Career Advancement in Financial Advising and Wealth Management 

5 Lifelong Learning Strategies to Maximize Your Potential 

What’s the key to meaningful career advancement in the financial advisory profession?  

Embrace lifelong learning. 

Whether you’re a newcomer or seasoned professional, you’ll find the opportunities you’re looking for—and sometimes those you didn’t expect—throughout your financial advising and wealth management career.  

Advance your career. Empower your success. 

Accelerate Your Wealth Management Career

You’re in the driver’s seat. Map your path forward. 

The more experienced you are as an advisor or wealth manager, the more you realize that career advancement is not a straight road. And the journey can look different for every traveler.

But experience also teaches that successful advisors possess: 

  • Passion for professional excellence 

  • Curiosity about new strategies, technologies, and theories 

  • Openness to fresh insights 

  • Ambition to achieve greater success 

  • Vision to lead others in the profession   

Those traits define a lifelong learner—and they enable you to direct your own professional growth. 

Whether you’re looking to grow your client base and wallet share, advance to a new role, or enhance your technical or leadership skills, the journey forward requires a commitment to lifelong learning. We can help. 

Read on to learn about 5 ways IWI empowers lifelong learning and how to leverage your membership to optimize your career.  

Build Success with Stronger Client Relationships

How can you attract and retain high-net-worth clients—and grow your business—in the midst of shifts that change how those clients find, evaluate and use financial services? 

In IWI’s most recent client research report, you’ll learn: 

  • What drives strong client relationships 

  • Why demonstrating advanced knowledge and skills is essential 

  • How clients perceive the value of advanced certifications 

  • How to manage risk by identifying and addressing satisfaction gaps 

Read Our Client Research: The Evolution Continues →

5 Ways to Leverage Your IWI Membership for Career Advancement 

1

Stay Informed: Feed Your Professional Curiosity

Successful financial and investment professionals build awareness by cultivating the news and information critical to supporting their business and their clients.

Subscribe to our professionally focused financial advising and wealth management resources - the information you need, delivered daily. 

Finance and wealth management articles  

Publications from authoritative, trusted industry experts can be especially valuable. Professional investment and wealth management publications tap into emerging theories, describe current and ongoing research, and synthesize knowledge from credible academics and thought leaders across the financial community.

Explore Investments & Wealth Monitor→

Browse IWI Technical Journals:

Journal of Investment Consulting→
Retirement Management Journal→

Curated newsletters for financial advisors

Subscribe to newsletters that keep you abreast of essential issues, opportunities and practices. These easy-to-scan summaries help you identify articles, podcasts, blogs, webinars, and events that benefit you and your clients.  

Tip: For a feed that focuses on topics that are related to your career goals, take advantage of the ability to select your preferred newsletter editions.  

Subscribe to Newsletters→

Podcasts featuring financial services experts

Tuning in to a financial advisor podcast is a quick, convenient and engaging way to tap into insights from experts and thought leaders.

Listen to the Exceptional Advisor Podcast→

Financial advisor webinars

Have you ever attended a webinar only to discover it’s a thinly disguised sales pitch? Good news: You can find professional webinars, delivered by industry experts and leaders, that are genuinely focused on helping you expand your knowledge and skills.

Bonus: IWI-sponsored webinars go through a rigorous review and many are provided by registered continuing education sponsors, so you earn CE credits while you learn. 

View IWI Educational Webinars→

Microcourses on specialized investment topics 

These bite-sized education sessions distill current, critical topics down to their essence, providing an interactive, engaging way to access and apply need-to-know information quickly.

Explore IWI Microcourses→
2

Stay Relevant: Acquire Tailored Financial Planning Training and Education

Although learning in short formats is efficient and impactful, sometimes you need to set aside a bit more time to diversify your expertise and master essential new skills. 

Seek more formalized learning opportunities that will take you out of your comfort zone, refine your understanding of more sophisticated financial topics, and hone specialized wealth management acumen. 

Comprehensive, topical financial short courses 

A comprehensive short course is a longer,  yet still concise, education program that dives deeply into a specific area of financial advising practices or business processes. Sometimes spanning multiple modules, these courses can help you close gaps in your practice, communicate your capabilities, and improve critical client relationships. They'll help you increase ROI to your career and to your firm. 

One to Try: IWI’s Exceptional Advisor course helps you better communicate the value of your advanced certifications while earning up to 5 CE credits toward IWI and CFP certification renewals. 

See IWI Short Courses→

Certificate programs for financial planners and wealth managers 

A strategic way to advance your career is by filling an unmet need in your practice or firm. This is where certificate programs shine. Unlike advanced certifications (e.g., CIMA®, CPWA®, RMA®) which are multidisciplinary and holistic, certificate programs are focused on a single aspect of investment and wealth management or retirement planning.  

