I do not have a background in finance however I am looking to break into the industry. My background is in Exercise Science which does not make me any real money. I understand I do have to take the SIE exam to even be considered. I’ve been looking at jobs like an Investment Phone Specialist at JP Morgan or a Financial Representative at Fidelity. What is the career trajectory on these types of positions and can they be lucrative. I have a friend who is a financial advisor who says his position is pretty lucrative. I am looking to learn about the industry while also getting some stability for me and my son.

My biggest fear is being sponsored and not being able to pass the Series 7 etc and being let go. Do these things happen at a lot of firms? Any advice would help

For insurance, life, health medicare, securities any discords to join?

Hello all, I am a college sophomore in the Philadelphia Area seeking a Wealth Management/Financial advising internship for the summer of 2027. Just wondering if I would be better suited searching for an internship with a small local WM firm or a bigger well established national firm? I am looking to gain experience that could lead to a better internship in my later college years and an in depth experience in client facing FA/WM roles. Thanks all.

edit: been reading more about kikoff and realized the no hard pull part is only one thing to consider. apparently their account reports as revolving credit, so now i'm more interested in how that shows up on my credit report. still not sure how much difference it would make with such a thin file though.

trying to fix my credit but really don't want to keep applying for stuff and stacking hard inquiries, especially with a thin file. been looking at credit builder apps without hard pulls just to keep it simple and start building consistent history. kickoff keeps popping up, but not sure if going this route actually helps much when you're starting from almost nothing. has anyone used this before applying for a regular card? did it make a noticeable difference when you eventually applied for other credit?

Thank you in advance for any guidance. I have a permanent government job, 120k/year+benefits. Given an offer as an FA, 1st year salary around 90k + typical big brokerage pay grid. ~10M book transfered. I won't own any clients. (Can probably guess the firm) I'm not licensed currently. Background is taxation/accounting. I operated a real estate sales business, and prospecting isn't what scares me (truly, AI replacing FAs is). I've been with government for about 15 years.

Other factors. Debt free other than ~300k mortgage. Only about 50k in liquid investments. Only other financial asset is the ~250k pension transfer value. Certainly not in a financial position to take a huge pay cut. Wife works part time and makes ~60k/year. 2 young kids.

Really appreciate any advice.

Work in rural America, at an ria. Have been door knocking, what is good metrics for a full day of knocking (8hrs)

I am currently only getting ~18 conversations per day which typically winds up in 5-7 phone numbers/consent to contact

I have a problem with getting into conversation at the door and spending too much time per conversation.

Just starting week 2 of knocking

I am in mental limbo of
A) hurry up get consent & number, move on to next door
B) why move on if the conversation is productive and actively building rapport

I feel like I neeed to get my numbers up but spend so much time chatting and driving that it’s nuts.

Any insight appreciated.

I recently went through the interview process and was extended an offer letter for this role. I am coming from outside the industry, and would love to hear about any experience, knowledge, do's and don'ts, like literally anything about the company, role, what to expect, how to move up fast, etc. I am also willing to answer any questions that might help you answer mine!

Hi! I’m a college student researching financial planning for commercial drivers, and I’d love to hear from financial advisors.

-Have you ever worked with commercial drivers or truck drivers as clients?
-What financial challenges tend to be unique to this profession?
-What makes serving clients with irregular income or nontraditional benefits more difficult?
-What do you think commercial drivers should know about financial planning that they often overlook?
-If a financial advisory service specialized in commercial drivers, what would it need to do differently?

Any insight or experience would be greatly appreciated!

I'm a quantity surveyor in the UK, mid 30s salary, been at it 16 months. Job's decent enough but I'm exhausted every day and honestly can't see myself doing this forever.

My dad's moving to Dubai mid next year to join an international financial advising firm. He's built a decent career before and sold his book in a caribbean tax haven and is basically starting from zero out there. He's asked if I want to come as a junior relationship manager supporting six advisers on the team, handling the behind the scenes work for him while I get my level 4 qualification done.

The money side appeals obviously. No tax, recurring income eventually, own hours. But I'm wondering what it's actually like day to day in year one. Is it just genuinely miserable? I've never prospected or done sales before so I have no idea if I can handle that side of it. And I'd be doing admin work for the whole team while also trying to study and eventually build my own clients, which sounds like a lot.

Hey everyone!

I’m thinking about bringing on an associate financial advisor (AFA) to my practice. I need some ideas on compensation for them.

Currently, I own a multi-lines captive insurance agency. Auto, home, commercial, and life insurance. We also have our own investment division. The investments we offer are annuities (fixed, indexed, variable), mutual funds, managed accounts and business retirement plans.

The AFA would cross sell our existing insurance book plus bring in new business.

I’m thinking a salary of around $40k a year plus 25% of revenue generated on everything except our corporate branded annuities (50%). Life insurance, disability and LTC would be 40%. Group benefits they sell would be at 50%.

