Do wealth management associates receive generous bonuses?

I'm a student in college studying Computer Science, and so far all my internships have been software engineering related. Through some networking, I've gotten to know some wealth management associates at a prominent firm, and am going to aim for an internship for Summer 2018.

However, when I looked up the salary for Wealth Management Associates at GS and MS, I saw an average of only 65k, which in the Bay Area/New York is insanely low. The 'Wealth Advisor Associates' make even less. Is this information accurate? Do Wealth Management associates get large bonuses? I am trying to determine if the industry is worth pursuing, or if I should stick to software engineering. Also, would there be any suggestions of things I can do to skill up to help secure an internship at the firm?

Thanks for the input and advice.

 

65k is not insanely low. That's the standard salary for most finance roles. AM is close to 70k and IBD is 85k. But 65k is definitely not unheard of for those areas. For the first few years of your life budget will be tight but eventually you pull away. Also from what I know WM bonuses are based on how much you pull

let's see Paul Allen's card
 

Maybe I shouldn't have said 'insanely low,' but for example, the average salary for a Business student at UC Berkeley is 65k first year out of grad. So I was surprised a bit, because I would have thought working at MS or GS, even though it was WM and not IB, would mean you were getting paid a good amount, especially in SF/NY.

 
Best Response

wassup, PWM'ER here.

first, click on my profile and read my 4 part series on PWM, you need to learn about the industry. you will not make great money unless you're a financial advisor.

wealth advisor associates are basically a different flavor of training programs for new FA's. many firms are doing this because they've seen enhanced retention when someone has a longer lead time, so what these roles do is give you 1-2 years to learn your firms computer systems, get licensed, do some work for other brokers/teams, and then you enter their 3 year training program.

wealth management associates sounds like an admin/ops title. we have one on my team (titled differently), and the role will vary from team to team, but it's an admin role for sure. you won't be doing investment research, you won't be closing deals for clients, but you will be involved in those processes.

software engineering and PWM are so different I'm baffled those are the two you have to decide between. do some more research on the industry and come back to me if you have questions

 

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