With financial uncertainty and unprecedented challenges looming virtually everywhere, with your country on a path to financial disaster, with government regulators lurking around every corner, with incompetence and bickering covering the political landscape and with anger at your profession being manifested in noisy and sometimes violent demonstrations. . .

You very well might ask: what about my professional life is there to be thankful for this Thanksgiving?

But if you calm down, take a deep breath and let your anger cool, many reasons to give thanks that you're a financial advisor will come to mind.

Think of your clients -- and all the things you've done for them and will do in the future; not just for them, but for others who will come to you. No other profession helps people get rich, pulls them from poverty and helps them achieve their goals -- and gets paid for it. That's an opportunity to be thankful for.

Be thankful for your professional organizations, which provide opportunities for vital continuing education, for making new friends and for expanding your horizons. Be thankful, too, for their advancing and protecting your interests in the political arena. Without them, things would be a lot worse.

Be thankful that the need and demand for your services has never been greater. Financial consciousness is at an all-time high. Nearly 60% of U.S. Internet users visit at least one of the top 20 financial institution sites, according to ComScore.

Good financial advice remains one of the hardest things to find. Some surveys show a growing distrust of financial advisors. While this is sad, it also opens the way for honest and competent advisors to stand out and prosper.

If you're a relatively young advisor, you could be grateful for a supply and demand environment resulting from an aging population of advisors.`The average age of a million-dollar producer is 50-plus. Add to this: the largest firms have stopped training young aspirants, probably because many of their trainees couldn't cut it.

The Headhunter blog cites this reduced supply of advisors as one reason why we're now in the "golden age of opportunity for financial advisors.".

The blog went on to say "succession planning for big books in big firms will become a hotter and hotter issue over the next ten years. Meanwhile, both choices and recruiting dollars have never been greater."

Probably the most compelling reason you should give thanks this Thanksgiving lies in the very uncertainties and challenges you worry about. Without these, no one would need you -- at least not as much as they do now.

FA

To Receive FA Digital Updates Submit Your Email Address
Simply go online to www.FA-Digital.com/digital and enter your Email address. That's all there is to it.