Bonus: IWI’s premier certificate programs emphasize highly marketable, in-demand skillsets and provide 12-20 CE credits toward renewal of your advanced certifications. 

Explore IWI Certificate Programs→

Always Be Learning 

Continual learning is essential to continual success. For financial advisors and wealth managers who hold advanced certifications, continuing education (CE) is required to maintain those certifications and remain in good standing with their professional organizations. 

Fortunately, online learning makes CE easy to access and complete. 

Explore the variety of online learning opportunities available to IWI members→
3

Stay Connected: Collaborate with Like-Minded Peers

Collaboration and connection are the lifeblood of a healthy profession. For advisors and wealth professionals, an ongoing exchange of information, ideas, and innovations is essential to success in our complex and rapidly evolving industry. 

On a personal level, the relationships you cultivate through events, conferences, and forums are the fulcrum of your career advancement, putting you in touch with peers and mentors, professional and educational resources, and leadership opportunities.  

Immersive events for complex financial advising topics 

Live conferences, forums, and single-day events take you out of your routine for a deep exploration of strategically focused topics and practical, advanced training. To get the most out of these experiences, look for both virtual and in-person events.  

  • Virtual events enable you to set aside flexible learning time throughout your year with limited impact on your schedule.  

  • At in-person events, conversations have even more opportunities to blossom, deepening collaboration, connection and learning. 

Be on the lookout for conferences that draw subject matter experts from across the industry and address topics that are directly connected to your career advancement goals. 

View All Upcoming IWI Events→

Did you know? IWI Elite Members benefit from preferred pricing for our conferences and online events. 

4

Stay Certified: Showcase Your Sophisticated, Advanced Capabilities

When you first entered the financial advising profession, you had to meet basic client, industry, and corporate requirements.

But as you have gained experience, you’ve been able demonstrate how much your expertise has grown. Advanced certifications are a tangible way to remind both clients and your firm of the sophisticated, specialized capabilities you bring and the value you add. 

By earning designations above and beyond the abilities and knowledge you've already obtained, you build: 

  • Additional client confidence and loyalty  

  • A more cohesive team 

  • In-demand skills tailored for sophisticated high-net worth and institutional clients 

Select a financial certification that reflects your area of specialization 

Where do your strengths lie? Where do your interests lie? Where do your opportunities lie? 

To understand where a particular certification can take you, compare the Body of Knowledge that each certification provides.  

Compare IWI Certifications→Understand the IWI Body of Knowledge→

Layer financial and wealth management certifications to create complementary capabilities 

Choosing a financial certification isn’t an “either-or” decision. Certifications can complement each other in ways that can help you foster greater career growth over time. 

Tip for firms: Teams that incorporate multiple certification holders can create a holistic, powerful and differentiated service offering essential to meeting the complex needs of high-net-worth clients. 

Compare Complementary Certifications→

Renew financial advising certifications on schedule 

After investing time, energy, and money in obtaining a certification, it’s important to maintain it.

CE requirements ensure that your certification—and knowledge—stay current, validating the confidence that clients already put in you. 

Understand IWI Certification Renewal Requirements→

Technical Knowledge. Practical Application. Active Network.  

When you achieve IWI advanced certifications, you join a global community of elite, high-performing advisors committed to ethics, excellence, and exceptional service.  

Find Your Advanced Certification→
5

Stay Engaged: Take on Leadership Roles

As you continue to grow your business and advance your career, you continuously gain knowledge that has exponential value to your teams and to your profession. Offering your knowledge and skills to your community:  

  • Acknowledges your strengths and elevates your visibility 

  • Creates a resilient and supportive community for existing members and those new to the profession 

  • Amplifies the professional excellence that is vital to building and maintaining public trust in our services 

When you take on leadership roles, you engage in a deeper and richer way with your own professional growth. 

Speaking at advisor and wealth management events 

“If you want to master something, teach it.” — Yogi Bhajan 

When you share your expertise in a webinar, virtual seminar, or conference session, you demonstrate your competence, strengthen your reputation, and increase your credibility and visibility.  

Bonus: Speaking at IWI events engages you with dedicated professionals also interested in advancing their careers. 

Become a Speaker→

Volunteering for Investments & Wealth Institute committees 

IWI and its members benefit greatly from the commitment, expertise and leadership of our members.  

By volunteering on an IWI board or committee, you:  

  • Support the healthy evolution of our profession 

  • Maintain our high standards of ethics and professional excellence 

  • Encourage greater interest and diversity in the field of financial advising 

Discover Your Volunteer Opportunity→

A Concentrated Career-Advancement Resource for Financial Advising Professionals 

Investments & Wealth Institute membership is an indispensable source of lifelong learning, exploration, and experience in the financial advisory industry.  

Discover the value of membership→