College qualifications

Today, to become a financial advisor qualifications must include, at the very minimum, a Batchelor’s degree in a finance-related subject For instance, Financial Planning, Business, Economics, Accounting, and so on. In a addition, grades must be impressive, not mediocre.

With this level of qualifications, you will find competition for Financial Advisor positions is fierce. To gain an edge, and a greater likelihood of obtaining the most desirable positions, it is advisable that prospective Financial Advisors extend their qualifications to include a Masters degree. This should be in the same or similar finance-related subject as the Bachelors degree.

To reduce time spent at college, a sensible option is to enroll in a college with dual Bachelor and Masters degree programs. These allow you to study for and graduate with both degrees at the same time, shaving about two years off time at college.

Experience

To be considered as a Financial Advisor, educational qualifications are just the beginning. You will also need to qualify in terms of experience. Most prospective employees will look for at least two years finance-related work experience. This will be gained in part through internships in financial positions completed to fulfill degree requirements.

Once hired, most employers spend considerable amounts providing further experience and in-house training. Consequently, they are extremely selective at the recruitment stage. This is why, if you want to boost your prospects of being hired as a Financial Advisor, excellent qualifications are essential.

Professional qualifications

Once hired, you will need to obtain a further set of qualifications. You will not be able to practice as a Financial Advisor until you become certified and licensed. To do this, you will need to pass the Series 7 Stockbroker’ s and Series 66 Uniform Combined State Law Exams.

Most employers will sponsor you through these exams – one of the expenses that necessitates a highly-selective approach to recruitment. You will need to refresh these qualifications yearly, to demonstrate continued competence as a Financial Advisor.

Clearly, as a prospective Financial Advisor, qualifications are the key to recruitment and progress. To achieve the quality and extent of qualifications that today’s employers require, you will need to be prepared to work hard at the expense of your social life.

As with other careers, the average salary of a financial advisor will vary according to a number of factors. In particular, educational background, experience, location and the health of the financial market. Information also varies depending on how recently salaries have been surveyed and in what manner.

To complicate matters, financial advisors commonly earn a salary plus bonuses and commissions. It is not always clear whether data is referring to salaries only or total earnings.

That said, it is possible to get an idea of the average salary of a financial advisor by looking at starting rates and achievable (i.e. fairly common) salaries at the higher end-of the pay scale using some of the more reliable information available.

Salary information from Money Magazine & Salary.com

According to a joint Money Magazine and Salary.com survey, most Financial Advisors earn between $32,700 and $144,200. The lower figure would be earned by a new recruit with a Batchelor’s Degree and 2 years’ finance-related experience, the higher by a highly-experienced and established Financial Advisor. The median salary of Financial Advisors in this survey is $66,800.

Average salary according to Payscale.com

PayScale.com, provider of real-time salary reports, takes a different and more detailed view. It looks at the average salary of Financial Advisors from a number of perspectives: by city, experience, company size and so on.

PayScale.com data for November 2007 indicates that the average salary of Financial Advisors is $39,951 for those with less than a year’s experience and $64,945 for those with 10-19 years’ experience. 10% of Financial Advisors earn more than $100,000. How much more is not specified.

Salaries also vary considerably from city to city. The median salary for a Financial Advisor in Dallas is $40,327 while salaries in New York are almost 60% higher, at $63,936.

PayScale.com estimates that highly-experienced, established Financial Advisors earn between $100,000 to $200,000 dollars a year.

In summary…

Though by no means identical, figures from both sources – Money Magazine/Salary.com and PayScale.com are in much the same ballpark. It’s clear that the more elements you have in place – education, experience, and the city and firm within which you work – the higher your salary as a Financial Advisor will be.

Certainly you can expect to start at around $32,000 and have a realistic chance of earning $150,000 if you are invest in your education and make wise decisions about where you work. Do well and you can expect healthy additional income in the form of bonuses.

In other words, it’s up to you whether you earn an average salary as a Financial Advisor or much more.

First of all, the job descripition of a financial advisor does indeed involve handling large amounts of money – amounts that may run into the millions depending on the advisor’s expertise and experience. Though high-earners themselves, the money belongs to other people.

In a nutshell, it is the financial advisor’s job, as an employee of firms like Merrill-Lynch, Morgan Stanley and TD Waterhouse, to help clients how to make the most of their money.
For instance, the job description of a financial advisor includes helping clients to:

• Understand the risks and rewards of various investment options.
• Protect clients from loss and alert them to opportunities resulting from market shifts.
• Invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and so on, earning money through interest and maturity.
• Establish trust funds for children.
• Set up retirement portfolios, investing 401k money into interest-bearing accounts
• Source funding for business or other needs.

Naturally the job of financial advisor – managing life savings and million dollar fortunes – requires a particular skill set. Financial advisors possess a finance-related Bachelors degree at minimum and have passed the necessary exams to be a certified and licensed Financial Advisor. Through subsequently training and experience, they have proven themselves to possess the necessary skills and expertise to successfully manage client accounts.

In the early days of their career, the job of a financial advisor involves working extremely hard, typically undergoing intensive in-house training while simultaneously studying for exams to become certified and licensed. Employers invest a great deal of time and money in new recruits and because of this, are extremely selective at the recruitment stage.

Salaries of financial advisors are typically high, boosted by commissions and bonuses with earnings increasing considerably with experience and success. For an opportunity to enjoy these rewards, prospective financial advisors must be prepared to study hard, train hard and work hard.