How Bank of America Supported My Pivot to a Financial Advisor Role: And How I Excel in This Position

If asked what inspired her to become a financial advisor, Kerry Cabral would tell you that business always interested her, inspiring her to open a lemonade stand as a child. “I wanted my own things and was super eager to make my own money,” she recalls. “I became a little entrepreneur! That’s why I was really excited to take a Finance & Marketing class when I was a senior in high school. I wanted to learn about things like the stock market and improve my financial knowledge. To my disappointment, the class hardly covered anything I was hoping to learn — but I learned enough to know that Financial Service was what I wanted to do.”

Even with this knowledge, Cabral notes that her career journey took a few additional stops before she was able to achieve her goal. For instance, Cabral spent time working for a Bank of America competitor in a sales role, where she wasn’t encouraged to get licensed and begin her desired career as a financial advisor. “They put up obstacles and didn’t provide protected time to study and prepare,” she remembers.

However, Cabral persisted! And, when a former manager told her about Bank of America’s development programs and all the career growth support they provide, Cabral was sold. She ended up joining Bank of America in a Relationship Manager role and trusted the company to enable her to grow into her dream role — and this trust paid off!

Within one year, Cabral got the chance to apply for an Advisor Development Program. As part of this formal training program, “I had one-on-one training, courses, and peer mentorship that helped me get my licenses and start my financial advisor career,” Cabral explains. “This was unlike my previous bank, where I had to study for this on my own with no courses, no instruction, no protected time, and no plan for getting the other licenses you need to be an advisor.”

And this support just kept on coming, with Bank of America continuously empowering Cabral to grow her career as a financial advisor. Today, she’s risen to become an ADP Financial Advisor/Portfolio Manager. 

Reflecting back on her journey, Cabral reveals that her best advice for other women who are considering becoming a financial advisor is to not think of this career as a male dominated industry. “As women, we have a unique opportunity to bring a lot to the table as financial professionals,” Cabral emphasizes. “I’ve participated in a lot of groups and meetings for female advisors and have seen how that mindset affects our confidence. I think women have an upper hand because of our ability to build relationships, our attention to detail, and our ability to listen.” 

Further, at Bank of America and Merrill, there are a great number of women leaders to learn from. “Currently, I have a woman as a manager and her manager is also a woman all the way up to the top of our leadership chain,” shares Cabral. “I have also had great male leaders in my career, but, in my current role, I’m surrounded by such strong, hardworking women leaders. I really feel empowered to succeed and inspired by their work ethic. I also feel that if I ever need anything, they will advocate for me.” 

In this article, Cabral shares more about how Bank of America has supported her journey and an inside look at her current role. If you’re interested in a career as a financial advisor, read on… 

How growing as a financial advisor works at Bank of America. 

To start, Bank of America has different financial advisor roles. Can you tell us about them and what makes them different from each other? 

As you know, I started as an ADP FSA, which stands for Financial Solutions Advisor. I was based in a Bank financial center, and my role was a hybrid of a relationship manager and a financial advisor. The position helps you get familiar with all the formalities of being a financial advisor, but with a smaller and simpler product offering that is easy to understand and easy to help clients get started with investing, no matter their level of complexity. It is also less intimidating because you have clients walking in the door of Bank of America, so you can really focus on developing your skills as an advisor without worrying about where you are going to find your next client. In this role, you would also have some responsibility to help the financial center with banking. 

The MFSA (Merrill Financial Solutions Advisor) role is the next step in the financial planning world because you no longer have the banking responsibilities and can solely focus on building your client book as a more established advisor with access to more customized planning tools. While you don’t have access to walk-in Bank clients, you still get support with leads that the bank supplies while networking on your own. Also, you sit in an office (instead of a financial center) making calls and fine-tuning your ability to create customized wealth outlook plans. The clients you acquire in this role will be yours to continue working with throughout your career. 

ADP Financial Advisor, is my current position and is really the point where I feel like I’m driving my own ship. There is more freedom with putting together custom portfolios for clients and managing the business the way you think will make you successful in this career. As my manager would say: “all the training wheels are off”. You’re no longer given warm bank leads, so you will need to self-source all your clients. But you still get support, you will still get guidance, and you still receive best-in-practice tips from successful advisors to model your business plan. You also get the opportunity to partner or join with another team if you choose. The program can range from one-to-four years for you to fine-tune your skills.

As someone who recently moved on to the ADP FA role, can you tell us how this program worked for you? 

The ADP program enables you to move and stop where you’re comfortable, which is key. So you can work in a Financial Center if that’s what you prefer or move on to work with a Merrill team. I was ready to make a shift and explore more complex financial needs and situations.

The warm lead lists from the Bank gave me the support I needed to get started building a book of business — it's really like a jumpstart to your career as an advisor. You start with identifying good prospects who you can help, setting up meetings with them, and then showing the value you can offer. Having the ability to establish my first clients this way gave me more confidence to take it a step further and join networking events and talk to people within my personal network about what I do and how I could help them.

An inside look at my ADP FA role.

What skills or tools do you find help you flourish in this role? How do you approach your day?

The most important tools are being organized and the ability to listen. This involves understanding your client’s financial goals and concerns, taking into consideration what’s going on in their personal life, and having your advice and guidance support all of that. It’s important to show that you genuinely care about helping clients achieve their goals. I also aggressively follow through on anything I say that I’m going to do or find out for a client or prospect to give them that confidence that I am reliable. 

It’s also important to not let rejection get to you. Sometimes, things don’t fit, but it’s still something that you can learn from and will benefit you later. Staying up to date on the latest news and not being afraid to ask senior advisors questions when I’m stuck has helped me stay confident in the way I run my business. 

I will also note that I have made it a point to network with as many senior advisors as possible. Doing this not only helped me fine-tune my professionalism and approach to topics that I should stay up to date on, but it also gave me perspective on what types of financial advisor team situations are out there. This will also help when you come to a point where you may want to join a team.

Finally, what are your favorite things about your job?

My favorite things about my job are meeting and getting to know new people from many different backgrounds and building solid relationships with the people who become clients. I always remember how I felt when I knew nothing about the stock market, and I enjoy helping my clients by not only building them a plan and managing their finances, but also by making it a point to help them understand what is going on behind the scenes. This helps them get more value out of our relationship by having someone who can explain how this all works in simple terms.

Also, I like feeling as though I’m running my own business. You are given the tools and the knowledge to succeed, and it’s up to you to have the drive to make it happen. I love knowing that I can work independently and my effort directly affects my compensation.

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