What does a finance professional do?
The primary job of finance professionals is to provide financial services using their knowledge of finance, tax laws, and accounting. These professionals typically help with corporate finance, personal finance, or both. Their duties include helping clients develop financial plans that will ensure their financial stability, developing the company's financial strategy, and forecasting corporate profits and losses. Additionally, finance professionals are responsible for negotiating credit lines, preparing financial statements, and working closely with outside auditors. To become successful in this role, you need to have strong customer service and analytical skills.
Finance professional responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real finance professional resumes:
- Evaluate, present, and manage solutions in alignment with client needs and NASD requirements.
- Manage and strengthen customer relationships through cross-selling and up-selling to maximize retention and income generation by contacting existing and prospective customers.
- License to provide health and life insurance, annuities, securities, and long term care products.
- Develop and present retirement solutions involving annuities , 401K plans and life insurance products to customers and finalize sales contracts.
- Maintain and regularly update detail files on clients according to company and FINRA standards.
- Analyze customer accounts, track profitability of revenue generate, and ensure accounts are NASD compliant.
- Provide a variety of products and services including individual retirement accounts, annuities, and variable and fix life insurance policies.
- Analyze and develop client financial portfolios relating to securities, asset protection and retirement.
- Compile capital vendor lists, analyze bank reconciliations, process goods receipt/invoice reports, and generate company codes while extensively learning excel
- Place equities and mutual fund trades and process distributions for clients.
- Coach new trainees and experience associates in sales methods and in advance trading methods other than equities.
- Develop client-specific performance reports detailing patterns and trends in specific bonds and equities assisting clients in determining investment alternatives.
- Maintain written and oral correspondence with the fund and investors regarding AML documentation, transactions, performance and statement reporting.
- Review and evaluate investor execute subscription agreements to ensure eligibility, compliance and AML guidelines are meet.
Finance professional skills and personality traits
We calculated that 17% of Finance Professionals are proficient in Financial Objectives, Financial Products, and Securities. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Sales skills, and Speaking skills.
We break down the percentage of Finance Professionals that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Financial Objectives, 17%
Analyzed financial information obtained from clients to determine strategies for meeting clients' financial objectives and presented potential solutions.
- Financial Products, 15%
Customized need based solutions utilizing in-house and outside contracted financial products to suit individual and business clients.
- Securities, 11%
Received and maintain Series 6 and 63 Securities licenses in addition to Life, Health, and Disability Insurance license.
- FINRA, 10%
Sponsored by FINRA member firm to take the Series 7, Series 66, and Insurance exams within required time window.
- Annuities, 9%
Propelled to level of Life Founders Platinum, Agency Distribution Chairman's Council, and Masters Prudential Annuities Council, 2015.
- LLC, 9%
Started my own Registered Investment Advisory firm called Rock Castle AssetManagement LLC.
Common skills that a finance professional uses to do their job include "financial objectives," "financial products," and "securities." You can find details on the most important finance professional responsibilities below.
