At a brokerage firm or wealth-management practice, you administer registered accounts — handling account-maintenance work, supporting compliance documentation, managing the operational backbone of brokerage accounts under the firm's and FINRA's registered framework.
The work runs through registered account-management systems and compliance workflows — processing account-maintenance forms, supporting required documentation, handling registered-account life-cycle events (transfers, deaths, beneficiary changes), supporting compliance attestations. You're often the operational hand on registered account administration that produces both the client experience and the compliance posture. Documentation accuracy and compliance currency drive performance.
The harder part is often the regulatory-document discipline — registered-account paperwork carries fiduciary and compliance consequences, and small errors create both client and regulator issues. Variance across employers is wide: at major wirehouses the role is structured with deep compliance frameworks; at smaller broker-dealers and RIAs it carries broader scope with less infrastructure.
Administrators who do well tend to carry detail-orientation, regulatory awareness, and patience with compliance paperwork. SIE, Series 7, Series 99, and brokerage-administration credentials anchor advancement. The trade-off is the regulatory-compliance weight of registered-account work and the back-office invisibility outside compliance cycles.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Admin & Office roles →At a brokerage firm or wealth-management practice, you administer registered accounts — handling account-maintenance work, supporting compliance documentation, managing the operational backbone of brokerage accounts under the firm's and FINRA's registered framework.
Median pay for a Registered Account Administrator is about $63K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $48K to $92K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Active Listening, Speaking, Reading Comprehension, Time Management, and Critical Thinking.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 9.5% through 2034, with roughly 40,090 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Account Specialist, Account Administrator, and Account Manager.
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