How To Become An Investment Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is an investment representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Price Fishback Ph.D.

An investment representative is someone who provides financial advice and guidance to clients. They analyze investment opportunities, assess risk, and make recommendations based on a client's financial goals and risk tolerance. Investment representatives may work for banks, brokerage firms, or financial planning companies. They provide ongoing portfolio management services to ensure that investments remain aligned with a client's goals. Strong communication skills and a deep understanding of financial markets are key for successful investment representatives.

What general advice would you give to an investment representative?

Price Fishback Ph.D.

APS Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona, The University of Arizona

Gain a great deal of oral and written presentation skills, training in statistics, and experience with computers.

ScoreInvestment RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

5.1

Avg. Salary $65,361

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.21%

Asian 9.91%

Black or African American 5.87%

Hispanic or Latino 12.42%

Unknown 4.16%

White 67.43%

Gender

female 27.87%

male 72.13%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.7

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being an investment representative?

Pros

High earning potential
Opportunities for career advancement
Ability to work with a diverse range of clients
Access to exclusive investment opportunities
Chance to help clients achieve their financial goals

Cons

High levels of stress and pressure to perform
Long hours, including evenings and weekends
Potential for conflicts of interest with clients' best interests
Constant need to keep up with industry changes and trends
Dependence on commission-based compensation, which can be unstable

Key steps to become an investment representative

Explore investment representative education requirements

Most common investment representative degrees

Bachelor's

77.6 %

Master's

11.3 %

Associate

7.9 %

Start to develop specific investment representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Money Management	45.52%
Mutual Funds	27.54%
Financial Services	2.00%
FINRA	1.75%
Customer Relationships	1.63%

Complete relevant investment representative training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New investment representatives learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an investment representative based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real investment representative resumes.

Research investment representative duties and responsibilities

Act as an investor center product coordinator; provide guidance on product and sales techniques for manage account solutions and annuities.
Manage and strengthen customer relationships through cross-selling and up-selling to maximize retention and income generation by contacting existing and prospective customers.
Re-Obtain previously hold FINRA licenses.
Sell fix and variable annuities.

Prepare your investment representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your investment representative resume.

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