Lenore Davis, a financial planner with Dixon Davis & Co. in Victoria and the new president of the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners, is a strong advocate of education.

“I talk to a lot of young people coming into the financial services business,” she says, “and the first thing I tell them is to get the broadest education possible.”

For example, Davis says, an advisor who is starting out as a captive agent with an insurance company should learn about all the products that company offers. “But don’t limit yourself to that,” she adds. “Learn as much as you can about the entire industry before you decide what you want to do when you grow up.”

Understand how you get paid and how the organization you work for generates its revenue, Davis says. That understanding is key to choosing the part of the industry you work in. “It’s hard to fit into the system,” she says, “if you don’t believe in how it all works.”

Attach yourself to a mentor, Davis says: “Find someone in the business who works the way you would like to work.”
— GRANT MCINTYRE