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What does a broker do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read

Brokers can either be a firm or an individual acting as an intermediary between a securities exchange and an investor. They often provide services to individual investors and traders who cannot engage directly with security exchanges, which only accept orders from their members. They provide investors and traders with an investment plan, market intelligence, and research. They may cross-sell some financial services and products offered by their brokerage firms. They are also typically classified as discount or full-service brokers.

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Broker responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real broker resumes:

  • Manage, lease and sell office condominiums on site.
  • Retail trader, fix income securities; manage client account activity; properly allocate client funds to appropriate investment options
  • Manage indexes, options, foreign equities, and short-selling positions that are compatible with clients' long-term investment goals.
  • Expand and maintain professional relationships with trading accounts including banks, hedge funds and portfolio managers.
  • Specialize in finding undervalue and/or overbought commodities by using fundamental and technical analysis that exist throughout the markets.
  • Install the oracle client for windows.
  • Clean all exterior and interior windows.
  • Update and advertise properties on Facebook.
  • Ensure that customers adhere to CFTC rules.
  • Register with the NFA as a floor broker.
  • Open many million dollar LLC's in private equity.
  • Brokered mortgage back rolls, swaps and CMO's.
  • Use QuickBooks to reconcile and complete sales transactions of accounts.
  • Create and do SQL migration for resolving various test and production issues.
  • Improve productivity through implementation of a swap page for the treasury desk.

Broker skills and personality traits

We calculated that 17% of Brokers are proficient in Brokerage, Financial Services, and Insurance Products. They’re also known for soft skills such as Business skills, Problem-solving skills, and Interpersonal skills.

We break down the percentage of Brokers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Brokerage, 17%

    Provide high-level brokerage services and responsible for business development, partner relationship management as well as HR management and risk mitigation.

  • Financial Services, 9%

    Licensed Insurance Agent in Property/Casualty/Life/Banking services/financial services/risk management

  • Insurance Products, 7%

    Motivated marketing executives to organize workshops and inform customers of new insurance products and services.

  • Risk Management, 6%

    Coordinated and administrated casualty service teams in providing brokering and risk management consultation to client base.

  • Client Relationships, 6%

    Foster client relationships through evaluation of client portfolio, asset allocation and suitability needs offering consultative recommendations and solutions.

  • Real Estate Transactions, 5%

    Prepare all documentation for real estate transactions and communicate all necessary information to title companies and financial institutions regarding the transactions.

Common skills that a broker uses to do their job include "brokerage," "financial services," and "insurance products." You can find details on the most important broker responsibilities below.

Business skills. The most essential soft skill for a broker to carry out their responsibilities is business skills. This skill is important for the role because "because most real estate brokers and sales agents are self-employed, they must be able to manage every aspect of their business, including billing and advertising." Additionally, a broker resume shows how their duties depend on business skills: "render financial services to individuals and businesses. "

Problem-solving skills. Many broker duties rely on problem-solving skills. "real estate brokers and sales agents must be able to address concerns relating to a property," so a broker will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways broker responsibilities rely on problem-solving skills: "partnered with customers to achieve their financial solutions utilizing my strong financial services and investment knowledge. "

Interpersonal skills. This is an important skill for brokers to perform their duties. For an example of how broker responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "real estate brokers and sales agents spend much of their time interacting with others, such as clients and contractors." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a broker: "interacted with clients and utilized excellent interpersonal and organizational skills to arrange and coordinate sales and rentals of residential properties. ".

Organizational skills. broker responsibilities often require "organizational skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "real estate brokers and sales agents must be able to manage their own time for planning and prioritizing their work." This resume example shows what brokers do with organizational skills on a typical day: "apply organizational, market research, presentation and planning skills for top results. "

See the full list of broker skills

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Compare different brokers

Broker vs. Licensed agent

Licensed Agents act as authorized brokers acting on behalf of an individual owner or organization in selling a product, service, or property. There are many different pathways a licensed agent can delve into, such as in real estate, insurance, and banking. For instance, a real estate agent uses its license to be able to sell and rent properties. Their duties include gathering property information, evaluating property estimates, marketing properties, and represent sellers in the process of negotiation. They seek prospective buyers, monitor the sale process between stakeholders, and reach a mutually agreed price.

The annual salary of licensed agents is $82,546 lower than the average salary of brokers.Even though brokers and licensed agents are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require financial services, medicaid, and health insurance in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, broker responsibilities require skills like "brokerage," "insurance products," "risk management," and "client relationships." Meanwhile a typical licensed agent has skills in areas such as "hipaa," "customer service," "casualty insurance," and "life insurance products." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

Licensed agents earn the highest salaries when working in the insurance industry, with an average yearly salary of $45,577. On the other hand, brokers are paid more in the insurance industry with an average salary of $129,664.licensed agents tend to reach similar levels of education than brokers. In fact, licensed agents are 1.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.8% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Broker vs. Real estate account executive

Reading specialists require a plethora of skills, such as a background in grade school education, experience in helping struggling readers, language fluency, and reading comprehension. Responsibilities include teaching and evaluating instructions for students that need assistance in reading and writing. This may take place in both small groups and classroom settings.

A career as a real estate account executive brings a lower average salary when compared to the average annual salary of a broker. In fact, real estate account executives salary is $61,986 lower than the salary of brokers per year.While the salary may differ for these jobs, they share a few skills needed to perform their duties. Based on resume data, both brokers and real estate account executives have skills such as "real estate transactions," "business development," and "property management. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that broker responsibilities requires skills like "brokerage," "financial services," "insurance products," and "risk management." But a real estate account executive might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "journal entries," "financial reports," "yardi," and "gaap."

Real estate account executives earn a lower average salary than brokers. But real estate account executives earn the highest pay in the real estate industry, with an average salary of $73,848. Additionally, brokers earn the highest salaries in the insurance with average pay of $129,664 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Real estate account executives tend to reach similar levels of education than brokers. In fact, they're 0.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.8% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Broker vs. Real estate sales supervisor

Real estate attorneys are legal professionals whose expertise focuses on real estate law and legislation. They are responsible for preparing and reviewing documents related to real estate, including mortgage documents, title documents, and purchase agreements. Other duties include negotiating on behalf of their clients, dealing with mortgage fraud and zoning issues, and overseeing the transfer of titles and deeds. Real estate attorneys may provide legal representation for corporations and individuals. To become a successful real estate attorney, you should have a law degree, undergone training for specialization, and a certification in real estate law.

On average, real estate sales supervisors earn lower salaries than brokers, with a $80,540 difference per year.brokers and real estate sales supervisors both have job responsibilities that require similar skill sets. These similarities include skills such as "client relationships," "real estate transactions," and "powerpoint," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a broker is likely to be skilled in "brokerage," "financial services," "insurance products," and "risk management," while a typical real estate sales supervisor is skilled in "real estate market," "real estate license," "financial resources," and "real estate sales."

When it comes to education, real estate sales supervisors tend to earn similar degree levels compared to brokers. In fact, they're 0.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Broker vs. Real estate teacher

Real estate teachers average a lower salary than the annual salary of brokers. The difference is about $50,291 per year.According to resumes from brokers and real estate teachers, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "client relationships," "powerpoint," and "property management. "Each job also requires different skills to carry out their responsibilities. A broker uses "brokerage," "financial services," "insurance products," and "risk management." Real estate teachers are more likely to have duties that require skills in "group discussions," "real estate," "real estate sales," and "learning environment. "In general, real estate teachers hold higher degree levels compared to brokers. Real estate teachers are 13.3% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 8.9% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of broker

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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