Will Consider Great Sales People & Recent College Grads

When I think of the qualities of a good financial advisor the first two things that come to my mind are that they should be great sales people and youthful…said no serious person ever. Yet, in a recent advertisement for a Financial Advisor for a Texas based 403(b) and 457(b) program, Voya Financial Advisors is excited to proclaim that they “Will consider great sales people and recent college grads!”. Yes, they used an exclamation point.

Here is the ad:

This position puts the winning candidate into a situation where she/he will be educating higher education professors and employees on their 403(b) and 457(b) plans. They'll also be "counseling" them on retirement and investments. You'll notice that the skills that a qualified candidate are expected to have actually have nothing to do with the skills that a good financial advisor should have and their is no real competency requirements. While they accept recent college grads, no degree seems to be required. No Certified Financial Planner designation is required, in fact no real background in financial services is needed. I'm unclear how having "access to the Voya brand" qualifies as a skill (if it does, then only existing Voya people could apply...).

If you were to make a list of qualities and competencies a financial advisor should have before working one-on-one with participants, would any of the above make your list?

I'm a Certified Financial Planner, I have a Masters Degree in Financial Planning and I've been working in financial services for over 20 years. I'm a Financial Advisor. Does it make sense to you that the person who gets hired for the above position has the same title?

Something is wrong with this picture folks.

We should expect higher qualifications for people who are dealing with our money.

Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF

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