I am thinking of registering in one of the financial advisor programs from Merill or Chase for part time if I pass level 3. Does anybody have any advice or any experience with these programs? Any input is appreciated. Thanks for your time.
Hey… I would like to take the training too. Any info on how to approach the companies to get the training… Thanks.
i would do everything i could to go with Chase and not Merrill if you are going down that road.
Thanks budfox! I appreciate your input. Bhimguy if you have any contact in those companies that will be great or you need to apply through their website.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is the power house
Try MSSB
mpnoonan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Try MSSB My training as an FA at MS consisted of three books and a desk… that was about it. Granted that was in 2005 when the company was still controlled by the Dean Witter crew.
I suspect that the #1 lesson those places would like an advisor to learn is “sell a lot of our products (or others that generate substantial commissions for us) or leave”.
Like Mcleod, I started at MS in 2005. I was handed the same 3 books, then joined 10 other trainees in a big room where we were given a phone list to start cold calling. Based on my experience with this program, I would urge you to do a lot of research before diving in. You will not be applying your mastery of the CFA curriculum in a brokerage FA training program, but instead will focus on developing your sales and networking skills (which actually did me a lot of good coming straight out of school). If you’re into sales, by all means go for it, but just make sure you know what you’re signing up for.
it’s probably important to make a distinction between MS PWM (the legacy group from the old pre-merger Morgan Stanley) and the MS retail group. (Dean Witter) The former is made up of a couple hundred IR’s around the world and target families with a minium of 10mm in investable assets. The old Dean Witter group, now operating under MSSB, is made up of over 15K FA’s. Most of the people in the MS PWM group have MBAs from top business schools and several are Charterholders. I am not sure of the qualifications of the latter group. The training includes staying in the NY headquarters for a monthlong crash course in everything from FI valuation, asset allocation and ofcourse, sales. (in the end, it’s still a sales job.) I’ve heard that the old Dean Witter FA training program is as described above. Then they throw you in the water to see if you sink or swim. In both groups the survival rate is very low… So. be ready to sell.
So, its really like the movie Pursuit of Happyness?
I used to work as an intern for one of the large brokerage houses that was sold to BoA in a fire sale in 2008 ( I will let you guess which one) and I hated it. I was given a list of names and a script, I would get someone on the phone and say “hello mr. moneybag, this is $tarving_Banker from so and so group ( Most FA actually work in groups, some groups are as small as two FAs, some large ones are 5 or 6) at so and so Bank. We have some very interesting investment opportunities…” Back then the Fed was hiking int rate and a lot of people are getting worried about their bonds, so we hustled bonds. But truth be told most of the people worked in that outfit knew $hit about bonds. All you need to do is picking up the phone, get people to not hang up on you, and convince them to hand over $100K to open an account. Most people would quit after 6 mo becuase they cant establish a book. I think private banking might be a better option if you are smart, have the charter, and went to decent school.
I was just contacted by a Financial Advisor at MSSB regarding a job opening as part of this advisor’s support team. The role would be in a portfolio management capacity. Is anyone familiar with the company enough to know if this could be an interesting opportunity? I currently work in wealth management, am a charterholder, and am pursuing an MBA (part-time) at a top 5 school. I’m just trying to figure out if this would be a step down for me, or if it’s worth pursuing.