Financial Planning Job?

Question

What is the starting Salary for a financial planner (working for Ameriprise).

What is the upside potential?
What is the average made?

Thanks

Answer 1

check out monster.com for some salary comparisons, etc.

In general though, financial planning provides you a lot of options after you get some solid experience under your belt.

Good luck!

Answer 2

If you work for Ameriprise, Merril Lynch, and many other big firms, your income will be mainly from commission, which is a percentage of the investments you sell. Because of that, the firm will give you a low salary.

The result is that you'll end up selling, rather than truly advising. You sometimes make cold calls and mostly call friends and relatives, trying to sell expensive investments to them. You make money at their expense. Not everyone likes doing this job.

A good alternative is to become independent and charge your clients by hours only. If you charged $200 per hours and worked a 40-hour week, you would earn a good salary of $416,000. You will steer your clients to the best investments for them, rather than picking the most expensive ones to get your big commissions to make up for your low salary. In the long run, you have much better (unlimited) upside potential.

Here's a resource that will get you started on the right track:
http://garrettplanningnetwork.com/