Employer Name  

Saratoga Financial Services (self employed)

Job Title  

Financial Services and Business Consultant

Additional education

Professional designations earned in financial services: Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter, Chartered Financial Consultant, Chartered Advisor for Senior Living, Registered Health Underwriter, Registered Employee Benefits Counselor

Briefly describe what you do   

Provide consulting and advisory services in business management and financial planning to individuals and businesses

What other jobs have you had?

• Agency Field Executive for State Farm Insurance Companies

• Registered Investment Advisor Representative for State Farm

• VP Mgt Co. Agent for State Farm Insurance

What are the key skills, abilities, and personal qualities necessary to succeed in this type of work?  

• Relationship building. 

• Desire to help people and work directly with people and organizations in analyzing and meeting financial and social needs. 

• Excellent communications skills including listening, analysis, planning, evaluation. 

• The ability to teach and inform. 

• The ability to distill large amounts of often complex information down to its simplest elements. 

• Ability and desire to acquire additional education and skill building in financial and social services areas such as needs based life planning, investment management, education planning, retirement planning, and insurance.

What do you enjoy most about your current position?  

Helping people at various economic levels protect what they have, recover from the unexpected, build what they need, and realize their dreams.

Most important/valuable lesson or activity in college that impacted your career  

A varied and demanding liberal arts education that taught me how to listen to think and to apply.  I have used it all from Physics and Chemistry to Philosophy and Economics to Art Appreciation and Opera Literature.

What advice for someone entering this field?

Try it out...intern or become a planning associate for an agent or a financial planning practice or and intern or management trainee for a producer company.  If it is the right fit, financial planners and financial advisors are among the most highly compensated and find their careers lowest stress and most rewarding.

Questions?

Email askalumni@trinity.edu
Put the name of the alumni you wish to contact in the subject line, then type your question.