Financial Advisor vs. AM

I want to get into AM, particularly alternative assets, Level 2 CAIA now, and will get my charter in April. I have an opportunity to start as a financial advisor at MS. I also have the opportunity to do a finance rotation program at Capital One. I'm lacking finance experience, so I was curious what would help me break into AM better?

 
Best Response

She is joking. FA is a total different skill set from IBD. FA is a sales job where you need to know highlights of the financial market. You are selling proprietary funds and getting a commission. You can make a lot of money, but you pretty much starve for the first 5 years until you build your book. More sophisticated FA's get a CFP and build a portfolio for their clients, but this isn't what you are doing in the beginning.

IBD is nothing like FA.

 

Don't knock the FA's! A friend of mine started as a FA at Ed Jones. He left after two years, became an independent FA, and now his firm is approaching 1bil under management. The guy is young, has an obscene amount of money, and works 40 hours a week. I would give up on IB in a second if I could swap places with him.

That being said, many FA's are just glorified salesmen.

 
TheDude2.0:
Don't knock the FA's! A friend of mine started as a FA at Ed Jones. He left after two years, became an independent FA, and now his firm is approaching 1bil under management. The guy is young, has an obscene amount of money, and works 40 hours a week. I would give up on IB in a second if I could swap places with him.

That being said, many FA's are just glorified salesmen.

You can absolutely make a lot of money being an FA. I would say that he is the exception rather than the case though.

 

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