#Couplegoal: Staying blessed to be a blessing to others

For Insular Life (InLife) financial advisors and married couple Mark and Mica Fernandez, being blessed is a strong motivation to be a blessing to others.

Mark and Mica were working as accountants before they became InLife financial advisors in 2009 and 2012, respectively.

During the recent InLife Winners Circle Business Opportunity Forum entitled “Achieving Financial Harmony,” Mark recalled that he was attracted by the flashy stock picker shown on Insular Life Building along Ayala Avenue in Makati City. His curiosity to learn about investing in the stock market motivated him to submit his resume in InLife and eventually work as a part-time financial advisor.

After realizing that his calling in life was to give advice to people on how to become financially independent, Mark left the accounting firm after six months to work full-time as a financial advisor – an unfamiliar profession to many which he admitted was then frowned upon by his father who lives in Dumaguete City in Negros. Determined to make his father proud, Mark worked hard until he became one of InLife’s top performing financial advisors. He became part of the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table, an association of the top 5% of financial advisors all over the world at age 23.

Mica, on the other hand, worked in an accounting firm for three years. Intrigued with her friends who seemed so happy about the income and gratifications they were getting from their side hustle, she was introduced to the world of InLife financial advisors. She was contented with being a part-time advisor at first, until her family in Batangas was faced with a difficult financial situation. They needed a huge amount of money to pay for their mortgaged house, otherwise they might lose it.

“The challenge was to pay a P1 million loan with my P30,000 monthly salary. Even if I pay P10,000 monthly, P7,000 would go to interest and only P3,000 for the principal amount. This would take me 20 to 28 years to pay the loan. So, I decided to go full-time as a financial advisor. And because of that big decision, I was able to settle my parent’s loan in two years,” Mica shared.

In 2018, they started Aetos FPH Financial Insurance Agency Inc. with Mica as President and Mark as Chairman. Starting with only 15 financial advisors, the agency has now grown to 57 financial advisors, particularly from Metro Manila, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Batangas, Rizal, Laguna, Iloilo, Cebu, Aklan, and Cagayan.

Mark explained that his profession as a financial advisor allowed him to learn more about investments and insurance which have allowed his family to be financially independent. The profession also allowed him to be a hands-on parent to their daughter due to the work from home nature of the job while still earning a generous income, international travel incentives, industry recognitions, as well as opportunities for career growth by helping aspiring young financial advisors become top financial advisors.

“We help our policyholders reach their financial goals. We also help our financial advisors through mentoring and training,” Mica said.

“The experience and struggles as a financial advisor were definitely worth it,” Mark said, adding that his family in Dumaguete is now his biggest fan.

The couple shared their four tried and tested ways to reach their financial goals:

Build a surplus mindset to enable you to afford things and achieve your dreams, rather than settle for a shortage mindset.
Invest in yourself. Study and attend training programs.
Be determined to achieve your goals.
Start building multiple streams of income.

Mark added that the country needs more financial advisors to spread the benefits of financial planning to more Filipinos. The couple noted that if more people are financially literate, there will be lesser poverty in the country.

InLife, the country’s largest Filipino life insurance company, hopes to multiply Mark and Mica’s winning journey as financial advisors. To become financial advisors, simply attend InLife’s monthly Winners Circle Business Opportunity Forum; take the licensure exam and get licensed; and complete the basic training program. Visit https://tinyurl.com/4vap2y2y for more details.

Spotlight is BusinessWorld’s sponsored section that allows advertisers to amplify their brand and connect with BusinessWorld’s audience by enabling them to publish their stories directly on the BusinessWorld Web site. For more information, send an email to online@bworldonline.com.

Join us on Viber to get more updates from BusinessWorld: https://bit.ly/3hv6bLA.