Wealth Management Associates

High School

If a career as a wealth management associate sounds interesting, take as many business, economics, accounting, and mathematics classes as possible. Because your daily work will involve frequent oral and written communication with your colleagues and clients, it’s a good idea to take English and speech classes. Sign-up for computer science, database management, and other technology-related courses because associates use customer relationship management databases, financial modeling software, and a variety of in-house and online databases to do their work. Psychology classes will help you to understand human behavior, and foreign language courses will come in handy if you work with clients who do not speak English fluently.

Postsecondary Education

Wealth management associates have bachelor’s degrees (and sometimes advanced degrees) in finance, mathematics, accounting, economics, business, entrepreneurism, financial engineering, or quantitative finance. Some may have degrees, double majors, or minors in sales or marketing. Others have law degrees. A degree from an Ivy League or other top-tier college is required if you want to work at a large investment bank or other top employer.

Other Education or Training

Most professional associations provide continuing education (CE) classes, webinars, workshops, and seminars. These are great ways to keep your skills up to date. For example, the Institute for Private Investors offers five-day wealth management programs in collaboration with The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The American Bankers Association, Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, Association for Financial Professionals, Association of International Wealth Management, Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, and other organizations provide CE opportunities. Contact these organizations for more information.

Many investment banks provide ongoing training for associates to help them learn about developments in the wealth management industry, keep their financial skills up to date, and hone their soft skills.

Certification

The Investments & Wealth Institute offers the online Investment Management Essentials certificate program, which covers core topics in the investment consulting process such as the various types of investments and the mathematics of managing money and building portfolios. It also provides the Applied Behavioral Finance certificate program.