Local financial advisor Jessica Casola offers advice on how to get into the field
As many senior financial advisors approach retirement, there is a need for younger professionals to take their place.
The Sault’s Jessica Casola is a prime example of someone filling that need.
Casola is a CIBC Private Wealth Wood Gundy Intrinsic Financial Group associate investment advisor.
Financial advisors help clients make informed decisions about how and where to invest their money to grow their wealth, plan for retirement and how to transfer their money to family members when they are deceased.
“There are definitely a lot of advisors across the city who could be nearing retirement in the next little while. There’s an opportunity for the next generation of advisors to come up and learn from them,” Casola said.
Being a financial advisor is a serious profession.
“Clients are trusting you with what they’ve spent their whole life working for. It’s definitely not something to be taken lightly,” Casola said.
The job requires a high degree of professional knowledge and people skills.
“You really need a strong skill set when you’re working with markets and investments but you also need those soft skills. You need to be trustworthy. You need to have good communication skills. Clients need to know you, have confidence in you and that you’re doing the right thing for them. It’s a relationship business.”
Casola said her clients include young adults to seniors, business owners building up their assets, high income earners, those who have inherited money and average income earners who have diligently saved money for their futures.
She holds the professional designations of chartered investment manager and certified financial planner.
“I would say most advisors do have a university degree but it doesn’t have to be in finance. Once you get your university degree you earn your industry licensing.”
Casola’s own post-secondary education isn’t in finance.
Her career in the financial sector came as a result of an unexpected change in her career goals.
“I earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Waterloo. I was very good at math and the sciences. I was leaning towards pharmacy, maybe medicine.”
However, working as a bank teller during the summer when she was a student changed Casola’s path.
“It was through that role that I realized finance was more up my alley.”
She climbed the ladder from bank teller to financial advisor through hard work, knowledge-building and enjoyment in working with people.
“I love relationship building. I love getting to know people, getting to know their stories. Being able to help them achieve their financial goals as well as getting to know them is really important to me.”
“I do think my chemistry degree helped me a lot. It taught me analytical thinking, problem solving and a lot of transferable skills that I was able to carry over to finance but the shift was based on relationship building. I love talking to people.”
Financial planners invest clients’ money into low-risk bank products such as GICs, RRSPs, mutual funds or the ups and downs of the stock market.
“It’s important to build a well-diversified portfolio,” Casola said.
“I would say this career can definitely be stressful at times, especially when the markets are volatile. It’s part of my job to navigate those markets and guide my clients through that. It’s rewarding being able to help them make those financial decisions and get them through those tough periods.”
Casola said it’s rewarding to see retirees she has helped enjoy taking first class airline seats as they head off on vacation.
“That’s the best part of the job.”
Moving forward, more financial advisors will be needed to represent traditionally under-represented groups.
Casola is personally passionate about helping women reach their financial goals.
“Women are actually projected to control a lot more of the global wealth in the next decade. They’re increasingly making more decisions about their finances in families, individually, and professionally. Females are advancing more. It’s amazing to see females breaking that glass ceiling.”
Such advancement is available for women in the financial sector, Casola said.
“I hope that females see that we can be successful in this role.”
Casola’s advice for those thinking of a career as a financial advisor?
“Put in the work and build those relationships. It is a relationship building business and that trust takes time. Put in the work, get all your designations, really learn the career.”
She said that’s the approach she took and hasn’t looked back.
“I love what I do. I love my career. I’m very happy I made this choice.”