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The differences between underwriters and brokers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a broker has an average salary of $124,861, which is higher than the $61,751 average annual salary of an underwriter.
The top three skills for an underwriter include customer service, investor guidelines and mortgage loans. The most important skills for a broker are brokerage, financial services, and insurance products.
| Underwriter | Broker | |
| Yearly salary | $61,751 | $124,861 |
| Hourly rate | $29.69 | $60.03 |
| Growth rate | -4% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 8,510 | 2,770 |
| Job satisfaction | 3 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 44 | 49 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
An underwriter's duties depend on the line of work or industry involved, such as mortgage companies, insurance, or lending firms. However, an Underwriter's responsibility will mainly revolve around using their extensive expertise on how a company will achieve financial gains, and assessing the possible financial risks of a client by reviewing various aspects to determine their capacity to uphold monetary obligations. Most of the time, the Underwriter's tasks will also involve evaluating a client's credit history, health, assets, overall financial history.
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.
Underwriters and brokers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Underwriter | Broker | |
| Average salary | $61,751 | $124,861 |
| Salary range | Between $39,000 And $96,000 | Between $68,000 And $227,000 |
| Highest paying City | Boston, MA | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | New York |
| Best paying company | Child Guidance & Family Solutions | |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Insurance |
There are a few differences between an underwriter and a broker in terms of educational background:
| Underwriter | Broker | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Southern California |
Here are the differences between underwriters' and brokers' demographics:
| Underwriter | Broker | |
| Average age | 44 | 49 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 38.4% Female, 61.6% | Male, 63.8% Female, 36.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 2.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 5.6% White, 72.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 5.3% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 13.2% Asian, 6.9% White, 70.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 13% |