Jobs at a financial advisory firm and which need a license

The same work is posted as financial advisor jobs, wealth management jobs or jobs in financial planning, and titles vary from firm to firm, so read each row by the work, not the name.

The license column is what the rules require for that work. The occupation column is the government occupation the work is filed under, from O*NET reported job titles where one fits.

BLS pay figures for the three advisor and sales occupations (13-2052, 41-3031 and 41-3021), with the spread from low to high earners and every state, are in financial advisor salary by state.

Listings use many names for the same work. O*NET's reported job titles show which titles sit under each occupation, so these are the ones to search.

Read the duties in a listing, not only the title. A listing that mentions accepting client orders or giving investment advice describes a licensed job. For where the jobs are, financial advisor jobs by city has government counts by metro.

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The rest of the site is organized the same way, in from your job to financial advisor, which licenses financial advisors need, state licensing guides, financial advisor jobs by city, guides and tools.

Three sets of rules decide it, and one job can sit under more than one.

These are the entry-level jobs where the work itself needs no registration. The limit of each one matters as much as the opening.

A firm decides what each title does, so the same title can be licensed at one firm and unlicensed at another. Before you apply, ask whether the role accepts orders or gives advice. CFP Board also says administrative tasks alone do not qualify for experience hours for CFP® certification, so pure paperwork roles do not build toward certification, while its experience requirement counts work that supports the financial planning process.

BLS sets a lower typical entry education for brokerage clerks, the occupation that holds client service titles, than for personal financial advisors, and lists no related work experience for any of the occupations below.

Every job that needs the Series 6, 7, 14, 24 or 99 does.

FINRA's page for each of those exams, such as the Series 7, says candidates "must be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm", so these jobs start with being hired. In the table above that means the registered assistant, the broker-dealer advisor, an associate advisor who takes orders, operations managers and approvers, branch managers and a broker-dealer's chief compliance officer, plus insurance producers who sell variable annuities or variable life. How firms sponsor, and what to ask before you accept, is in how to get sponsored for the Series 7.

In an unlicensed client service job, the work starts with the tasks O*NET lists for brokerage clerks, answering client questions, preparing forms such as withdrawal and transfer papers, recording transactions and reporting on accounts.

If a firm decides to sponsor you, it files your Form U4, and you must pass the SIE (unless you already have), the Series 7 and usually the Series 63 before you can accept orders. Moving from an assistant role to an advisor role is a separate step that depends on the firm. Whatever job they start from, new advisors usually train under senior advisors, and BLS says that training usually lasts more than a year¹⁰, with many advisors spending a lot of time marketing their services to build a client base.

CFP Board's career-path research names five rungs, Analyst, Associate Advisor, Service Advisor, Lead Advisor, Partner¹¹.

Firms set their own titles, so the table below sticks to what the rules carry from one job to the next. That is a registration or a block of experience, never a promise of the next job.

How long each step takes is in how long it takes to become a financial advisor, and the roadmap builder puts the steps in order for your job and state.

Yes, with the exams.

The SIE and the Series 63, 65 and 66 need no firm, and an SIE pass stays valid for 4¹² years while you look for a sponsor. Passing it does not register you, and no firm has to hire or sponsor you because you passed. Which exams to take, in what order, and why a pass is not yet a license are in which licenses financial advisors need. Prep for the SIE is at Advisor Train.

Some jobs on this map line up with work you may already do. An insurance agent already holds the producer license in the insurance producer row, and adds the SIE and a sponsored Series 6 or 7 to sell variable products.

Each move is covered in from insurance agent to financial advisor, from banker to financial advisor, from accountant to financial advisor and from teacher to financial advisor, and every job is on the from your job hub.

AI answers and job sites can get these wrong. Each correction comes from the rule or the regulator.