Financial Planner Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Financial Planner resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Financial planning is a broad term that encompasses a variety of disciplines, including financial planning, financial advising, and wealth management. Financial planners help clients make sense of their current financial situation, identify their future financial goals, and create a plan to achieve those goals.
Financial planning is a highly personalized profession, so there’s no one-size-fits-all resume template for financial planners. But there are some universal tips and guidelines that will help you write a compelling financial planning resume that hiring managers will love.
How to Write a Financial Planner Resume
Here’s how to write a financial planner resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
Bullet points are the most common way to showcase your experience, but they don’t have to be boring or generic. You can use them to tell a story about your work or to highlight specific accomplishments.
For example, rather than saying you “managed financial planning process for large organization,” you could say you “managed financial planning process for large organization, resulting in $2 million in annual savings.”
The second bullet point is much more interesting and provides more detail about what exactly you did and the outcome of your work.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
Keywords are essential when applying for a financial planner role. Most companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to screen resumes. This system scans your resume for specific terms related to the job opening. If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right keywords, the ATS might disqualify you from further consideration.
To make sure your resume makes it past the ATS, focus on including relevant keywords throughout all sections of your application. Here are some of the most commonly used financial planner keywords:
- Financial Planning
- Life Insurance
- Retirement Planning
- Investments
- Finance
- Financial Services
- Wealth Management
- Financial Advisory
- Asset Allocation
- Estate Planning
- Asset Management
- Insurance
- Portfolio Management
- Investment Management
- Financial Analysis
- Investment Strategies
- Financial Risk
- Business Planning
- Business Strategy
- Risk Management
- 401(k) Retirement Savings Plans
- Pension Funds
- U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
- Insurance Sales
- Securities
- Variable Annuities
- Investments & Asset Allocation
- Mutual Funds
- Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
- Long-term Care Insurance
Showcase Your Technical Skills
There are a number of programs and systems that financial planners use on a daily basis to provide financial advice to their clients. Being proficient in the use of these programs and systems is essential to the job. Some of the most commonly used programs are Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Quicken, and Money. Financial planners also need to be familiar with financial concepts and how they work.