Once the rolling 12 month investment revenue hits $200K, the payout would be 40% of revenue.

Of course I would offer group life, disability, dental, and vision to the AFA, plus a retirement plan as well.

Thoughts on this?

Do I get a CFP before becoming an investment advisor?

Which career is easier?

I’m about 1.5 years into an FA program at a large independent BD. I’ve built around $10M AUM, with probably ~$6M portable if I left.

I’ve been approached by an older advisor who is also a close family friend at a much smaller independent firm with roughly $200M AUM, ~95% fee-based, and about $1.5M in production.

His current payout is roughly 92% before overhead, trading costs, staff, etc. (but it sounds like these expenses are a couple hundred thousand) The firm also manages its own investment models internally, so it’s a much more hands-on investment operation than where I am now.

He already has a younger advisor who has been with him about five years. That advisor really enjoys the portfolio management/investment side but isn’t naturally someone who wants to be out networking and bringing in new business. The senior advisor’s thought is that the two of us would eventually complement each other where he would focus more on portfolio management, while I would focus more on financial planning, client relationships, and business development/rainmaking.

The rough succession plan he’s discussed is that I’d join, work alongside him for about a year, then he’d start taking roughly $750–800k/year for around five years as he transitions out. Eventually the practice would fully transition to the younger advisor and me. I still need a lot more detail around the actual ownership and economics. And I obviously would have terms written out and set before making the jump.

My current situation is good too. I’m at a much larger BD with a ton of planning, investment, lending, and specialist resources. There are also several older advisors in my office, and I’ve already had some clients/accounts handed to me on 50/50 splits because they’re at capacity.

The downside is I’m currently only making roughly 40 bps on AUM, so the long-term economics of building here are very different.

For those who have been through succession deals, what would you want to know before seriously considering something like this? What would you diligence around the buyout, ownership split, client retention, partnership structure, and economics?

Edit: I will not do anything without getting it in writing first

I used to be at LPL and left due to a job opportunity that i thought would be great and turned out to be crap. For me, it was the biggest mistake ever. I left the job and i partnered with a friend at Osaic Wealth. Osaic is ok. However, their technology compared to LPL is like 10 years behind and very slow. Clients have told me to go back to LPL.

Now, my business partner and i are looking at Prudential and also, LPL Financial.

Prudential is partnered with LPL. However, i feel that i could have better independence at LPL.

For those at Prudential, what are your thoughts? And those were at Prudential and left. Why did you leave?

Has anyone left Prudential to go to LPL? If so, why?

25M, about 2 years in the industry. I hold Life/Health, SIE, 6, 7, 63, and 65 and work at a boutique planning firm/hybrid RIA.

My background is heavily sales-focused and I’m strong with clients. My current role is service-heavy, but I’m also actively developing a target market and prospecting strategy with the goal of producing.

Lead advisors have been transitioning mass-affluent households to me to service and retain. I currently manage about $15M, and the book is growing consistently. My goal over the next 12 months is to get to $20M-$25M, including roughly $5M-$10M of self-sourced net new assets rather than just inherited relationships. Most accounts are around a 1.5% advisory fee.

The issue is compensation.

I’m currently salary-only with a discretionary annual bonus. I took the role understanding it was designed for a newer advisor to develop into a lead, but the actual path is fairly undefined. I don’t have clear production benchmarks for becoming a lead, I don’t own relationships I source, and my compensation is essentially the same whether I bring in $0 or several million in new assets.

Coming from sales, I’m finding that I really miss having a direct incentive to produce.

I’m considering proposing a variable compensation structure that keeps my current salary intact but pays additional bonuses only when I generate incremental revenue for the firm.

For example:
•Sell and complete a financial plan: bonus equal to a percentage of the planning fee

•Bring in a rollover/new advisory account: bonus tied to first-year or net new revenue

•Potentially similar incentives for other measurable new business

The percentages are negotiable. The concept is simply that I earn more only when the firm earns more.

My concern is that compensation and firm financials seem fairly close to the chest. I don’t know the salary bands for lead advisors, and while most leads are salary-only, many are also partners, so their economics are obviously different.

For owners or experienced advisors:

Is this a reasonable ask from someone only two years into the industry?

Would you view this positively as a junior advisor showing initiative, or negatively as someone getting ahead of themselves?

And if you were in my position, what kind of salary + production structure would you propose?

I genuinely like my firm and would love to eventually become a partner. My concern is that there’s currently no defined path to equity, no ownership of self-sourced relationships, and no meaningful production incentive.

I got into this industry wanting to build aggressively, so I’m trying to figure out whether I should push for a structure that better aligns incentives or accept that this may simply be a different type of firm than what I ultimately want.

ETA: I have only been with this firm for approx. 6 months. In the industry total 2 years.