Private wealth management or credit analyst
Need advice.
I graduated from a non-target and sold insurance for a year before getting an internship in the insurance company's home office investment department. I landed a job with a local financial advisor partnership that manages roughly 700 million dollars for individuals, institutions, and endowments.
Option One: Stay in PWM
They are impressed and want me to take over servicing bottom part of book and managing the bond money (roughly half of the assets). I also work closely with research on our 2 equity models. My bosses are Barron's top 1000 advisors and one has been named a top 100 investment advisor as well. He has his CFA and is helping me in pursuing mine.
Option Two: Move to Credit Analyst Role
In saying all of that, I was recently approached by a national bank headquartered here to come on as a credit analyst.
Questions:
- What of these 2 jobs is better for b school applications?
- Offers better exit ops?
- Will help me get into a career as a portfolio manager or analyst at a big firm?
Considerations for Making a Career Change
OP has two interesting offers that could each offer fulfilling, if different, career paths. While it’s hard to know which is the right choice without more details, here are some recommendations from forum users:
- From Certified Asset Management Professional @Bobb" : The PWM sounds pretty awesome. Not really that strong for b-school but for a career. A real strong team with a good book of business having you do what seems to be meaningful and interesting work, not just admin bs.
- From Certified Investment Banking Professional @streetwannabe" : You'll have to be a little more specific on what exactly you'll be doing as a credit analyst.
- From Certified Equity Research Professional @Something Creative" : It sounds like you have a pretty good opportunity at the PWM place to actually enjoy yourself and do something worthwhile. Having a huge book of business in PWM can net you a pretty good income. You could even be your own Analyst down the road and do your own research to put the clients into whatever investments you thought were good. The Credit Analyst would be better for exit op's and for potentially someday becoming a PM at a large firm.
- From Certified Consulting Professional @UFOinsider" : If you don't want to do PWM long term......don't do PWM if you have an actual analyst job lined up. If you want to do analyst/PM work long term.......then do the ANALYST job and go to bschool.
Recommended Reading
Credit analyst. Do it.
/end thread
That PWM sounds pretty awesome. Not really that strong for b-school but for a career. A real strong team with a good book of business having you do what seems to be meaninful and interesting work, not just admin bs.
You mentioned you manage the the bond money. Do you have discretion over the accounts and actively managed 350MM worth of bonds?
You'll have to be a little more specific on what exactly you'll be doing as a credit analyst.
Yes I have discretion for the most part. I invest in munis and corporates depending on clients tax bracket. I call them when asset allocation gets out of balance or if something is maturing and then go out and search for the best available bond. I invest in a 15 year ladder. Don't play the interest rate market, just keep stuff maturing every year and reinvest. Trying to keep stuff on the short end currently tho.
I believe the credit analyst would be more ratio analysis of loan applications of 1 million or more. A real stress free 9-5 job.
I am going to get my CFA either way. So with a nice GMAT, CFA, and 4 years of work experience at one or the other I want to go to a top 30 or atleast top 50 program.
Dream job would be equity analyst or portfolio manager at a larger firm.
I wouldn't even bother with an MBA.
It would be a real stretch to go from PWM to Analyst or PM at a large AM firm. Your best bet for that and for b-school would most likely be from the Credit Analyst role.
That said, like someone else also mentioned, it sounds like you have a pretty good opportunity at the PWM place to actually enjoy yourself and do something worthwhile. Having a huge book of business in PWM can net you a pretty good income.
You could even be your own Analyst down the road and do your own research to put the clients into whatever investments you thought were good.
So to answer your actual question, the Credit Analyst would be better for exit op's and for potentially someday becoming a PM at a large firm.
No, you would not be able to leverage rolling maturing bonds into a PM job at a place like PIMCO. PM's there are going to be Booth/MIT MBA's that come in and actively trade derivatives and various credits. Almost no Associates there even get promoted to PM. That's not a knock on the bond management that he gets to do now, but it's not the same thing.
Right. I should have specified, I wasn't talking about leveraging it into a PM role, but it could probably be leveraged into a lesser role after a few years. Personally though, if I liked the PWM role I might just stay there. It sounds like it has the potential to be a comfy lifestyle.
PWM is pretty awful starting out, cold calling and trying to grow a big. Once you have the AUM it becomes easier, pretty high paying and a comfy lifestyle. You seemed to have skipped the tough part and jumped into where it is enjoyable, actually managing the money and relationships.
