Anyone knows about the daily working responsibilities that an institutional sales need to take? How much they earned? Does the money worthies the pressure? What’s the future of this role? Besides the series exams are required, any other requirements needed? Account list?
Much appreciated!
Moving this to Careers, and lucky you…this is what I do.
Are we talking about in the US? That’s really the only market I can speak to. Here you just need your Series 7 and 63 (or 66) to sell just about any investment product.
Daily responsibilities - Work your rotation. Maybe you have a certain geographic territory or a specific channel/audience you cover. Segment your clients and prospects and start getting meetings. Once you have a good travel rotation established, you’ll be able to schedule pretty far out. Basically your day-to-day is all about either bringing in new money or defending existing assets. Either way you’re talking to clients about your products in-person, over the phone, and a lot is done via email.
How much do we make - Depends on how much we sell.
Is the money worth the pressure - As far as I can tell, I’m under way less stress than most people working in finance, so, yes.
Future of the role - There’s always going to be a need for people that generate revenue for their firm. Compensation isn’t what it used to be 10 years ago and it’ll probably continue to compress in conjunction with fees on products. I still recommend it though. You’re talking about government run pensions, corporate DB or mega-DC plans, selling to the large consultants, TAMPs, an other professional buyers that represent trillions of dollars. There’s always going to be a need for salespeople to call on them.
Account list - Probably. If you’re joining a firm that’s been around for a while, it’s likely you’d be filling a hole left by someone and assume their client list. If it’s a newer shop, you may have to prospect from scratch. It’s not hard to identify who to call. Getting them to pick up is another issue.
You need applicable work experience. There aren’t many entry level jobs in institutional sales. And, I’m guessing English isn’t your first language? If you plan on working in the US (or Canada) you’re going to need to up your writing skills.
Seems like a very broad generalization. What is the specific job you are considering?
I used to work as one. Not requiring much knowledge from CFA, just connections and sometimes cold phone calls.
I live in Vietnam so the money is nothing for you guys but I can live quite well with the money I made. I am only at the office for like 5 hours a day. The rest of the day I spent time at coffee house, restaurant, and meeting people.
I quit to work as Investment Banker, but the connections give me a lot of advantages
You’re not wrong but I would say that it’s become expected. If you’re sitting across from analysts that are CFAs, they definitely notice the letters on my biz card. Or, perhaps, they were just appreciating the subtle coloring and tasteful thinkness of it. I mean, my god, it even has a watermark.
I got your point.
Yes, the charter itself is quite valuable if you are a sale. Especially in third-world country, it is something to ensure ethical standards and academic knowledge, at least while working with oversea clients.
Building off the future of the role discussion, how do you see compensation in this role shifting in the coming decades? I understand it’ll be much more difficult to reel in millions unless you’re leading a team that’s selling like crazy, but are mid to high 6 figures still possible? Or are we looking more at the 250-300k range for mid career?
Ten minutes ago an advisor called me and asked a question about the efficient frontier we provided him in a proposal. It was a question that I was able to answer solely because I’ve gone through the CFA program.
Those questions don’t pop up every day - but, you still get to use the knowledge in a sales role.
PS: Sales jobs > Analyst jobs