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are quantitative research positions in wealth mgmt front office?

quantquanta

Joined
10/29/15
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I got an offer for a quant intern position doing asset allocation, portfolio optimization for the wealth management side of a bank. Is this a from office or middle/back office role like market risk? thank you
 
quantquanta said:
I got an offer for a quant intern position doing asset allocation, portfolio optimization for the wealth management side of a bank. Is this a from office or middle/back office role like market risk? thank you
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it is not backoffice.
 
you can say it is in the front office but it is not front office in the sense that you won't bring in any revenue
 
Is this wealth management for retail clients or institutional clients? There is a pretty big difference. Usually wealth management = team of financial advisors managing on behalf of or advising retail HNW/UHNW/family office type clients, while asset management = same thing but for sophisticated corporate clients like insurance companies, pension funds, sovereigns, endowments, etc.

Asset allocation/portfolio optimization on the asset management side is portfolio management / portfolio manager work. If your work outputs are trade recommendations to the PM, then it's front office. If your outputs are risk reports or analytics, then it's more removed.

The same type of work in wealth management almost guarantees that you are producing analytics for financial advisors. So even more removed from FO.

At the end of the day, there is no universal definition of what constitutes FO. Neither does FO guarantee a certain comp. Just make sure to get into a role that stays as close to making key decisions as you can. The closer you are to the money, the better your chances at getting paid well.
 
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