Tomsang.... I have received my license and have started a finacial planning consulting buisness. It is absolutely true that you pay a financial advisor to give advice on the whole picture -- need to design an asset strategy that includes all accounts, your home, your estate planning, tax planning, whether you have business or a blended family with elder care, that sort of thing.
Financial planners spend time on what to invest in as only 20% of their work. The rest is creating a life strategy to meet a financial goal (like retirement, but could be parental leave, etc). They may not tell you specifics stock strategies for the investments outside of them, but they should use it to influence the recommendations.. eg., if you have all your other savings in municipal bonds, maybe having more than usual of the money with the advisor in international equities is merited.
Note -- I do not sell investment products or insurance. I am only fee for service, like a lawyer, engineer or accountant.
How hard/expensive was that to get? And how are you going about setting up your own shop. This is one thing i plan to do in FIRE and as i think its actually a beneficial service for many plus i can convert some people to FIRE
The US system is a bit different.
I am getting my CFP - certified financial Planner, and currently have the level one licenses with FPSC.
There is a competitor designation, mainly used by bank employees, but the CFP is the most widely recognized / used in general. Here it is administered by FPSC. (Financial Planning Standards Council). This is not the securities government body, but it is a widely recognized licensing* body. (*Note, I may be using the term license incorrectly, I am not sure what the underlying legislation is, perhaps "certifying" is a more accurate term).
If you are not a CPA already, or with extensive related work experience, and need to take it from start ---
EDUCATION: there were 5 university level classes, each with exams, a comprehensive final exam to get the education component. Each course is between 100 hours and 150 hours of study, plus self study and homework.
Then I wrote an industry certifying FPSC comprehensive exam, level one.
Then I took a capstone course that combines all the classes into a case study that mimics real life and had to create a financial plan (mine was over 40 pages), that I had to defend at an interview with a CFP / CPA type.
The final two hurdles are to write one more CFP final exam with FPSC (why after I have already written two, I don't know), and to get 3 years full time of Financial Planner work experience, while paying the annual registration dues to FPSC during this time.
The biggest hurdle really is getting the work experience without getting employment with a AUM type firm.
If you don't get hired to assist an independent CFP, then you start your own practice, and getting the insurance can be a challenge.
Oh -- and fee only (hourly no percentage) does not make very much money compared to the AUM model.
In addition, most financial planners get insurance or mutual fund licenses, and securities license, to permit product sales and stock selection advising. These are much easier to get than the CFP designation. With the CFP I can not recommend a specific fund or stock, but need to stick to asset allocation and the class of ETF or mutual fund recommended, etc.