Entry-level Series 7 reps earn $50,000 to $65,000 base at wirehouses, plus a first-year guarantee or production draw. Producers with five-plus years typically pull $150,000 to $500,000+ through a mix of commission and fee-based AUM. Bank brokerage pays a steadier base ($45-55K) with weaker upside. Call-center registered reps at Fidelity and Schwab sit around $55-75K. Trading-desk Series 7 roles in NYC and Chicago run $85-150K base plus bonus.
What jobs can you get with a Series 7?
The Series 7 (officially the General Securities Representative Qualification Examination) is the broadest sales license FINRA issues. Pass it and you can solicit, recommend, and sell almost every securities product: individual stocks, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, options, ETFs, REITs, mutual funds, variable annuities, and direct participation programs. That breadth opens up a wider hiring market than the Series 6 (packaged products only).
The roster of firms hiring Series 7 reps clusters into six channels:
Wirehouse Trainee Programs
Merrill Advisor Development Program (ADP), Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor Associate (FAA) Program, JPMorgan Advisor Development Program, Wells Fargo Advisors trainee track. Structured 24-36 month onboarding with a first-year guarantee, followed by a production hurdle you have to clear.
Bank Brokerage
Bank of America Merrill Edge, Citi Personal Wealth Management, US Bank Investment Services, PNC Investments, regional bank wealth desks. Lower base but heavy branch-referral lead flow.
Independent Broker-Dealers
LPL Financial (29,000+ advisors), Ameriprise, Cetera, Cambridge, Commonwealth. Eat-what-you-kill, no salary, but payouts of 80-90% versus 35-45% at wirehouses.
Call-Center Registered Reps
Fidelity Investments, Schwab, Vanguard, E*TRADE (Morgan Stanley brand), Robinhood. Series 7 + Series 63 minimum, often plus the Series 66 within 90 days. Steady base, low commission risk.
Trading Desks
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, JPM markets desks, regional dealers. Series 7 + Series 57 (Securities Trader). Base plus bonus, location-weighted to NYC and Chicago.
Edward Jones-Style Branch Model
Edward Jones FA Trainee Program, Raymond James branch advisors. Single-rep storefront, build a book in your home market. Salary plus production-tied bonus during a multi-year ramp.
You will also see Series 7 listed as a requirement (or strongly preferred) for compliance, supervisory, operations, and product-management roles at the same firms. Those tend to pay closer to the call-center band and skip the production pressure.
How much do Series 7 reps make?
There is no single Series 7 salary. Pay depends almost entirely on the channel and your tenure. Here are honest 2026 ranges:
| Channel | Year 1 Total Comp | 5+ Year Producer | How They Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wirehouse trainee (Merrill, MS, JPM, Wells) | $60,000 - $90,000 | $200,000 - $500,000+ | Guarantee year 1-2, then 35-45% grid on production |
| Bank brokerage (BofA, Citi, US Bank) | $45,000 - $70,000 | $110,000 - $220,000 | Base + referral bonus + lower grid (25-40%) |
| Edward Jones branch FA | $50,000 - $75,000 | $150,000 - $350,000 | Salary tapers, production takes over by year 4 |
| Independent BD (LPL, Ameriprise, Cetera) | $0 - $40,000 (no salary) | $120,000 - $400,000+ | 80-90% payout, eat-what-you-kill |
| Fidelity / Schwab / Vanguard call-center rep | $55,000 - $75,000 | $80,000 - $130,000 | Base + modest activity-based bonus |
| Bank trading desk (Goldman, MS, JPM, Citi) | $85,000 - $150,000 base + bonus | $200,000 - $600,000+ | Base + discretionary bonus, NYC/Chicago weighted |
Year 1 advertised numbers and actual Year 1 numbers are usually close because the guarantee covers you. Year 3 is rougher. Industry research from Cerulli and Datos Insights (formerly Aite-Novarica) has consistently put four-year wirehouse trainee survival rates in the 20-30% range. The reps who clear the production hurdle do well; the rest get cut.
