Advisors' Advice: You Don't Have to Major in Business to Be a Financial Planner

(Related: Advisors' Advice: What Was Your College Major? — Part 1) Advisors' academic backgrounds are as varied as the advice they provide and the clients they serve. Many have studied business and finance, but plenty graduated outside that norm and still became successful financial advisors. We recently asked financial advisors, via the Financial Planning Association and the XY Planning Network, what they majored in and how their college studies shaped their advisory careers. In a recent article, we shared stories from those who had chosen business and finance. Here we asked advisors who took a much different path — one studied as a Marxist historian! — but eventually found not only the business of finance, but that their non-financial educations often helped enhance their work with clients. We received dozens of responses and can only share some here. Some have been edited for length. Thank you to everyone who participated. See the above gallery for those responses. --- Related on ThinkAdvisor:

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