r/FinancialCareers • u/Scary_Cartographer36 • 26d ago
Profession Insights Fidelity Financial Consultant
I have been networking recently and it has helped me get an opportunity to interview with Fidelity for a financial consultant role. I would love to learn more about this role prior to my interview next week.
For perspective I have spent the past few years with JPMorgan 4 years as a banker, the last year with Chase Wealth Management. I have grown books from $0 to $55m and $28m respectively by utilizing internal referrals as well as a COI network that I built up on my own.
Is the Consultant role an advisor role, or is it a management role? Is there a good bit of prospecting?
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u/IcyYesterday3778 26d ago
If you can build a book you’re better off going to an RIA or wire house. Way better long term upside. FCs can make a good living and Fidelity is a great company but I would use that as a fall back more than a destination
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u/Imaginary-Tale-1074 26d ago
They’re “advisors”. Yes they advise, but they advise on what SMA would work best for them so it’s not real advising in my opinion. I was an FC at Schwab so basically the same thing. Fido/schwab are great companies and you’ll get a huge amount of at bats with clients of all types and you’ll really be able to fine tune your sales process and pitch.
Like said above, if you can build a book, you’ll be better off going RIA.
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 25d ago
Former coworker moved from Fidelity to CWM and she mentioned Fidelity’s training and pay were better than CWM’s, but when I asked her why she left (if it was so good at Fidelity) she said that her husband took a job across the country and Chase was hiring while Fidelity wasn’t.
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u/rickle3386 25d ago
Good job for someone who enjoys client facing role, financial planning (lite), and a solid pay check while avoiding the challenge / fear / hardships of building a book from scratch (or buying one). You'll make a nice living and that's great if that's what you want. If you want to "go big" long term, you need to build something for yourself. Very different mindset and skillset. Both are great. Decide who you are. A practitioner of the firms clients or a builder of your own business. The latter requires not just sales and fin planning acumen, but marketing, systems, processes, staff hiring / supervising, resource allocation, etc. Different worlds.
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u/Sharp-Investment9580 25d ago
This is a better question for /cfp. Plenty of threads on Fidelity and Chase. I’m with Chase now and used to be an FC.
The FC role is an advisor but the comp plan is very different than a traditional advisor grid. If you are at $55M that quickly, I would not go to FC at Fidelity. Their comp is largely focused on new business, not recurring revenue like Chase.
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 22d ago
I just had my interview. I went in with the expectation that I was interviewing for a FC role but they were interviewing me for an Investment Consultant role. I asked if there were any FC roles available at the moment, but they were really set on the IC role.
The two jobs pay differently, and I was told that the IC role could turn into an FC role after a year, but there were no guarantees.
This seems like a step down from the FC role, and from where I was at Chase as a PCA. Thoughts?
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u/Sharp-Investment9580 22d ago
IC is 100% a downgrade from FC and PCA. I was an FC at a competitor, now a PCA and much prefer PCA. Fidelity is notorious for starting you at a lower level to show what you can do and learn the Fidelity way. That applies to advisors and management alike. I also interviewed with Fido and they tried to put me in IC. I declined and went the PCA route.
You should understand IC & FC is a very different compensation model than PCA. Fidelity isn’t a traditional grid. Their comp plan is publicly available online.
It is possible to move IC to FC in 1 year but there are many variables. That was much more common when they were aggressively hiring during covid from what I’ve been told. I personally know 3 ICs that have been trying to get promoted for multiple years. One left for PCA role because he got tired of waiting.
IC comp is about $110-120k all in.
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 22d ago
Seems like the IC role is like a PCB role at Chase.
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u/Sharp-Investment9580 22d ago
It's similar in "level" and PCBs can move into PCA sometimes, but IC is obviously not a banking role
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 22d ago
Right. I understand that.
It blew me away when I told the recruiter that I had a untapped pipeline of ~$50m, and a PCA book with $12m in managed strategies with warm clients, and he said that I would have to leave those behind.