When a wirehouse quotes “average advisor pay of $400,000+,” that average is across reps who cleared the production hurdle and stayed five-plus years. New trainees who wash out at 24 months do not get counted in that number. Use the Year 1 column above for honest baseline expectations, not the senior-producer averages from recruiting materials.
Wirehouse trainee programs and pay structures
The four big wirehouses still run formal trainee programs, and they are the clearest entry point for a Series 7 career in 2026. Each pays roughly the same Year 1 floor, with small differences in how the guarantee unwinds:
Merrill Advisor Development Program (ADP)
First-year package: $60,000 to $75,000 base salary plus benefits, typically a guarantee floor for 24-30 months. After the guarantee period, you move onto the Merrill grid (roughly 35-45% payout on gross production) with an asset and revenue hurdle to retain a salary component.
Required licenses: Series 7, Series 66 (or Series 63 + 65), state insurance. Merrill sponsors and pays for all of them. CFP coursework is encouraged starting in year two.
Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor Associate (FAA) Program
First-year package: $60,000 to $80,000 base, with the higher end at flagship offices in NYC, SF, and Chicago. Three-year program with a defined production ramp at months 18, 24, and 36. Miss the ramp and you exit the program.
Notable: Morgan Stanley has tightened headcount on this program multiple times since 2022. Many incoming classes are smaller than in the pre-2022 era. Confirm class size and survival rate with your recruiter before signing.
JPM Wealth Management Advisor Trainee
First-year package: $65,000 to $90,000 base, often higher because trainees are typically placed in Chase branches with built-in lead flow from Private Client referrals. Production targets are tied to branch deposits and referral conversion, which is easier than cold prospecting.
Notable: This is one of the few tracks where bank-channel lead flow meaningfully offsets the trainee production pressure. Expect a lower ceiling than independent producers but better Year 1-2 odds.
Edward Jones, Wells Fargo Advisors, Goldman PWM
Edward Jones FA Trainee Program: $50,000 to $75,000 base, four-phase program, single-rep branch model. Salary stretches deeper into the ramp than the New York wirehouses, but you go where they place a branch.
Wells Fargo Advisors trainee track: similar to Merrill ($55,000 to $70,000 base, comparable grid). Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management hires Wealth Advisor Associates at $70,000 to $95,000 base plus bonus, with the tightest selectivity of the bunch. Note: Goldman sold its Personal Financial Management business to Creative Planning in 2023, so PWM is the remaining Series 7 hiring footprint inside Goldman and is much smaller than the wirehouses.
A “first-year guarantee” at a wirehouse is not a salary; it is a draw against future commissions. If you do not produce enough to cover the guarantee by year three, most firms claw back the difference. Read the offer letter section on draw vs. salary carefully and ask whether the guarantee is forgivable.
Bank brokerage vs independent BD pay
Bank brokerage and independent BDs sit on opposite ends of the pay model. Both employ tens of thousands of Series 7 reps in 2026, but the economics work very differently:
- Steady base of $45-55K Year 1, $60-90K mid-career
- Branch-referral lead flow (the bank brings prospects to you)
- Lower production pressure than a wirehouse trainee program
- Lower payout grid (25-40% on commissions and fees)
- Benefits, 401(k) match, paid PTO
- No salary; 1099 or W-2 with eat-what-you-kill model
- Payouts of 80-90% on gross dealer concession
- You source every client yourself
- You pay for office, staff, errors-and-omissions insurance, tech
- Top performers clear $400K+; bottom half struggles past Year 2
Shortcut math: at $300,000 in gross production, a bank-channel rep on a 35% grid takes home $105,000 before benefits. An independent rep on an 85% grid takes home $255,000, minus $40,000-$80,000 in office and staff expenses. Net is closer in the early years than the headline percentages suggest, but the independent model scales harder once you cross $500K in production.
Channel choice usually comes down to career stage: bank brokerage is cleaner Years 1-3, independence pays off Years 5-15.
Pass the Series 7 first
Every job on this page assumes you have the license. CertFuel runs the same adaptive engine across SIE, Series 7, Series 6, Series 63, Series 65, and Series 66.
Choose Your PathAre there remote Series 7 jobs?
