Become a Successful Financial Consultant, he tells you everything you need to know to move into financial consulting. He familiarizes you with all the types of planning that financial consultants deal with, as well as the various investment vehicles.

Vault Career Guide to Private Wealth Management

by John Ransom

The Vault Career Guide to Private Wealth Management takes you inside the industry to make sure you can land the job you want. It covers the basics of equity and fixed income products to market and regulatory trends, and dissects career paths and job responsibilities at the both large and small firms.

Tested in the Trenches: A 9-Step Plan for Building and Sustaining a Million-Dollar Financial Services Practice

by Ron Carson and Steve Sanduski

With more than one million financial services practitioners in the United States and Canada, competition for clients can be intense. While some professionals believe that working furiously around the clock at the expense of a personal life is the route to success, top-producing industry veterans Ron Carson and Steve Sanduski disagree. They believe that financial services is a commodity business, and as such, that performing better, delivering better financial plans, or having access to certain products doesn’t differentiate advisors effectively. Rather, differentiating through service, brand and relationship is the only sustainable way advisors can compete.

Storyselling for Financial Advisors: How Top Producers Sell

by Scott West

Using similes, metaphors, anecdotes, illustrations, and asking open-ended questions, then really listening to clients' stories, histories and backgrounds can elicit valuable information. Highly persuasive individuals and many of the top financial professionals use this communication style intuitively, making deep human connections with their clients. From this deeper understanding, they are better able to serve clients' financial needs--and sell more effectively in the process.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Personal Financial Planner

by John Napolitano

Financial planning is one of the fastest growing careers in America today. Written by a veteran certified financial planning expert, this valuable book tells aspiring and new CFPs everything you need to know about the certification process, setting up private practice, self-marketing techniques, client management and expansion, and much more.

So You Want to Become a Financial Planner: Your Guide to a New Careers

By Nancy Langdon Jones.

A comprehensive step-by-step process for launching your career as a financial planner.

Careers in Asset Management and Retail Brokerage

By Wetfeet

Find out more about the world of asset management and retail brokerage by reading this guide! Learn about: (i) who the major players are and how they're doing; (ii) what the typical jobs entail and what you need to know to snag one, (iii) what the lifestyle is like, and what kind of money is involved, (iv) what the pros and cons of getting into this industry are and (v) what questions to ask during your interviews

Getting Started as a Financial Planner

By Jeffrey Rattiner

If you are trained and ready with the know-how and skills to be a financial planner, but could use some help getting your professional practice together, here's the book you need.

Questions Great Financial Advisors Ask... and Investors Need to Know

By Alan Parisse and David Richman

Global Private Banking and Wealth Management: The New Realities

By David Maude

The Million-Dollar Financial Services Practice: A Proven System for Becoming a Top Producer

By David Mullen

Advisor for Life: Become the Financial Advisor to Affluent Families

By Stephen Gresham

Bloomberg

A financial information station that is increasingly appearing in good business schools. Check out the jobs section to obtain listings of hundreds of current jobs in finance (mostly investment banking). A great and current resource.

Organizations

Financial Planning Association

Works with the Certified Financial Planner designation.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards

Promotes the CFP and associated ethical standards.

Investment Management Consultants Association

National Association of Personal Financial Advisors

Association for fee-only personal financial planning.

Join the Financial Planner Alliance on LinkedIn

Good Information

Ideas and Know-How

Understanding Wall Street

by Jeffrey Little

SEC Guide to Financial Planners

Beating the Street

By Peter Lynch, Simon and Schuster.

This book by one of the leading investors of our time gives a good overview of what investing is all about and approaches that individuals can take. A good, educational read.

