Finance & accounting · Leading & Selling
Financial advisor: what the job actually is
Helping people decide what to do with their money over decades, while holding a licence that says you are allowed to recommend products.
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The work
What this job actually is
- Sitting down with people and working out what they want their money to do: a first home, a business, retirement, a child's education. Then recommending a plan and the products that fit it.
- Much of it is not about money at all. It is about getting a couple to say out loud what they disagree about, or a nervous person to stay invested during a bad year.
- Job Bank says licensing is compulsory in Ontario to sell regulated products such as annuities, RRSPs and life insurance. You can be a very good talker and still not be allowed to sell.
- There is a gap between planning and selling. Some advisors are paid fees for advice, others earn commission on the products they sell, and a thoughtful client will ask which you are.
- Finding clients is a job in itself. The first years of the career are mostly building a book of people who trust you.
A Tuesday
What a normal day looks like
Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.
- 8:00 — Read what the markets did overnight, mostly so you are not surprised when a client calls about it.
- 8:45 — Prepare for a first meeting with a couple. You know their ages and one sentence about what they hope to do, and that is all.
- 9:30 — The meeting. You ask about their debts, their family, their worries about money, and you write down what they do not say.
- 11:00 — Compliance paperwork from that meeting: what you asked, what you recommended and why. This is a real part of the job and it is long.
- 12:00 — Lunch with someone who might introduce you to someone. Building a client list is half networking and half just being around.
- 13:30 — Phone a client who wants to sell everything because a headline frightened them. You are mostly a calm voice with a plan.
- 14:30 — Study. Products, tax rules and regulations change, and keeping your licence means keeping up.
- 15:30 — Cold-calling or following up on referrals, because nobody is going to book your afternoon for you.
- 16:45 — Prepare the plan for tomorrow's follow-up, with the numbers in it.
- 17:30 — Home, with the knowledge that if you do the job well, the results will not be visible for years.
Honestly
Who loves this, and who should not do it
The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.
- You can talk about money with strangers without embarrassment, and without making them feel judged.
- You like numbers and also like the people attached to them.
- You are comfortable being responsible for advice whose outcome you do not control.
- You can build your own client list from nothing and not take silence personally.
- You want a regulated, credentialled career where the licence itself is a barrier to competition.
- You dislike selling. At many firms your income depends on clients you personally find and products you personally sell.
- You need a steady paycheque. Commission-based pay can be thin or irregular in the first years, and not every employer offers a salary while you build.
- You cannot stand being blamed. When markets fall, some clients are going to be angry with you, and some of them are going to leave.
- You find regulatory paperwork tedious. Documentation and compliance are constant.
- You were expecting growth in openings. Job Bank's Ontario outlook here is Moderate, which is not a shortage.
The route in
How you actually get there in Ontario
Start with a degree or college programme in business or finance
Job Bank says a bachelor's degree in business administration, commerce, economics or a related field is usually required. Ontario colleges also run insurance and financial services programmes that name financial planner and insurance agent as career outcomes.Get licensed for what you want to sell
Licensing is compulsory in Ontario to sell regulated financial products. Which licence depends on the product: life insurance is licensed through FSRA, and securities and mutual funds through their own industry bodies. Your employer, who usually sponsors you, will tell you which one applies to your role.Add a designation if you want to be a planner
Job Bank lists the Certified Financial Planner designation from the Financial Planning Standards Council as one an employer may require, along with credentials from bodies such as the Canadian Securities Institute and the CFA Institute.Join a firm that will train you
Banks, insurance companies, credit unions and independent firms all hire new advisors. Ask each one directly how you are paid in your first two years, because it varies a lot.
Where this comes from: Job Bank — Financial advisors: requirements in Ontario · ontariocolleges.ca — Insurance programmes · Job Bank — Insurance agents and brokers: requirements in Ontario
The money
What it pays in Ontario
Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.
- $23.08
- Low (hourly)
- $36.06
- Median (hourly)
- $76.92
- High (hourly)
Ontario, NOC 11102. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.
Where it is heading
The outlook for the next three years
Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.
Moderate3 out of 5 stars
- Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
- A moderate number of positions will become available due to retirements.
- There are a moderate number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.
What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.
What is changing in this work
- Major layoffs in the banking industry
- As older generations prepare to transfer wealth, the demand for financial planning will support opportunities for financial advisors
Who hires for it
- The majority are employed in the financial services, mainly in banks and financial investment activities
- Insurance carriers are also key employers
- 47,350
- people work in this job in Ontario
- 43%
- are women (48% across all jobs)
- 30%
- are self-employed (15% across all jobs)
Source: Job Bank — Financial advisors job prospects in Ontario (NOC 11102). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.
Before you leave school
Things you can do now
- Take business, accounting and the highest maths you can handle. Compound interest is the single most useful idea in this job, and you can learn it at 14.
- Start tracking your own money seriously, however little there is. A spreadsheet of a year of your spending tells you more about people and money than a chapter of a book.
- Join an investment or business club if your school has one, or run a small fundraiser and keep honest books.
- Ask a relative who is working with an advisor whether you can read, with their permission, what a plan actually looks like with the names removed.
Test it
Do this before you decide anything
Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.
Plan one real person's year, and sell nothing
About 75 minutes- Ask a willing adult for the rough shape of their money: what comes in, the three biggest things going out, one goal they have. No account numbers, and they may decline.
- Write one page on what you would do with that picture if you had to, and list the three questions you wish you could have asked them.
- Now write the same one page as though you were paid a commission if they bought something. Notice what changed.
- Read the page back and decide which version you could stand behind in front of them.
What it tells you. If the second page made you uncomfortable and the first one felt like real work, you have the right instinct for advice and the question is which firm lets you act on it. If the second page felt easier, or if talking about somebody's money made you want to run, this job is mostly sales and you should be sure you want that.
Better than any article
Questions for somebody who does this job
Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.
- “How are you paid, and how was that different in your first two years?”
- “How did you find your first clients?”
- “What is the difference between your job and a bank teller's, honestly?”
- “What has the licensing process been like to keep up with?”
- “What do you do when a client wants something you think is a mistake?”
- “What would you do differently if you were starting at 20 in Ontario?”
Could you own one of these?
The part other career sites never mention
Yes, once you are licensed and experienced. Independent advisors and planners run their own practices. It means building a book of clients and carrying the compliance load yourself, so most start inside a firm and go out on their own after several years.
Not sure this is the right list to be reading
Start from yourself, not from the job.
Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.
Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.
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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.