5 Best Paying Jobs In Finance Consumer Services
If you are seeking a career that offers great pay, job security, and opportunities for growth and advancement, consider looking at these best paying jobs in finance consumer services.
Jobs in the financial services industry are plentiful and only growing. If you think about your daily life, you can easily see why. Everyone uses money and the services that go with it. Rarely does a day go by without you having to use cash in some form, and jobs are required to conduct every transaction you make.
From credit, banking, investments, and insurance, there are dozens of jobs with varied descriptions and required skill sets available to those with the qualifications necessary or, at the very least, the ability and desire to learn.
Qualifications Required to Work in Finance Consumer Services
Due to the wide variety of jobs available, requirements can vary from only a high school diploma to a bachelor’s degree with many different types of professional designations.
Getting your foot in the door for a job as a personal financial advisor does not need a bachelor’s degree. Instead, it requires a tenacious attitude, handling rejection, and an upbeat, outgoing personality.
Other jobs in finance, such as certain analyst potions, will require at least a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree in finance, business, mathematics, economics, or a related field.
In addition to formal education, many jobs require designations from professional organizations, such as the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. The good news is that most people can begin their careers without these designations and acquire them through study as their careers progress.
5 Best Paying Jobs In Finance Consumer Services
Many types of jobs are available in the finance and consumer services industry. Many have different job descriptions and require varied educational backgrounds, soft skills, and personality types.
In general, the industry pays above average, and there are great job opportunities for almost everyone with the ability and desire to learn and work hard.
Let’s look at some of the most common types of jobs available.
Investment Banker
Investment bankers provide a valuation of a business enterprise or related entity and help clients raise money by selling stocks or bonds.
Investment bankers typically work for a large investment bank. They may help companies acquire capital from private equity investors, help them go public and get their shares traded on the stock market, or issue bonds through a bond sale.
An investment banker usually has a bachelor’s degree in business, finance, or a similar field and needs good business acumen, analytical skills, and even a good salesperson.
The pay for an investment banker is very good but with a wide range. For example, a banker at a small firm will make an average annual salary. In contrast, the best investment bankers at large Wall Street firms can make millions of dollars but must work long hours in a highly competitive environment.
Financial Advisor
A financial advisor works with clients to help them choose the best types of investments to meet their financial objectives. Additionally, they access a client’s risk factors to make the proper recommendations.
Their clients may be individuals or businesses, and the product solutions they provide for their clients may be stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or insurance or annuity products.
Financial advisors may work for a large advisory firm or a bank or be in business for themselves. Advisors who work for an advisory firm or are self-employed must be extremely entrepreneurial-minded to be successful. A big part of their job is finding new clients.
To do this job, they may rely on their network, get referrals from current satisfied clients, or even cold call to get their practices started. But unfortunately, these advisors generally get paid only by the commission, and the best ones can make enormous money.
Many banks also have a financial advisor on their staff who does similar work. The difference is that they get a steady stream of potential clients sent to them who are already bank customers. A bank may have thousands of customers who have checking accounts, for example, and many of them naturally will need the help of an advisor at some point.
Since these advisors are not required to find their clients, they generally get paid much less and earn a salary instead of commissions. Still, these jobs are relatively well-paying.
Their clients may need life, disability, or long-term care insurance or have retirement accounts such as an IRA or a taxable brokerage account with mutual funds or other publicly traded assets. Sometimes the client is a business also. For example, the companies may need group insurance products to offer as employee benefits or help setting up and servicing retirement plans such as a 401(k).
These jobs require superb communication skills, the ability and willingness to help people, and some specialized knowledge of financial products.
Financial Analyst
A financial analyst helps to identify the best places to invest money based on the performance of specific businesses, market trends, and the overall economy. A financial analyst generally works for a large firm and makes recommendations for institutional money, not the retail investor.
A financial analyst may work for an insurance company and help them decide where to invest their vast sums of money so it can safely grow according to their objectives. Similarly, they may work for a prominent investment firm and help mutual fund managers decide which stocks or bonds to invest in. While the financial advisors advise the end user, such as an individual, how or where to invest, the financial analysts generally work with institutional investors.
The pay for a financial analyst is very high, with most earnings well into the six figures. An analyst almost always has a college degree, must be detail-oriented, and have excellent business sense.
Accountant
An accountant is a financial professional who tracks and inspects financial records. Different accountants can have several different types of job descriptions. For example, accountants can work for an accounting firm that a company hires, be on staff at a company, or be self-employed in their one-person shop.
A company may have one or more accountants who keep track of all financial records and other assets. Other assets can include but are not limited to, machinery, buildings, inventory, and even intellectual property such as patents, trademarks, or published works.
An accounting firm may hire dozens or even hundreds of accountants that other companies hire to do their accounting work. In finance and business, accounting work done by a third party is trusted more than work done internally.
Third-party accountants are needed to conduct inventory and verify the accuracy of financial records for publicly traded companies to stay in compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example.
Some accountants work for themselves and prepare tax returns for individuals and small businesses. While this may seem like only a seasonal job, small businesses have paperwork, such as tax estimates, they must file with state and federal tax authorities year-round. It is usually enough to keep an accountant busy all year, with a hefty schedule during the first few months of the year when everyone must file their taxes.
Accountants, sometimes good-naturedly called “bean counters,” must be detail-oriented, good with numbers, and able to handle tedious repetitive tasks. Accountants do not generally need to be very outgoing socially, so if you are an introvert who is good with numbers, you would probably make an acceptable accountant.
Loan Officer
A loan officer is a bank employee who helps bank customers or clients get loans. To be a good loan officer, one needs to have excellent customer service and communication skills and knowledge of all the different types of loans a bank offers. Sometimes, the loan officer must also be a good salesperson, so they often have a relatively outgoing personality.
A loan officer must understand the client’s needs, so some business and personal finance knowledge is needed, but generally, a college education is not required. The starting salary for a loan officer may be somewhat modest depending on job history, experience, and qualifications, but it offers a huge growth potential.
Also, getting a job as a loan officer in a financial institution is a good way for someone to get their foot in the door, work hard, learn a lot, and have an opportunity to advance into different roles that may pay much better.
Final Thoughts
A consumer services job is well-paying compared to most other industries. Most of them provide massive growth opportunities for those who can prove they are valuable to their organization.