Interpersonal skills. One of the key soft skills for a finance professional to have is interpersonal skills. You can see how this relates to what finance professionals do because "a major part of a personal financial advisor’s job is making clients feel comfortable." Additionally, a finance professional resume shows how finance professionals use interpersonal skills: "demonstrated exemplary customer service and interpersonal skills to 120 clients. "
Sales skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling finance professional duties is sales skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "to expand their base of clients, personal financial advisors must be convincing and persistent in selling their services." According to a finance professional resume, here's how finance professionals can utilize sales skills in their job responsibilities: "conducted informative sales presentations to potential clients, and explained financial concepts to individuals with no financial background. "
Speaking skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of finance professionals is speaking skills. This skill is critical to many everyday finance professional duties, as "personal financial advisors interact with clients every day." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "conducted cold calling, followed up on referrals, scheduled appointments, and presented solutions to customers and prospective clients. "
Analytical skills. For certain finance professional responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "analytical skills." The day-to-day duties of a finance professional rely on this skill, as "in determining an investment portfolio for a client, personal financial advisors must be able to assess a range of information, including economic trends, regulatory changes, and the client’s comfort with risky decisions." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what finance professionals do: "analyzed social and economic data and examined market conditions to compile financial reports for clients. "
Math skills. Another common skill required for finance professional responsibilities is "math skills." This skill comes up in the duties of finance professionals all the time, as "personal financial advisors must be adept at working with numbers to determine the amount invested, how that amount has grown or decreased over time, and how a portfolio is distributed among different investments." An excerpt from a real finance professional resume shows how this skill is central to what a finance professional does: "applied qualitative and quantitative techniques to evaluate work processes and activities centers for medicare and medicaid/knight protective services 7500 security blvd. "
The three companies that hire the most finance professionals are:
- New York Life Insurance498 finance professionals jobs
- Equitable Holdings331 finance professionals jobs
- Humana102 finance professionals jobs
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Compare different finance professionals
Finance professional vs. Analyst
Analysts are employees or individual contributors with a vast experience in a particular field that help the organization address challenges. They help the organization improve processes, policies, and other operations protocol by studying the current processes in place and determining the effectiveness of those processes. They also research industry trends and data to make sound inferences and recommendations on what the company should do to improve their numbers. Analysts recommend business solutions and often help the organization roll out these solutions. They ensure that the proposed action plans are effective and produce the desired results.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a finance professional are more likely to require skills like "strong work ethic," "financial objectives," "financial products," and "securities." On the other hand, a job as an analyst requires skills like "troubleshoot," "data analysis," "management system," and "project management." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Analysts tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $79,330. In contrast, finance professionals make the biggest average salary, $57,846, in the insurance industry.analysts tend to reach similar levels of education than finance professionals. In fact, analysts are 1.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.5% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Finance professional vs. Investment advisor
An investment advisor is responsible for managing the clients' financial portfolios, advising them of investment options according to their financial goals and objectives, and their ability to handle risks. Investment advisors should have excellent knowledge of the investment policies, providing the clients with the best financial strategies according to their interests. They also determine their expenses, income, and credit scores to identify a comprehensive financial plan. An investment advisor helps the clients with cash management techniques, as well as conducting data analysis on financial market projections.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that finance professional responsibilities requires skills like "excellent interpersonal," "strong work ethic," "financial guidance," and "disability insurance." But an investment advisor might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "exceptional client," "business development," "asset allocation," and "real estate."
Investment advisors may earn a higher salary than finance professionals, but investment advisors earn the most pay in the telecommunication industry with an average salary of $127,062. On the other hand, finance professionals receive higher pay in the insurance industry, where they earn an average salary of $57,846.investment advisors earn similar levels of education than finance professionals in general. They're 2.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.5% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for finance professionals in the next 3-5 years?
Brian Meehan
Assistant Professor of Economics, Campbell School of Business, Berry College
Finance professional vs. Treasury analyst
A treasury analyst is an individual who manages and analyses the financial activities of an organization that can include cash flows, liability obligations, and assets. Treasury analysts are required to execute the daily cash management of the organization such as cash forecasting, investing of excess cash, and running a hedging program in interest rates. They must present monthly reports and daily briefings on cash flows to senior management and provide advice on the financial operations of the movement of cash. Treasury analysts also update treasury policies and procedures for the organization to comply.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a finance professional is likely to be skilled in "excellent interpersonal," "strong work ethic," "financial objectives," and "financial products," while a typical treasury analyst is skilled in "treasury," "cash management," "ach," and "treasury operations."
Treasury analysts earn the highest salary when working in the automotive industry, where they receive an average salary of $87,077. Comparatively, finance professionals have the highest earning potential in the insurance industry, with an average salary of $57,846.When it comes to education, treasury analysts tend to earn similar degree levels compared to finance professionals. In fact, they're 3.8% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Finance professional vs. Equity analyst
An equity analyst's role is to help clients navigate through stocks and bonds using their expertise. In a company setting, their responsibilities revolve around performing extensive research and analysis on areas such as the stock market, coordinating with different departments to gather necessary data, identifying new opportunities, preparing and analyzing the company's financial records, and creating forecast models. Furthermore, as an equity analyst, it is essential to make recommendations in adherence to the company's policies and regulations, including its vision and mission.
Types of finance professional
Updated January 8, 2025
