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.
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
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
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 MonitorBrowse IWI Technical Journals:
Journal of Investment ConsultingSubscribe 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 NewslettersTuning 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
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
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
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
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 ProgramsContinual 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
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
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 CertificationsUnderstand the IWI Body of Knowledge
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 CertificationsAfter 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 RequirementsWhen 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
“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 SpeakerIWI 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
Investments & Wealth Institute membership is an indispensable source of lifelong learning, exploration, and experience in the financial advisory industry.
Discover the value of membership