Investment Advisor

As an Investment Advisor, you, well, advise clients about investments. But advising means much more than simply suggesting they purchase one stock over another. In your position as an Investment Advisor, you work with a specific subset of investors, evaluating and monitoring their transactions, and processing paperwork around each sale or purchase.

You will work as an individual Consultant or as an employee of a bank or brokerage firm as an Investment Advisor. Regardless of where you hang your coat though, your clients make up a specialized group of investors. These aren’t your average “want to put some money in a mutual fund” kind of clients. They’re the kind who regularly invests such large sums of money that each transaction has the potential to send a ripple through the stock market.

These clients need special consideration for the impact on their taxes and diversification of their portfolio. Often, they offer a unique investing situation. Say, for example, they want to diversify, but are under obligation to retain a large chunk of shares for a certain period of time. With this limitation, you find ways to work around the tied-up assets and make other investments that will balance out the portfolio.

For each client, you ask questions and gather a complete understanding of their ability to handle risk and long- and short-term goals. With this information, you advise them about purchases and sales that best match those goals. Along the way, you record all transactions and complete state and federal regulatory reports.