Remote Series 7 work is rarer than it looks on job boards. The realistic split:
- Production roles (wirehouse FA, bank rep, indie BD): Rarely remote. The branch model still drives the bulk of new client acquisition and the firms want you in-office for compliance supervision. Hybrid 2-3 days in-office is increasingly common, fully remote is not.
- Call-center registered reps: This is where remote actually exists. Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard run hybrid programs with 1-2 in-office days for new hires and meaningful remote tenure for senior reps. Some Fidelity Personal Investing roles are fully remote after a six-month onboarding period. Vanguard runs a similar model out of Charlotte and Phoenix hubs.
- Independent reps with an established book: Technically yes. If you are LPL or Cetera affiliated and your book is mature, your firm does not care where you work as long as you maintain compliance supervision and your registered office address matches your state filings. Most independent reps still keep an office for client meetings.
- Operations, compliance, product: Many of these were remote post-2020 and have since shifted back to hybrid. Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and JPM trended back toward 4-5 days in-office during 2023-2025; Fidelity and Schwab kept their hybrid policies looser.
If remote is non-negotiable, target the call-center registered rep track at Fidelity, Schwab, or Vanguard. Expect Year 1 total comp in the $55,000-$75,000 band, not the $200,000+ wirehouse producer numbers.
Series 7 + Series 66 jobs: what the combined stack pays
The Series 7 alone qualifies you to sell securities on a transactional basis. Pair it with the Series 66 and you can also work as an Investment Adviser Representative (IAR), which is what opens up fee-based AUM compensation. That distinction matters for pay:
| Stack | What You Can Do | Typical Year 1 Pay | 5-Year Producer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series 7 only | Sell securities on commission | $50,000 - $65,000 | $120,000 - $250,000 |
| Series 7 + Series 63 | Securities sales + state agent registration | $55,000 - $70,000 | $130,000 - $275,000 |
| Series 7 + Series 66 | Securities + IAR + state agent (all in one) | $60,000 - $75,000 | $150,000 - $400,000+ |
The Series 66 premium (roughly 15-25% over Series 7 alone at the senior-producer end) comes from fee-based AUM income. Once you charge a percentage of assets under management instead of only commissions, your book compounds annually without new sales. That recurring-revenue dynamic explains most of the gap between a $200K producer and a $400K producer at the same wirehouse.
If you are already taking the Series 7, the Series 66 is almost always worth the extra 4-6 weeks of study time. It overlaps heavily with the SIE and the state law content from the Series 63. For which combined stack fits your career goals, see the IAR salary guide.
Entry-level Series 7 jobs: what to expect Year 1
Honest Year 1 looks like this at most large wirehouses and bank-channel firms:
Months 1-4: Licensing and Onboarding
Study for the SIE (if you have not already passed it), then the Series 7, then the Series 66 or 63. Most firms pay for prep, the exam fee, and your time. You are on a guaranteed salary during this window, usually $55,000-$70,000 prorated.
What to do well: Pass everything on the first attempt. Failed exams reset the calendar and some firms count failures toward your ramp clock.
Months 5-12: Prospecting and First Clients
You are licensed and the production pressure starts. Wirehouses expect 200-400 outbound calls or contact attempts per week. Bank channels expect you to convert branch referrals to opened accounts at a 15-25% rate. Edward Jones expects you to door-knock or in-person prospect daily.
What to do well: Track activity, not just outcomes. Most year-1 firings happen because the activity log went thin, not because conversion was poor.
Months 12-24: First Production Hurdle
Every firm has a 12-24 month production checkpoint. Wirehouses typically want $200,000-$300,000 in trailing-12 gross production by month 18 to keep the salary component. Bank brokerage targets are lower ($80,000-$150,000) because the lead flow is provided. Miss the hurdle and you exit the program or get pushed to a smaller branch.
What to do well: Front-load your prospecting in months 5-12 so you are not racing the clock in month 17.
Cerulli Associates and InvestmentNews have consistently reported that fewer than one in three wirehouse trainees clear the four-year mark. The wash-out is not random. It correlates strongly with whether you had a network of warmable prospects when you started. Career changers from sales, accounting, law, and high-income corporate jobs tend to do better than recent grads.
