There are many services that the financial advisor may offer within his or her expertise and profile. They not only advise private customers but often advise companies. The services may vary from investment planning, cash management, retirement planning, estate planning, or insurance needs, to education funding, written analysis, and investment recommendations. Therefore, the job interview for the financial advisor may cover many areas.
Note that this position is either called investment advisor, financial planner, investment analyst, investment advisor/representative.
This article covers financial advisor or investment advisor job interview questions and answers. The article provides frequently asked job interview questions as well as some tips on answering these questions. You can also refer to financial analyst interview questions.
1. Sample Job Interview Questions and Answers
Below are personal questions for the financial advisor:
- What qualifications and licenses do you hold?
- How long have you worked as a financial advisor and which firms have you worked for?
- Describe the services you’ve offered.
- How many clients have you served, what is their average portfolio, and what is the size of assets that you have managed?
- Do you take continuing education classes for financial advising?
- Tell us about your past performance.
- Why did you choose this career? What does it mean to be a financial advisor?
- What are the skills that allow you to be a successful advisor?
- Do you have references: clients, co-workers, and superiors?
► Tips on answering the above questions:
Talk about your educational background and the courses you have taken to develop your professional expertise. You should also describe your client base and your previous experience, such as financial planning, investment management, budgeting, tax planning, wills, retirement planning, and insurance needs. You may also refer to more investment details, such as large-capital funds, mid-capital funds, small-capital funds, and international investments. And of course, explain why you want to be in this field.
In case you are new in this trade, you can tell about your line of business prior to becoming a financial advisor, which may be relevant or similar to this profession.
You may also refer to the article, Tell Me about Yourself Interview Questions, and to the frequently asked interview questions category.
2. Behavioral Interview Questions
The following questions are meant to observe the methods you use to build a portfolio for a client, ensuring that their investments are secure and they will not break their budget:
- Describe your management style or philosophy.
- How do you choose investments and how often do you adjust portfolios?
- Do you prepare a written plan for your clients?
- Do you have a backup plan?
- How do you make your clients feel that you are someone to trust with their money?
- Can you describe your ethical responsibility to a client regarding monetary risk?
- Can you offer your budgeting practices concerning a retirement forecast?
- How do you maintain your customer base?
- Can you build a customer base from the beginning?
► How to answer these questions:
Explain how you would prepare a financial plan for a client, including steps such as collecting data, analyzing current status, setting goals and risk management, presetting alternatives, providing recommendations, and implementation of those recommendations. You may also describe how you persuade clients to use you as their advisor, and how you enlarge your customer base. You should also tell how you keep in close contact with clients, by frequently providing reports, sending written analyses, and giving continued advice.
If you were successful in providing a client with financial stability and you maintain a good working relationship with your clientele, then don’t hesitate to mention that.
3. Technical Skills and Experience
Several questions about financial terms may be asked to review knowledge and expertise. Examples of terms –
- Active and passive investing
- Stock versus bonds – variable percentages
- Options delta
- Hard assets
- Net present value
- Mutual funds
- Defining a favorite stock and an impassive or disliked stock
- Short-term investment tools, such as short-term bonds or certificates of deposit
- Valuing a customer in financial terms
- Historical accounting
Finance / Accounting Job Interviews