Careers in wealth management

Gold Mine, Wealth management industry is an emerging sector enabling abundant career opportunities in the field, says Sanjiv Marwah 

Wealth management as an investment-advisory discipline incorporates financial planning, investment portfolio management and a number of aggregated financial services. High-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), small-business owners and families who desire the assistance of a financial advisory specialist call upon wealth managers to coordinate retail banking, estate planning, legal resources, tax professionals and investment management.

Strong GDP growth, a bright economic outlook, high savings rate and a comparatively young and rapidly-increasing residents of affluent Indians, both in terms of fixed numbers and geographic diversity, will give the fuel for the dream-run of the wealth management sector in India. 

Many types of companies are engaged in the business of wealth management. Wealth Management is both about wealth conservation and formation. The premier insurance industry is flourishing because so many bankers are adopting and playing safe game in the business of insurance the term called is Bancassurance.
 Scope

Presently India needs close to 100,000 qualified wealth managers. The major dispute facing the Indian wealth management industry is people. As an emerging industry there is a constrained resource pool. India, in the coming decades, presents to us a very hopeful picture, with all the fiscal components working in our favour, most significantly the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate leading to a healthy. 

Also, India has one of the most eminent saving rates of 36 per cent, of which presently about five per cent is inducted towards the stock markets. This itself along with the boosting economic growth poses a huge untouched opportunity in stock broking sector.  

Skills

Besides skills and proper training, one needs a brilliant network to get an engagement with High Net worth Individuals (HNI) and Ultra High Net worth Individuals (UHNI). Wealth managers should have very strong product knowledge with a solid understanding of various types of markets like equities, real estate, banking, insurance and the impact of macro-economic issues. Sales and negotiation skills are important to deal with clients effectively to get desired results.

The Wealth Management industry is a niche segment wherein the services are offered to individuals who have cumulative wealth and are looking to conserve it, and also maintain the same with the changes in their lifestyle. So any candidate looking for a career in this field should definitely possess good market knowledge with efficient presentation and communication skills, apart from education and training

Job Prospects

Although the need for chartered accountants and statisticians has been consistently growing, the facts that fund necessity keeps the market on its toes is reason enough for the growth in the sector. The top financial areas that offer rewarding career prospects include bank account related activities, private asset, finance and capital management etc. From managing costs, finances and bond market, there is plenty of scope for aspirants in this profession. One of the factors that work in the favour of a tremendous growth in this sector is that fund management in both stable and unstable economies is resistant to market movement. 

Rural financing is another area that promises wonderful growth and includes a huge amount of untouched investment. Also, new products keep flooding the market creating pecuniary needs which leads to greater innovation and larger amount of jobs.

Wealth management professionals are usually employed by-Banks with large distribution models; Brokerage firm that concentrate on equity-led products Boutique advisory firms that offer customized services and products to HNIs.
Eligibility

An individual looking for a career in wealth management should be a graduate. He/She should pursue CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) course.  While continuing the study if he / she can work in some financial, banking related companies, or any research firms then that will be of grate help to the students. After working for almost 3-4 years, the individual can go for MBA/PGDM from a reputed B-School which is necessary to upgrade their management skills.

Wealth Management is basically selling of financial and investment products. Companies looking for candidate as a wealth management professionals favour employees with at least four years of experience in selling insurance policies, different types of credits cards, financial products to name a few.  

Remuneration

Due to the sheer size of this industry, openings across the array from a fresher to middle level and senior management both for front line and secondary teams are easily accessible. Since the jobs are at various levels, the wages are feasible to openings in sectors like IT industry, retail, real estate, financial institutions etc to name a few. Salary pattern would depend on several factors like your qualification, work experience in this field and off course a hold on the things.  A person working for an MNC can earn between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 15 lakh per annum, while one working for a nationalized bank can earn Rs 8 lakh to Rs 9 lakh per annum. A private equity, wealth manager can expect anything between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 16 lakh per annum.