Highest-paying Series 7 careers
If pay is the priority and you are willing to take the survivorship risk, three Series 7 tracks have the highest ceilings in 2026:
Wirehouse Senior Producer
Five-plus years on the Merrill, Morgan Stanley, JPM Wealth, or Wells Fargo Advisors grid with $1M+ in trailing-12 production. Typical pay: $400,000 to $1.5M+ depending on AUM and fee-based mix. Top decile reps clear $2M+. Caveat: roughly 70-80% of trainees never get here.
Independent BD Producer
LPL, Ameriprise, Cetera, Commonwealth affiliate with $750K+ production. Net pay of $500,000 to $1M+ after office and staff expenses. No salary, no benefits, but you keep 80-90% of gross. Best for reps with portable books or strong centers of influence.
Trading-Desk Roles (NYC, Chicago)
Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JPM, Citi markets desks. Series 7 + Series 57 + a strong analytical background (usually a quant masters or top-10 MBA). Base $150,000-$250,000, bonus typically 50-150% of base. Total comp $300,000 to $1M+ for senior traders.
RIA Partner / Owner
Build a book inside a wirehouse, break away to your own RIA, and capture full economics. Top breakaway groups clear $1M to $5M+ in owner take. Requires 7-15 years of book-building first, plus operational sophistication most reps do not develop until late career.
The ceiling on Series 7 careers is genuinely high, but the path to the top quartile is real-world hard: it takes 5-10 years of grinding production at minimum, and the wash-out rate in the first four years is the gating factor.
Series 7 jobs and salary FAQ
What is the average Series 7 salary?
There is no honest “average” because pay varies 10x by channel and tenure. The most cited number is the Bureau of Labor Statistics median for securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents: $76,900 (May 2024 data). That figure undercounts senior wirehouse producers and overcounts call-center reps. Better honest numbers: Year 1 wirehouse trainee total comp of $60,000-$90,000 and 5-year producer comp of $200,000-$500,000.
Do you need a Series 7 to work at Fidelity or Schwab?
Yes for any role that involves recommending or discussing specific securities with customers. Fidelity and Schwab will hire you without the license and sponsor you to pass it within 90-120 days. Operations and tech roles at both firms typically do not require it.
Can you make six figures with just a Series 7?
In your first 2-3 years, rarely. After 4-5 years at a producing firm, yes for most reps who clear the production hurdle. The fastest path to six figures with only the Series 7 is the bank-trading-desk track in NYC or Chicago, where Year 1 base alone often clears $100K.
Is the Series 7 worth getting?
If you want a sales-oriented finance career with high ceiling, yes. If you want a salaried, predictable income or want to work primarily as a fee-based fiduciary, the Series 65 (IAR-only license) is often a better fit. The Series 7 has the broadest product reach of any FINRA representative license, which is why most career-track wirehouse roles still require it.
How do you find Series 7 sponsorship jobs?
Search “FA trainee,” “Wealth Advisor Associate,” “Financial Advisor Development Program,” and “Series 7 sponsored” on LinkedIn and the careers pages of the firms in this article. Edward Jones recruits heavily on college campuses for Series 7 trainee roles. Northwestern Mutual also runs a strong campus program, but it is primarily insurance/Series 6 first; reps add Series 7 later only if they move into the securities side. Most legitimate sponsored roles will not ask you to pay for your own prep.
Year 1 wirehouse base: $50,000 to $90,000 plus first-year guarantee
5-year wirehouse producer: $200,000 to $500,000+
Bank brokerage: $45,000-$70,000 base, $110,000-$220,000 mid-career
Fidelity / Schwab call-center rep: $55,000-$75,000
Trading-desk Series 7 (NYC, Chicago): $85,000-$150,000 base + bonus
Independent BD payout: 80-90% of gross, no salary
Series 7 + Series 66 premium: roughly 15-25% over Series 7 alone
Trainee wash-out: Fewer than 1 in 3 wirehouse trainees clear the 4-year mark