Best Practices for Financial Advisors (Bloomberg Professional Library)

By Mary Rowland and Michael R. Bloomberg. Mary Rowland has distilled the experience of an elite group of 55 financial advisors into a compact handbook on excellence for planners of all kinds. Anyone managing money-fee-based planners, brokers, trust officers, attorneys, accountants-will reap scores of valuable tips and recommendations from 55 professionals considered by their peers to be among the best in the business. Based on hundreds of hours of group discussions among these top performers, Best Practices For Financial Advisors lays out practical steps for improving business quality, efficiency, and volume.

When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change

By Mohamed El-Erian.(Head of PIMCO)

"This book is an essential read for those who wish to understand the modern world of investing." - Alan Greenspan

Winner of the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award

When Markets Collide is a timely alert to the fundamental changes taking place in today's global economic and financial systems--and a call to action for investors who may fall victim to misinterpreting important signals. While some have tended to view asset class mispricings as mere "noise," this compelling book shows why they are important signals of opportunities and risks that will shape the market for years to come. One of today's most respected names in finance, Mohamed El-Erian puts recent events in their proper context, giving you the tools that can help you interpret the markets, benefit from global economic change, and navigate the risks.

Mutual Fund Industry Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Investment Professionals

By Lee Gremillion.

This book focuses on open end funds, and gives you a comprehensive inside look at the mutual fund industry, including real-life examples of how specific functions are performed at various firms. You'll explore industry history and structure, investment management, portfolio operations, accounting, auditing, legal compliance, customer service, distribution, globalization, and e-commerce. You'll also learn about the cost of various mutual fund operations—both to the fund companies and to investors.

Finance and Investment Handbook

The New York Times Dictionary of Money and Investing

Essentials of Investments

By Zvi Bodie, Alex Kane and Alan Marcus.

This popular textbook explains investments, money management and performance evaluation. If you haven't read a book like this yet and the interview is approaching, now is a great time to start.

The Intelligent Investor

By Benjamin Graham, 1949, Harper & Row. An investing classic by one of the greats describes a value investment approach which inspired Warren Buffett. Pick stocks with low price-earnings ratios and solid business prospects and you've got a winner is the message.

Random Walk Down Wall Street

By Burton Malkiel.

here is the best-selling, authoritative, and gimmick-free guide to investing. Burton Malkiel evaluates the full range of investment opportunities, from stocks, bonds, and money markets to real estate investment trusts and insurance, home ownership, and tangible assets such as gold and collectibles. This edition includes new strategies for rearranging your portfolio for retirement, along with the book’s classic life-cycle guide to investing, which matches the needs of investors in any age bracket.

The Battle for Wall Street: Behind the Lines in the Struggle that Pushed an Industry into Turmoil

By Richard Goldberg.

The Battle for Wall Street follows the struggle for power between two giants: the sellers, traditional commercial and investments banks; and the buyers, upstart hedge funds, private equity firms and the like. The battle is about winning the hearts, minds, and – yes, the wallets – of global investors. This battle is still running its course, and with the insights of industry veteran Richard Goldberg, who has had a front row seat, readers will gain a detailed understanding as to what, exactly, is going on within this dynamic arena, specifically the forces behind the shift of power from the old sell side gatekeepers to the new buy side players.

Capital Ideas Evolving

By Peter Bernstein.

A lucid explanation of the modern theory of finance, the people behind it and the attacks that have arisen in recent years.

Bill Sharpe's Home Page

Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Has a textbook in development on Macro-Investment Analysis which would be good reading for anyone interested in money management.

Wealth Management: The Financial Advisor's Guide to Investing and Managing Your Client Assets

By Harold Evensky, Irwin Professional Publishing. "Harold's diligent and scholarly approach to investing theory makes Wealth Management a thoughtful book that should be on every advisor's reading list."-Charles R. Schwab, Chairman & CEO, The Charles Schwab Corporation. Wealth Management outlines the current state-of-the-art in financial planning, and describes respected financial planning speaker and author Harold Evensky's effective, optimal asset allocation policy that is designed to account for each client's unique goals and constraints. It provides you with concise yet thorough information on current investment theories, along with an overview of running a business.