Q: I recently completed an 18-week course at a brokerage house and then discovered the "business" I was training for was hawking house-brand mutual funds to clients who are worried about retirement. I wondered what it would take to start a small financial service that gives sound advice -- without ripping off the clientele in commissions.
--R.T., Binghamton, N.Y.

A: Sounds like you're interested in becoming an independent financial planner or investment adviser, rather than a stockbroker who's affiliated with a particular brokerage house. If you're thinking about advising entrepreneurs, you'd probably need additional business education and real-world experience in company management and entrepreneurship to offer valuable counsel to clients.

But if you want to concentrate on retirement planning, look into becoming a professional financial adviser, a category that includes many job categories with varying degrees of education and licensing requirements. Steven J. Coker, a West Los Angeles certified financial planner, says the field is growing, particularly as baby boomers approach retirement age, invest in stocks and mutual funds, and find themselves needing to roll over large pension accounts when they change jobs.

If you aren't interested in making commissions by selling financial products, you could become a "fee-only" financial planner. That means you'd work with individuals to develop their financial plans and charge an annual fee based on assets and investment activity or an hourly fee, generally ranging from $50 to $200 (but sometimes more). Most financial planners take a combined approach, obtaining at least some of their income from commissions earned on products they sell to clients. They must disclose their commissions and can agree to reduce their hourly fees by that amount. A third type of financial planner charges clients no fee at all and earns income strictly on commissions.

To become a certified financial planner, you need to take courses offered by the Institute of Certified Financial Planners through colleges and extension programs and then sit for an eight-hour exam given periodically across the country. Florida State University's Center for Professional Development offers online courses at www.online.cpd.fsu.edu. The Institute of Certified Financial Planners, based in Denver at 303 759-4900, offers helpful how-to information, books, links, and other resources on its Web site, www.icfp.org.

If you're not sure exactly what kind of financial-service business you want to pursue, an extremely helpful resource is the North American Securities Administrators Assn., an organization whose goal is to protect investors. From its home page at www.nasaa.org, click on "investor education" and then go to the "Who's Who in the Financial Planning/Investment Advisor Field" page. The page charts various professional designations, from registered investment adviser to chartered financial analyst, along with each title's prerequisites, educational requirements, licensing body, and membership organizations with contact information and other details.

Need more? Here are additional Web resources: American Association for Individual Investors, www.aaii.com; Certified Financial Planners Board of Standards, 303 830-7500, www.cfp-board.org; and National Association of Securities Dealers, www.nasd.com.

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