Scott Tominaga – Facts on Financial Advisors

Scott Tominaga has spent a career in the financial industry and for many years he worked in middle management for a very successful hedge fund. After dedicating 20 years of his life to this industry he decided that he wanted a change and so he decided to become an independent financial advisor. This is a job which Scott has very much fallen in love with and he now has 4 years within this role. We caught up with Scott recently to discuss all things finance and he had some interesting facts to share on financial advisors.

Experienced

It is extremely rare to find a financial advisor who went straight from finishing their education into working in this field and almost all financial advisors have already held positions in the financial world, which is why the average age of an advisor is so high. Those who are fresh out of college that are working in financial advice are those who have found positions in large companies, who are being trained on the job. Because of the depth of knowledge that you must have to do well in this most will have already spent a large amount of time in another sector if the financial world.

Data Time

There were a couple of things that surprised Scott about this industry and one was the sheer volume of data crunching which you have to do. Because of the fact that you need to have a broad and up to date knowledge about so many different aspects of the financial world, much of your time is spent focusing on data and financial reports which you will then use to make decisions about what kind of advice you will offer.

Sales

Another aspect of the job which caught Scott by surprise was the fact that you must be a good salesperson to work within this industry. Usually what an individual will do when they decide that they want financial advice is look around for a couple of different options, to see which advisor best suits them. This means that when Scott is meeting with a new customer he must be able to sell himself to the new client in the hope that they chose him. In this situation Scott is the product and that is what he needs to sell to new and hopeful clients in order to get their business.

Results Driven

The world of financial advice is based on results and Scott has already seen many advisors come and go in his local area. Unfortunately, if your advice is not sound then the result is that people lose money, once this begins to happen the word gets around and the result is a damaged reputation for someone, who will then struggle to find clients in the future. Scott is all too aware of this and that is why he works so hard on making sure that his advice is right as much as possible.