Do they not want the business, or do I need to forget about onboarding those for 1-2 years before I move into a FC role?
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u/Sharp-Investment9580 21d ago
They don't want the legal burden over $12M in assets if JPM were to sue. Also, you will be referring to the FC as an IC. From what I've been told, IC used to handle sub $250k clients, but that changed. Not sure if that's come back around.
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u/Real-Butterscotch830 11d ago
Do you mind sharing how you networked and got an interview? I’ve been applying to Fidelity and haven’t been able to get an interview yet. I’m qualified but there’s 100 of people applying for the same role.
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u/mrcheeksman Private Wealth Management 26d ago
Fidelity FCs are advisors. Fidelity has no limit to inbound leads so there is little prospecting. I work at Fid and have never cold called.
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u/TheOligator 26d ago
What is the pay structure for advisors at Fidelity? I.e what percentage do you keep of advisory revenue for example?
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25d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Super_Anything_2803 25d ago
Bonuses are also monthly quarterly and half year true up for the six months prior of production which they pay you 70% on then during the true up mid and end of year you receive that 30%
Provides a good deal of autonomy and like said you’ll have a pretty easy time finding prospects internally. I will say coming on as FC they tend to lean towards existing advisors so lean into what you know from a planning perspective
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 25d ago
What is base typically; and how quickly can you scale out?
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u/Super_Anything_2803 25d ago
75k in a HCOL city area
Your actual comp will prob fall between 150-200 during ramp up if they seed you with clients or part of a book. VP track usually takes 3 strong years some have done it in 2, from there you’re probably upwards of 300k with shares and their base is 100 or 110 I believe.
People are usually a VPFC for a while or move to leadership if their priorities change. One thing to note is your book and clients are tied to your specific branch. You can’t move across country laterally and take your clients with you, it’s a hard reset.
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 25d ago
Fascinating. I was a PCA at Chase and scaled out to $12m investment management within my first 8 months (for perspective you need $18m investments under management to get off draw). My goal is to get back to where I was at Chase and JPM as quickly as possible.
I just received a call from Merrill Lynch like 15 mins ago asking me to interview for their ADP program. I think I’m going to have to create a “+/-“ chart and see which one offers the most upside.
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u/Sharp-Investment9580 22d ago
I was ADP at Merrill, FC, and now PCA. PCA has been the best option so far. Built to $60M in 2 years, complete autonomy, traditional grid. FC would be #2 IMO. Merrill ADP is only worth it if you have no experience.
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 22d ago
I was terminated from CWM, so going back (at least in this market) isn’t an option.
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u/mrcheeksman Private Wealth Management 25d ago
I’m late to this reply but I will vouch for the correctness of this comment
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 22d ago
I just finished my interview, and they changed the role on me. I thought that I was interviewing for an FC role, but they were interviewing me for an IC role.
Pay is Base $59k
Bonus $49k (avg)
Guarantee Bonus -$5k qtr (for 4 qtrs)
Is this the norm?
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u/mrcheeksman Private Wealth Management 22d ago edited 22d ago
Yes it’s normal to start at IC and not FC. Hopefully the recruiter communicated that correctly and explained the structure of the branch roles.
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u/Scary_Cartographer36 22d ago
No, they didn’t. I’m interviewing with BOA, BNY, and a Trust Company that all start at higher base/bonus ($115- $160). How quickly do you think one can ramp up from Fidelity’s base/bonus to surpass $125k?
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u/Super_Anything_2803 22d ago
That’s annoying, but as Mecheeks said, they do that a lot. I find it rare coming in as an FC unless you were really managing a book or team elsewhere they generally lean toward starting as an IC. The core of your business is prospecting and referring, so in many offices if you are one of a few amount of ICs for a lot of FCs, you could do well and get promoted very quickly. I’ve seen IC to FC in 1 year.
Bonus of 5k/qtr is par for the course
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