According to AsiaOne:

It is unusual for a client to want to join his financial adviser in his trade but that was what Mr Lui Ee Min, 31, did.

The Public Service Commission scholarship holder had spent the major part of his five-year bond with the Singapore Civil Defence Force till 2007 when, with six months to go, he broke his bond.

He paid the penalty of a month’s salary and ventured into human resources at JTC Corp.

In January last year, impressed by his adviser from wealth management firm Financial Alliance, Mr Sean Lim, 38, who showed strong dedication to financial planning, he decided to switch careers and join Mr Lim as a member of his team.

Despite his parents’ initial unhappiness over his job switch because the income is uncertain, and although he was apprehensive about having to prospect for clients, he stuck to his decision.

And he appears to have made the right decision after all. Last year, he was named the top rookie consultant at his firm with a net sales income of $30,000.

I really wish AsiaOne should stop all these “slavery” job introduction, Insurance is one of the toughest job in the sales industry and this guy either is very brave or extremely desperate to get a “high paying job” to switch from his existing job to insurance.

One of my family member is full time “financial planner” a.k.a. Insurance agent for the past 23 years under one of the biggest insurance company in the world but what I found out that being a financial planner is no easy task.

Things you need to know before signing that contract.

1. Supervisor level override your commission like Multilevel marketing but only 3 levels hence the managers try to recruit AS MANY Agents or Consultants AS POSSIBLE out there peddling the “financial products” to people in MRT or in the streets until wee hours at night.
2. Financial Products that usually makes money usually laced with investment risk which is VERY TOUGH to push right now.
3. Greed similar to what MLM managers used to attract new agents/consultants.
4. Yes, you can be successful but only through extreme hard work and can do attitude and never give up.
5. MAKE SURE you have some savings to survive for at least 3 months before you go FULL time on this “financial planner” job otherwise you will be eating grass VERY quickly.
6. Are you able to sell stuff to your friends & family members regardless of the high cost or risk? If yes, sign the dotted line.
7. Do you have a large pool or large network of friends that “trust” you & your opinions of a product? If yes, sign the dotted line.

Yes, the ultimate aim of the financial planning Question & Answers session is to find out roughly how much you have LEFT after deducting your monthly expenses to “invest” into the financial products with key words such as “savings” or “use CPF is cashless” or “endowment” or “risk level” or “no pain no gain” or “managed by professional fund managers” and many other “soothing keywords” to get your excess money into the financial products.

All their “basket of investment funds” usually consist of some low risk and some high risk segment depending on the impulse “ANSWERS” from the clients when probbed on how much they are willing to RISK for a better future….”inflation adjusted payout”.

All the performance charts of their investment basket are limited to less than 20 years hence the client can only see a single EVER INCREASING CHART while if the chart extend the scale of the years to 50 years to 100 years…you can observe the GREAT DEPRESSION & WORLD WAR 1 & 2 economic crisis and realized that our economy is pushing towards a bubble and may collapse anytime.

My aunt actually believed an insurance agent “friend” and plough al l her CPF SGD$100k into GOLD right when the Oil price & gold price peaked and eventually COLLAPSED totally due to economic crisis and oil went down from US$147 to $38 within 7 months ….now she had to PRAY hard that the oil & gold goes up again and the insurance company don’t collapse.

Ok, I maybe slightly bias due to various reasons but the above is something I cannot hide from my friends & family my unhappiness about this career selection.

I may have so many bad experience about this that I won’t want to comment further to tarnish the reputation of this career types, all I can say it’s a sales job…only those suitable ones that are outgoing and get along with many many people can try their luck in this…if you are introvate & don’t have the courage to approach  strangers off the streets…or cannot accept repeated rejections…you know what to do.

The best career future is be a business OWNER but it does have it’s pro and cons as well but at least the business owners have full control of their own future and make hard decisions based on sustainability of the company and not waiting for the big AXE to come down hard or fight for their lives in the streets peddling products for long hours.

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