New Planner Recruiting, one of a seemingly endless line of projects involving planner and industry personality Michael Kitces (a ThinkAdvisor contributor), announced Monday that it had launched a standalone service to offer screening of financial planning candidates for advisory practices.
Caleb Brown, founding partner of the firm along with Kitces (left), said the new product will not only thoroughly screen candidates for credit history, criminal background checks, FINRA and SEC licensing verification and reference checks, but it will also include a job personality profile and a proprietary financial planning skills and knowledge assessment tools.
"We like to keep tabs at what's out there, and there's nothing really as differentiating as this product," Brown told ThinkAdvisor. "There are plenty of firms that do the criminal and credit background checks, but what sets us apart is the detailed analysis we provide."
That detailed analysis includes a combination of technical questions, Microsoft Excel usage and having the candidate develop and financial plan, "almost like a mini CFP exam."
When asked if the new product was requested by the marketplace or simply the next iteration of the firm, Brown said both.
