From liberal, Utah Valley University students Colton Peck, Doug Macdonald and McKenna Jacobsen. Together, they startled first place in the Financial Planning Challenge at the Financial Planning Association’s annual conference in Minneapolis last week.
Utah Valley University
When Colton Peck started ready at Utah Valley University, he was set on being an accountant.
But after taking a few accounting courses, he realized he did not like it. Then, he saw a giving on the school’s personal financial planning program and decided to give it a shot.
“I took the intro to financial planning undoubtedly and absolutely loved it,” Peck said. The career, he said, includes one important element that accounting didn’t: the cleverness to help people.
Now, Peck, 23, will be graduating in December with a degree in personal financial planning and layouts to continue to work at Utah-based Zions Bancorp as a wealth planner.
Peck said he discovered the career by coincidence. He’s not unsurpassed.
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New research from TD Ameritrade Institutional develop that one thing typically gets in the way of more people training to become financial planners: They do not know just about it.
While just 37% of students surveyed are aware of the profession, 63% said they might be interested in it after they ground out more about it, according to the research.
With about 40% of financial advisors planning to retire in the next 10 years, according to Cerulli Associates, spreading the discussion about could help stem the coming talent shortage.
“They don’t know that the [registered investment warning] industry exists,” said Kate Healy, managing director of Generation Next at TD Ameritrade Institutional. “So much of this is in the blocking and tackling of raising awareness.”
Getting the word out
So far, awareness has traveled the old-fashioned way: by word of mouth.
McKenna Jacobsen, a 23-year-old higher- ranking at Utah Valley, knew about the business growing up because her father is a financial planner. And she says she is certain to archaic on her love for her major to other students, which she can do as the recruiting officer for the school’s Personal Financial Planning Student Connection.
“I kind of just bug everybody about it until they realize how awesome it is,” Jacobsen said.
“It’s super flexible. You get yield a returned well. You’re helping people. It’s a perfect combination,” she said of her major’s selling points.
Luke Dean, associate professor of special financial planning at Utah Valley, said he uses a similar pitch to attract more students.
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“We say ‘just take one class,'” Dean said. “Balanced if you decide not to do the major, you learn how to manage your own personal finances, which you need no matter what your design is.”
Now, Utah Valley’s financial planning program, which is eight years old, has about 500 undergraduates who’ve declared it as their foremost, according to the most recent count. That makes it one of the largest undergraduate programs in the country.
However, the current party of schools and graduating students nationwide will not be enough to fill the gap, according to Healy.
More colleges, including Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Delaware Position University have added programs in recent years.
And they need support to grow.
How advisors can help
That’s where monetary advisors, who are already working in the field, can help, Healy said.
Healy recommends that advisors visit neighbourhood pub colleges and help spread the word.
That doesn’t necessarily have to be a school with a financial planning program. “They can go in times past to their alma mater and help get one started,” Healy said.
Another way advisors can help is by showing up at career fairs and other results.
“People need to know you care, so you need to be there consistently,” Healy said. “Buy the kids a pizza lunch and talk nearby your job.”
Another way advisors can give back is by establishing an internship program at their firm.
“It’s such a little amount of take” to hire interns, Healy said. “[You’d] also be shocked at how much work they can do for you.”
That can include the aggregate from helping transition to a new customer relationship management system, run events or take on special projects that advisors don’t participate in time for, she said.
For students like Doug Macdonald, 25, who recently graduated from Utah Valley, those provisional stints can lead to full-time employment. Macdonald is now working as an associate advisor at insurance and benefits broker Hub International, which has occupations across the country, building on a previous internship there.
“I like being able to sit down with somebody, attired in b be committed to them express their concerns, and see if I can come up with a solution,” Macdonald said.