ROLE
Associate Advisor
Earn a $2,000 to $5,000 monthly stipend while you learn financial planning one-on-one from a CFP® with more than 35 years in practice. Then build a Flagstaff client base that's genuinely yours, with no sales quotas, no license required to start, and the firm covering every cost of running your practice. This is a very special opportunity.
ROLE HIGHLIGHTS
SALARY
$24,000 - $ 60,000 base + bonus
LOCATION
Flagstaff, AZ
TYPE
Full-time
Job description
You'll be the newest advisor at an independent financial planning firm in Flagstaff, learning the business one-on-one from its founder and building a client base that is genuinely yours.
Nearly 7 in 10 new advisors leave the industry within five years. Most start at large firms with a sales quota, a cold-call list, and a book that belongs to the firm. The few who make it usually start inside an established practice, with a mentor who wants them to succeed. This seat is built to give you that start. No license or industry experience is required.
Our client is a Registered Investment Advisor that has served Flagstaff and northern Arizona for more than 35 years, with a growing client base in Phoenix. The founder describes the team as "general practitioner financial doctors." They help individuals, families, business owners, and retirees make good decisions with their money, explain everything in plain language, and stay with clients for decades. The investment approach is deliberately simple: short-term needs are set aside first, and long-term money is invested with an owner's mindset in time-tested, low-cost, no-commission share classes. The firm doesn't chase trends or produce 50-page reports, and it's known for winning over clients who arrive with accounts at large brokerage firms.
You'll join a small team: the founder and one other advisor, a Flagstaff native who joined from outside the industry. Each advisor sets their own schedule and builds their own practice. The founder is now bringing in one more person to grow alongside the team and help carry the firm's approach forward for the long term.
What makes this role unique?
You learn from a real mentor, one-on-one. There's no training class and no sales manager. You'll learn directly from a CFP® with more than 35 years in practice, sitting in his client meetings and learning how he earns trust.
You start a practice without the startup cost. Going independent usually means paying for an office, technology, custodians, and compliance before earning a dollar. The firm covers all of it, so you can focus entirely on clients.
The model has been proven from scratch. The firm's most recent hire came from a pre-med track with no financial services background. In under three years, she built roughly $18 million in client assets without a quota, and her stipend has more than doubled along the way.
You're introduced, not sent out cold. The founder plugs new advisors into local business groups, estate planning attorneys and other referral partners, and community education events where people want to talk about money. As you prove yourself, some of his existing clients move to you.
You never have to sell something you don't believe in. There are no quotas, product targets, or commission-driven incentives. Your only job is to help people, and the firm trusts that doing it well builds the business.
What you build is yours. This isn't a job you hold until a bigger firm recruits you. It's a long-term practice in a community you call home, with client relationships that stay with you.
What you will do
Study for and pass the Series 65 in your first two to three months while learning the firm's planning process alongside the founder.
Sit in on client meetings to learn how the firm builds trust and explains decisions, then begin leading your own.
Build relationships across Flagstaff through your personal network, local businesses, community organizations, and referral partners.
Meet with prospective clients, understand what they want their money to do for them, and build simple, durable plans.
Manage and grow your own book of clients, including relationships transitioned from the founder's practice as you're ready.
Stay with clients through market ups and downs, keeping them focused on the long term.
Over time, pursue the CFP® designation.
The ideal candidate
You want work that genuinely helps people. Maybe you prepare taxes, sell insurance, teach, work in healthcare, or run a small business, and people keep coming to you with questions about money.
You're entrepreneurial. You'd rather build something of your own than wait for a paycheck every two weeks, and you keep yourself on track without anyone checking in.
You can explain complicated ideas simply, and you'd never use jargon to make someone feel small.
Your own finances are in order. You live within your means and are prepared for modest earnings in your first two or three years. In the experience of the firm's most recent hire, an advisor here reaches a comfortable, self-supporting income at around $15 to $20 million in client assets.
You're curious about planning, investing, and how money shapes people's lives, and you enjoy meeting new people.
Flagstaff is home, or you want it to be, for the long haul.
New to the industry or early in your career is ideal. Career changers are encouraged, including enrolled agents, tax preparers, and insurance professionals looking to add financial planning.