I'd stick to the PWM role while getting your CFA and see where it takes. Have you taken the GMAT yet? Is it possible to study for both CFA and GMAT at the same time
It is possible I was studying for the CFA GMAT series 7 and series 66 all at once. Passed the 7 after 2 weeks, 66 after 1, taking GMAT in August, having a kid in November, and CFA 1 in December.
While playing college football I was up at 3:30 every morning and home around 9:00 every night so that has made my time management skills.
It is a pretty nice job our production is between 5 and 6 million. 2 senior partners 3 secretary type employees and then me and another guy that service bottom half of book (180 million) and do leg work on compiling the research for our equity portfolios that the senior partner with a CFA runs. Me and the other young guy (who's a CPA and level 2 CFA candidate) get a small payout on those assets we service and of the bond commissions we service.
At the end of the day alot of headache from over 2,000 accounts and 600 households.
I just want to be in the best place to tell a compelling story in application to b school with CFA behind my name and a GMAT north of 750. I scored over 760 on practice GMAT. I have a 3.6 major GPA from a very non target state school in the south that I played football for on a team that was ranked in the top 25 and competed in a bowl game. If that holds any weight.
That is pretty good revenue and you seem to part of a pretty large team but I can definitely understand where you are coming from with all the bs from the accounts etc. Are you in any position to take over as a their roles or become more of a partner anytime in the future?
I'd assume you played for UGA based on the username.
I would be able to become a senior partner if I start bringing in accounts. I would be able to buy the practice with a loan from the broker dealer when the are ready to retire.
A former professor thinks that if I get the CFA and score above 750 GMAT that UT Austin isn't out of the question. My supervisor at my 6 month internship was the CIO of the insurance company and he has agreed to write a recommendation. The head of the finance department at my undergrad has agreed to write one too.
What GMAT would it take and at what CFA level candidacy would I have a shot at UT Austin?
If you don't want to do PWM long term......don't do PWM if you have an actual analyst job lined up. If you want to do analyst/PM work long term.......then do the ANALYST job and go to bschool. IF you bring in revenue, IF the senior partners retire, IF IF IF, that's no way to plan. Do the job that leads to the results you want.
PWM can be extremely profitable, and some people love it and are good at it. Maybe you will, I don't know. But realize that you will be a glorified admin for a very long time and your exit ops will be shit forever, grad school included. After credit analysis, you have many more options after only a year or two. You can also get the CFA at that job if you're working 9-5. Credit analyst + CFA + decent recs = top 30 bschool easily.
You can not plan on PWM -> bond fund PM. Don't be stupid. Take the analyst job.
A 750 GMAT and the fact that you played D1 Football will be waaaaaaay more than enough for UT. You could shoot for top 5 there and almost assuredly get into one of them assuming your application was well done.
Edit: http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/MBA/Full-Time/Admissions/Class-Profile.as…
Does the size of the bank matter? Its a bank with 10 Billion in assets on the balance sheet and from what I hear I would show up and be given financial statements to conduct ratio analysis. Similar to what I do on some of our bigger corporate bond positions anytime ratings or outlook change.
Before I jump ship I want to know that I am doing the right thing. Graduating 2011 in finance and working my way from insurance pimp to home office internship with CFAs and MBAs to a full time offer with the biggest PWM practice in the state. I don't want to leave to only realize that this experience would give me a better opportunity than performing ratio analysis of 1 million dollar loans at a small national bank.
Anyone that doesn't mind giving me a little more personal feedback feel free to private message me and I will also give a little more information on the matter.
redacted
Vega thanks for the post it is the feedback that I got from my former supervisor (CIO of a 12 billion in assets life insurance company) and the head of finance at my undergrad. My current boss is also the former president of the state CFA society and I'd hate to burn a bridge. I'd like to hear some more from you about leveraging this experience into a top 10 b school and then a research analyst to portfolio manager position. I think that my boss has a very unique practice. No bond MFs, only a small amount of MFs and a proprietary equity strategy that is murderibg the market.
BSD????
If you don't mind helping me out I'd appreciate it if you private messages me with insight in things I should do outside of work, designation, GMAT score, etc to get where I want to be. I'm obviously very competitive and career oriented and don't mind putting in the work to achieve the results.
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