What are the desired skills for a Financial Planning Services agent?

I am a candidate for a Jr. Agent position with MetLife Financial Serivices. I can imagine as we all can, the list of desired skills like companies search for. However I'm looking for answers specifically from professionals in the business holding managerial positions or individuals that had to take:





Company Questionnaires


Candidate Profiles


Cognitive ability Profiles





Any additional pointers are welcomed. Thank you, thank you! A sure 10 points and weight of my shoulders for the best answer. :)

What are the desired skills for a Financial Planning Services agent?
The skills required are a minimum Associates Degree,


professional appearance, excel. communication skills, highly organized, proficient in Microsoft office %26amp; be career oriented


You will be trained to market a comprehensive portfolio of top quality insurance and investment products by the company.
Reply:First and foremost you have to have honesty and integrity as you will be potentially advising people what to do with their life savings.





Secondly you need to be extremely numerate because the calculations involved in this area are quite complex sometimes.





Thirdly you need to be able to explain these difficult calculations to potentially non-numerate people.





Working for any of the major insurance/assurance companies wil require you to undergo training, so typically you wont already be expected to know the calcs





Make sure your cv and the way you answer any company questionnaires etc emphasise your abilities/ambitions and keenness to learn in all these areas
Reply:In addition to what has already been mentioned, keep in mind that there is a sales component to most financial planning firms (at least at this point in the evolution of the profession). That will entail not being shy about obtaining new clients.





Also as a financial services executive(with a certificate in financial planning), I recommend checking out www.learntosucceed.biz. They can make the difference, sound career advice and they will answer your specific questions.


Good Luck.