Hello,

I would greatly appreciate comments about ways that I can develop a new career in financial planning while living overseas. I am currently finishing the financial planning coursework and need to get practical experience in financial planning under the guidance of an established planner, while living in Japan. I plan to work as an individual planner once we return from overseas assignment and I would like to have satisfied all of the CFP qualifications by then.

Is it possible to develop this kind of experience via the Internet?

Thank you.

William Carrington

Mr. Carrington,

Congratulations on your efforts!  First, I assume that you do not currently have a relationship with an established planner, but are looking to develop one.  Speaking from the viewpoint of my professional experience, my opinion would be that the Internet is a wonderful tool, but most likely not a platform that would allow you to completely fulfill the experience requirements of the CFP certification.  Hands on experience and training is so critical, and the Internet cannot replace all of this.  However, I suppose that video conferencing might be able to replace some of the 'physical presence' experience.

You might take a look at your local community to see if there are established planners in your area, or divisions/branches of U.S. financial services companies that could provide the necessary experience.  On a positive note, as someone who has the pleasure of serving clients residing outside of the United States, you are in an enviable position of having the oppourtnity to learn hands on about the unique challenges associated with international financial planning.  Best wishes.

Mary Rae Fouts, EA, CFP^® 
Fouts Financial Group
Walnut Creek, California

________________________________________
From: fpa_crossborderplng@fpanet.org [fpa_crossborderplng@fpanet.org] On Behalf Of William Carrington [bounce-307301@fpanet.org]
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2008 11:59 PM
To: Walkden, Christa
Subject: [FPA_CrossBorderPlng] Developing a US standards CFP career while living overseas.

Hello,

I would greatly appreciate comments about ways that I can develop a new career in financial planning while living overseas. I am currently finishing the financial planning coursework and need to get practical experience in financial planning under the guidance of an established planner, while living in Japan. I plan to work as an individual planner once we return from overseas assignment and I would like to have satisfied all of the CFP qualifications by then.

Is it possible to develop this kind of experience via the Internet?

Thank you.

William Carrington




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 Hi William,

I would like to echo Mary Rae's congratulations.  The global profession is blossoming, so getting your career started while in Japan is challenging, but also exciting.

I have a few volunteers in Japan who might be able to be of assistance with some ideas here.  I agree with Mary Rae that getting your experience 100% through the internet would be challenging.

Are you based in Tokyo?  Do you speak Japanese?

Thanks for this additional information.

Best regards,

Laura Brook
Director of International Relations

Hello Laura,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my message. Unfortunately, we are no longer in Tokyo. We were there from 2003 to 2007 and I wish I had gotten involved with financial planning during an earlier part of that posting. We are now in Fukuoka, Japan and will be here for two more years.

I do speak some Japanese, but I do not think that working in a Japanese company would be possible. The ideal would have been to work with the American community in Tokyo while we were there. However, I did not begin the financial planning coursework until 2007. The lack of an American community here in Fukuoka is the reason I am having difficulty getting practical experience.

Thank you again for your comments and I will continue to search for opportunities.

Best Regards,

William Carrington 

 Hi William,

Hm, Fukuoka.  That does make it a bit more difficult, doesn't it?  (I lived in Kagoshima-shi as an exchange student with Rotary, by the way.) 

I have a colleague or two who I would like to put you in touch with, so if you could send me your email address, that would be good. 

I will keep thinking about this and see what ideas I can come up with.  Doing the back office part of creating plans comes to mind, but I don't know exactly how you would go about finding planners to outsource this work to you.  Something else to look into.

While we keep brainstorming on this, I would recommend getting in touch with CFP Board to get a better sense of what they will allow from an experience standpoint.  With this information in hand, we can continue to think about how to make this experience actually come about.

Best to you,

Laura

 

Hi Laura,

I appreciate your continued efforts on my behalf. You are really a "can do" person.

We are with the US Foreign Service and my wife is the Consul General at the American Consulate here in Fukuoka. In Tokyo, we were with the US Embassy. The base John mentions is Sasebo and it is about one and a half hours from Fukuoka. Military personnel are fairly insulated from the local community so their financial issues are the same as if they were in the US. This holds true for Foreign Service employees as well. Cross-border issues would only come up if a family member were working on the local economy.

There are financial planners who pursue the Foreign Service or military community niches as both groups have unique retirement systems and somewhat complex benefit plans. And as John mentioned, mostly middle class planning issues.

I would be happy to hear from John. He can contact me at wc_mail_a@mac.com.

Thanks again,

William

 Hi William,

I sent your email along to Suzue Sato, director of the US office for the Japan Association of Financial Planners.  She suggested that you check out the following links:

http://www.pwcadvisory.co.jp/english/careers/advisory/

 

http://www.fsa.go.jp/en/regulated/licensed/city.pdf

Hope that these help!

Laura

Thanks Laura,

I will look at these websites and let you know what results.

Best Regards,

William