Your piece here shouts about you as a salesman nonetheless, selling the equity of your knowledge and unique proposition that you can bring to your clients.

While the minimum requirements for being a financial adviser may seem low, the entry exams however are structured with intent, aimed at equipping each practitioners before they hit the streets.

90% of patients with ailments do not need to visit a specialist. A GP will do for most. In fact, many people do not even visit a GP to get by a common cold. In reality, there is a wide spectrum of needs represented in the marketplace. The beautiful part about being a FA is that you get to choose which segment of the market you want to serve and you position and prepare yourself appropriately for that.

There are many Certified Financial Planners (CFP) accredited people, who are no longer a practicing adviser, after they acquire their accreditation. The basic insurance plan is such a simple and yet powerful product, that an insurance agent should be proud to be carrying. The sad truth is that many FAs are afraid to be associated with being an “insurance agent”.

I would applaud an insurance salesman who managed to convince a family man to take up a $500,000 term insurance and be able to bring this cheque to his widow and children. I would give a standing ovation to the collective insurance sales force in Singapore to be able to to this simple task for all families.

Trust me, the financial security of Singaporeans as a whole would be better established with enough of these “lack of enough knowledge” sales people.

My dear contributor, this is an awesome task that the 0.1% of highly knowledgeable practitioner like yourself in Singapore can never do for Singapore.

Perhaps more than 90% of the population will not understand what you are writing about in your blog. And a good majority of practitioners may not as well – you are right. But any knowledge is useless, unless they are changing lives on the streets, where it matter.

So let’s applaud each and every insurance agents or financial planners, whatever they are called, who is making a sale everyday. Because it is not about the commissions they are making – let the product manufacturers worry about that. What matters is the financial security they are adding to each and every family.

I applaud you too for your effort here. But you might do better as a lecturer or professor if you can’t make more money than a regular insurance salesman, given the knowledge you have.