Hi Amie,

It all depends on the nature of the work done by the financial advisors. Many do not do much analysis. Instead, they log investors' goals, risk tolerances, and demographic data into a computer program that then generates an asset allocation strategy. That asset allocation blocks are then filled with that firm's preferred mutual funds or ETFs to fulfill the investors' strategy. Most of the day is spent on customer meetings and trying to secure new business. You will likely develop a good map of the finance industry.

Some financial advisors, more like private wealth managers, actually do their own analysis, or have some sort of proprietary model they deploy. If you go this route I would suggest you try and identify ahead of time the percentage of time spent by the financial advisor developing their own unique opinion of the economy, asset allocation, markets, individual assets, and so forth. You want people forming their own opinion and doing their own work, and not just plugging in data to create a cookie cutter result.

Good luck to you!

Jason