What do you get for passing the Series 7 and 63?

College Confidential Community
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<p>Can someone explain the purpose of these two exams to me and what the career path is after you pass these? Assume you're working at a brokerage firm like T Rowe Price or Charles Scwab. Thanks.</p>

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<p>Series 7 - General knowledge of stocks, bonds, and options. - Know what the securities are
Series 63 - “Uniform Securities Agent State Law exam” - Know what the law is on selling securities.</p>

<p>Career track: Broker, Sales Manager, Branch Manager - That is for a regular brokerage firm. However, a lot of people stop at Broker, since that is where all the money is made.</p>

<p>T Rowe Price and Schwab are discount brokers, so the track may be different.</p>

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<p>if you are employed by a broker-dealer in the US and / or work in a function advising / selling of securities, you will likely have to pass the Series 7 / 63.</p>

<p>you don’t “get anything” for it per se, but certain entry level positions at some firms are contingent upon passing the 7 or 63 – i.e. you could lose your job if you don’t pass it.</p>

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<p>Is it true that your compensation if you’re a broker is based mostly on commission so some people can make like 30k while others make 500k?</p>

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<p>yes and no.</p>

<p>depends on what kind of broker you are talking about and which brokerage. if you are talking about a run of the mill equity broker, then yes, compensation is largely commission based in addition to the amount of assets you have under management – i.e. your “book” of business.</p>

<p>yeah someone could earn half a “buck” (i.e. 500K) but you’d have to be in that business for years, build up a book of business with high amounts of deposits, etc. in other words, its the exception rather than the rule, particularly in these markets.</p>

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<p>Depends on the firm. T Rowe Price and Schwab are discount brokers, so their sales force primarily work on salary.</p>

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<p>So I’m assuming when registered representatives I know at Schwab talk about making 6 figures 2-3 years in I know they’re in for a rude awakening?</p>

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<p>I don’t know Schwab, but I don’t think it would be unreasonable for a good manager to make $100k/yr. But, I can’t imagine how Schwab could pay a retail broker $250,000/yr or more that a good performing broker at a full service firm could make.</p>

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<p>I just looked up Schwab, and this is on their website:</p>

<p>“The Service component pays a representative 7% of the approximate annual revenue attributed to clients in their Practice”</p>

<p>I guess they do have a commission component. Seems like a really tough way to make money when commissions are really small.</p>

<p>“When accounts in their Practice increase in size, these accounts are sometimes reassigned to a Financial Consultant who serves clients with similar asset levels. Representatives whose clients are reassigned due to account growth are paid $40 per $100,000 of client assets.”</p>

<p>Especially if you keep loosing your larger clients.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.aboutschwab.com/about/overview/compensation.html#branch1[/url]”>http://www.aboutschwab.com/about/overview/compensation.html#branch1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>at 0.0350% of assets for a fee based account, you would need $285 million of assets to make $100,000. That is A LOT of assets.</p>

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<p>haha…ok…guess that means people are bsing then</p>