Occupation
Financial planner
Financial planners build long-range plans that pull saving, retirement, tax, protection, and estate considerations into one picture. The role overlaps with financial advising but is planning-led: the deliverable is a written plan with prioritised actions, often coordinated with a client's accountant or lawyer.
Also known as: Personal financial planner · Wealth planner · Paraplanner · Certified financial planner
Occupation content
Part of Finance, accounting and insurance
What the work involves
- Gather a full picture of a client's income, assets, debts, and commitments.
- Clarify goals and the trade-offs the client is prepared to make.
- Model scenarios such as retirement timing, education funding, or a career break.
- Write a plan setting out recommended actions in priority order.
- Coordinate with accountants, lawyers, or advisers where a step needs them.
- Review and update the plan on an agreed cycle.
How people commonly enter
- A degree in finance, business, or economics combined with a financial planning qualification.
- A financial planning certification route taken while working in paraplanning or advice support.
- An apprenticeship or trainee route with a planning or advisory firm.
- A move from accounting, insurance, or banking into a planning-focused role.
Typical training: Bachelor's degree
Licensing: Regulated in most jurisdictions — confirm the current requirement with the regulator in your province, state, or country.
Pathways: Apprenticeship route
Typical work context
Client sites · Desk based · Public facing · Remote capable
Related interests
Social (helping) · Enterprising (leading) · Conventional (organizing)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Finance, accounting and insurance.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- O*NET OnLine — Personal Financial Advisors (13-2052.00) · United States
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- UK National Careers Service — Financial adviser · United Kingdom
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- Canada Job Bank — Explore careers (occupation search) · Canada
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Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Finance, accounting and insurance in Canada, not a figure for Financial planner. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Finance, accounting and insurance family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Finance, accounting and insurance: education pathways
Some roles in Finance, accounting and insurance may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Finance, accounting and insurance: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Financial planner”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)