What does a financial advisor earn?

Answer 1

Financial Advisors are almost always paid by commission. Sometimes if you are in a rookie training program at a wirehouse or broker dealer like Morgan Stanley you will get paid some 80% of your former salary for about a year. Once you get through training you get paid, again, by commission. You gather assets and earn a percentage on those assets depending on what you sell. Annuities usually pay 5%, mutual funds pay 1-5%, stock and bond trades pay 1-2.5%. Certain products also pay trails and the firm usually takes anywhere from 10-65% or more of what you produce depending on your level of independence. So if you look at a very nice trade say a client brings you a million dollars to invest. You can make anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 for doing that trade. The firm takes a percentage of that. In my experience a financial advisor's salary varies widely depending on how good that financial advisor is, how experienced, how connected, what types of clients they are pursuing, how hard they want to work and how good they are at closing. I know financial advisors who make around $3,000 dollars a month and I know financial advisors that make $40,000 a month even in smaller bank programs like WaMu Investments or Wells Fargo Investments. Then there are the heavy hitters, guys and gals who work for Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley who manage billions and make millions. If you are extremely bright, very good in sales, good with people and have a ton of drive and motivation the world is your oyster in this profession, however, if you don't like sales, dealing with the uncertainty of the Stock Market and don't enjoy getting yelled at a hundred times a day in bad markets then a career in this industry may not be for you. I've really only seen very few people who can truly do this. Then there are many who simply muddle along year after year. Times like this shakes many out of the industry. I've been doing this for 8 years and my salary has grown from 32k per year in year one to $340,000 a year last year. The more you make the more you spend, the more you are in this business the more you invest and the more you will see your net worth rise and fall in crazy economies like the one we are in. Financial Advisors are almost always paid by commission. Sometimes if you are in a rookie training program at a wirehouse or broker dealer like Morgan Stanley you will get paid some 80% of your former salary for about a year. Once you get through training you get paid, again, by commission. You gather assets and earn a percentage on those assets depending on what you sell. Annuities usually pay 5%, mutual funds pay 1-5%, stock and bond trades pay 1-2.5%. Certain products also pay trails and the firm usually takes anywhere from 10-65% or more of what you produce depending on your level of independence. So if you look at a very nice trade say a client brings you a million dollars to invest. You can make anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 for doing that trade. The firm takes a percentage of that. In my experience a financial advisor's salary varies widely depending on how good that financial advisor is, how experienced, how connected, what types of clients they are pursuing, how hard they want to work and how good they are at closing. I know financial advisors who make around $3,000 dollars a month and I know financial advisors that make $40,000 a month even in smaller bank programs like WaMu Investments or Wells Fargo Investments. Then there are the heavy hitters, guys and gals who work for Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley who manage billions and make millions. If you are extremely bright, very good in sales, good with people and have a ton of drive and motivation the world is your oyster in this profession, however, if you don't like sales, dealing with the uncertainty of the stock market and don't enjoy getting yelled at a hundred times a day in bad markets then a career in this industry may not be for you. I've really only seen very few people who can truly do this. Then there are many who simply muddle along year after year. Times like this shakes many out of the industry. I've been doing this for 8 years and my salary has grown from 32k per year in year one to $340,000 a year last year. The more you make the more you spend, the more you are in this business the more you invest and the more you will see your net worth rise and fall in crazy economies like the one we are in.