It was dissatisfaction with advice she received from a financial services firm about how to roll over her 401(k) that led Kim Potvin to become a Financial Advisor. The experience convinced her of how important it was to provide people of any income level with a clear understanding of financial matters. Now, she’s a Financial Advisor and Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor℠ at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney—and she finds the profession to be a perfect fit for her talents. She talked to us about why she became a Financial Advisor and what she likes about the job.

What did you do right out of school?
When I graduated from college, I had no intention of entering finance. I shied away from entering business, after taking some economics classes in school. It didn’t seem to be for me.

I ended up working for a large software company in marketing. I traveled. It was interesting. But after four years, I felt I had reached the end of the road. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I didn’t want a desk job. I thought about becoming a doctor. I liked education.

It was during that process that I had to roll over my 401(k) and I was very unhappy with my experience. I had come from a good school. I knew how to follow new information. But it wasn’t presented to me in a coherent way. There was a whole language that I wasn’t comfortable with. And I realized that, regardless of your career path, you need to have a good handle on your finances to make sure you have a secure future, your family is protected. That led me to pursue this career.

How did you proceed?
I sought out people through contacts to get more information—six degrees of separation kind of thing. And I decided to get into financial planning based on those conversations. In 2005, I got a job at Merrill Lynch. Then in 2009, I was recruited by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

What did you do to find clients?
I did cold calling and seminars at first, worked my own personal network. But mostly I tried to get out there and present to groups, like bar associations, accounting societies. I’m a very good public speaker and I find it gives people an automatic comfort level when they’re deciding whether to work with me or not.

I think that all my marketing, my talks have paid off, because I get a lot of referrals.

What do you like about the job?
Every day is different, a surprise. Every day, you go to different places, meet with different clients. And every client has a different situation. You need to be creative. It’s completely different from a job where you do the same thing every day.

It’s also very rewarding. A year ago, a client told me, “Kim, I wish I’d met you sooner. You’ve really helped me. Now I can sleep at night.”

What advice would you give women considering entering the profession?
I’ve learned that 99.9% of the time, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, you want things explained to you in plain English. You need to present things to people in a way that makes it accessible. Also, women often have skill sets that can help. They tend to be very strong listeners and communicators. That is critical.

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