I have read your book <Practical Guide on Financial Planning>. I really love the book and find the information very useful and practical compare to many other books i have read. It is very simple to understand too. After reading the book, I have decided to seek your advice of asking you questions regarding about my upcoming career after my national service.
I have decided to go on sales career path and have the intention to become a property agent or an insurance agent. However, I am quite confuse now after reading your book as it makes me feel that a Finacial Planners or advisers are more like having a commision interest at heart rather than wanting to help the customer. May I ask, are most advisers more interested to earn commission rather than to help customers by buying the best product that suit them most.
Is it true that a property agent will earn more money than a successful financial planner? My interest has always been in sales and wanting to become an entrepreneur and run a business of my own in the future. I also have the interest in investment and business related issues. I feel that being an financial planner is the most suitable job for me based on my interest.
REPLY
You can be a financial planning and act ethically to sell the products that are good for consumers, and earn a modest amount of commission to make a living. It is up to you to decide on whether you wish to sell products to earn more commission or to sell the products that give the best long term value to customers.
A few countries have banned the payment of commission on financial products. Singapore may follow this trend in the future. Under the new system, the financial adviser will be paid a fee charged transparently to the consumer. This is like paying a fee to the doctor for medical advice. At that time, the conflict of interest will be removed.
It is also all right to be a property agent.
Wish you all the best in your career.
5 comments:
Don't become an insurance agent if you think it is a get rich quick scheme becuase you will end up like the rest of the salesmen or conmen and women. Anyway, it will be over soon when MAS removes commission from all financial products.
For those agents who stole from their trusting customers it will be pay back time too.The long arm of the law will catch up with them even they are in coffin if they have cheated their customers by unfair or unethical means or incompetent means.
as you have read from this blog, all participating policies and ilps are bad due to high costs, non transparency, unethical practices. suggest you sell the cheapest terms such as decreasing term or normal fixed term.
for healthcare, TKL has suggested Medishield (which you cannot sell but can advise) and for investment TKL suggested ETFs (which you cannot sell but can advise) due to low cost and high transparency. These are good products. Do that for 1 year and see how it goes.
You will be successful if you work hard enough because the products are good. If you are cannot make it, it is not because the products no good but maybe you have not put in the effort. If 1 year not enough, then do for another year. Success or not, it is up to you. Good luck.
Whether property or insurance agent, the most important skill is selling. just because u set up shop does not mean people will come banging your door rushing to buy from you. you need to learn to approach people to sell them your product and services.
For insurance selling, a few tried and tested ways:
from most difficult to easiest:
1. calling from all your friends and relatives
2. going for roadshows or staying outside mrt stations to do surveys
3. buying phonebooks to make calls, and making door to door, shop to shop, calling on people.
With the right products such as decreasing term insurance, medishield and ETFs, a sincere attitude to help many people who are underinsured, and a persistent and entrepreneur mindset, never give up, you will go far.
Frankly, if your intention is to earn good money, then going into insurance, financial planning, financial advisory or real estate sales will only turn you into pushing for commission. Why? Because you will end up discovering that it is damn hard to get interested customers, and after spending hours or even days explaining to them, teaching them, guiding them, calculating & analysing their needs, you have to decide if you want to earn $1000-$2000 upfront commission, or $200 in advisory fees? If you think you can charge $1000-$2000 in advisory fees, then even harder to get interested customers in the 1st place. You need to target higher income and/or high net-worth people. What makes you think you can provide value-add to them? What proof do you have? You need to answer these questions truthfully.
And before you even close a single case, you will have incurred hundreds of dollars already --- for your own food, transport, utilities, rental/mortgage, daily living, advertising and marketing for clients etc.
At the end of the day, can you advise customers to go for group term insurance, ETFs, CPF Life, Dependents Protection Scheme, CPF Home Protection Scheme, HDB Fire Insurance, Medishield etc. ALL of which you get ZERO commission, while the ah beng consultant next to you gets $2000 commission for sweet-talking a customer and treating him to dim-sum lunch plus giving back $200 as "thank you ang bao"?
My advice to you is not to join the insurance industry if you have values becuase soon you have to flush them in the toilet whenever you leave your home to push and peddle those useless products to your victims. The once good value cooperative company now become a social enterprise is a leading company in this respect. Join this company at your perils. You will be cursed day and night and the bad and evil karma will be stacked so high that you are condemned to 18 level hell.Lately many of them are paying it back. Retribution has come that many of their loved ones died one after the other.
So don't join for the sake of your family.
Anyway, commission will be banned soon and it will be another struggle for you. No way you can give good advice when you are not qualified. Those tikam tikam exams you take will not bring any further than being a salesman.They are useless exams that prepare you to be conmen and women.That is why 99.95 of the insurance agents are conmen condemned, day and night being cursed. Join as property agent, the lesser of the evils.
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