Journal of Financial Planning: October 2019
Brian Kallback, CFP®, CLU®, QPA, CTFA, is an assistant professor of finance at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and the program director for Loras’ CFP Board registered program in financial planning and wealth management. He is the owner of Vine & Fig Tree Wealth Planning LLC, an employee education and financial planning consulting firm.
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Relationships matter. We, as financial planners and responsible contributors in our communities, already know this. We spend time cultivating relationships with bankers, accountants, insurance agents, trust officers, attorneys, and other centers of influence. Being top of mind when a need arises is often the primary reason for our networking efforts.
May I recommend you add one more job title to your frequent networking contacts? Your local higher education finance or financial planning professor.
Challenge Accepted
When financial planners or recruiters ask me how to overcome their struggles recruiting and retaining competent, ethical next-generation planners, I challenge their commitment to their local higher education institution or alma mater. In his March 2018 10 Questions interview with the Journal, Ian Harvey shared that “successful financial planners need to make time in their schedules to reach out to who’s coming behind them.” This should be an intentional strategy.
Yes, it can be challenging. Many schools do not have a CFP Board registered financial planning program, or even a financial planning program beyond a course or two. Some business and finance professors may not be able to articulate about life outside of the academic bubble. Many liberal arts professors outside the business department do not wish to appear “vocational” and thus may fail to see the benefits of building strong relationships with financial planning firms. Tenure can produce a laissez-faire political wall focused more on campus committees than external relationship building. Administration, bureaucracy, and accreditation can move much more slowly than the business world and can stifle outside-the-box thinking.
But, do not give up the good fight. In many cases, financial planners are not trying to hire 50 employees for next year. You’ll likely find that one or two credible professors can fill your employee needs for years to come.
Networking with your local finance and financial planning professors to best connect with future employees only enhances the work of schools’ career services programs, many of which do outstanding work. They serve the student population with a variety of job-seeking needs, such as resumes, interview skills, and job search databases. And this column should not be misconstrued to be a comment against their work.
If you’re not convinced of the value a solid networking relationship with a professor can bring to your growing planning firm, consider this: teaching at a small liberal arts college allows me to know my students beyond the classroom. I speak with them in the hallways, during office hours, and before or after class. I support their extracurricular activities with my attendance at their events. Overall, I take a genuine interest in serving their future by understanding who they are and how they envision their future. I feel comfortable when I refer a student to a financial planning firm—either for an internship or a full-time position—because I know the student. I will not refer someone who will embarrass me or our institution. My students know this.
The previous paragraph is not a gratuitous attempt to court compliments. It is my reality, and this reality matters to your efforts in recruiting the next generation of financial planners.
It’s Easy to Develop a Higher Ed Strategy
There is no need to adjust your typical networking strategy for networking with professors; think of them simply as additional centers of influence.
Many of my practitioner friends love eating lunch in our college’s cafeteria where they can feel the energy of the students. As a professor, I enjoy being invited to local industry and civic group meetings, especially with no expectations of a presentation. I can mingle and network while learning about the group’s members. Do you have a client event a professor could attend? Is there an extra seat at your table for a charity function?
One idea to connect positively with your local professors is to offer real-world case studies their students can use in their classes. For example, a friend of mine who is a CPA and a CFP® professional visited my class and opened her eMoney adviser program. She had anonymized all the personal information and was able to teach my students how her financial planning awareness made her a more effective CPA; it was awesome.
Students enjoy the break from the regular course work that a guest speaker can bring, but they benefit more when the speaker brings real-world content for them to consider.
Here are a few thoughts on what not to do when networking with academics: Stay away from expectations. Certain organizations have asked me to promise to meet an annual requirement of interns, monthly visits to the classroom (not going to happen), and tracking of introductions. As a practitioner, you may have expectations for your efforts, but academia does not run like a corporate sales meeting.
I also don’t enjoy when advisers try to use me to get an introduction to our college’s retirement plan committee, access to other professors, or when they represent banks and just want to get student checking accounts. Professors are interested in serving their students and their development; they are not interested in being your internal business development rep.
I serve my students by learning as much as I can about your firm, your vision, your culture, and the type of employee you desire. Your job is to find a strong employee who fits your vision, your culture, and who will not leave within the first few years. We have mutually beneficial interests.
If you were to focus your efforts on one professor or department, financial planning or finance is probably as good a place to start as any. However, I’m sure we all know planners who came to our profession from a humanities or STEM background. I know CFP® professionals who started as John Deere engineers. We have biology, criminal justice, and math majors in our financial planning program.
The road to a life in financial planning is varied and oftentimes includes many starts, stops, yields, and on-ramps—and potentially many speedbumps and roadblocks. Next-generation planners enter the workforce with a “variety of training and experiences” and the ability to “think out loud with other people and listen to feedback, critiques, and differing perspectives,” according to the 2017 book Humility Is the New Smart. They are not a generation with a singular experience; they hold varied interests in a variety of disciplines, from non-profits to craft beer.
I love meeting with students studying to be teachers, doctors, authors, media studies/public relations professionals, political scientists, social workers, psychologists, neuroscientists, priests, Catholic laypeople, etc. I attend practices of our athletic teams and spend five minutes at the conclusion talking about a career in planning. Our clients are not singularly focused and thus neither should be our recruiting.
Two final comments to consider as you develop your networking strategy for higher education. First, students struggle with this idea of the “right” internship or first job. Social media and greater society cajoles students into thinking there is a right and wrong decision. As we know, failure and setbacks are necessary learning opportunities on the road to success. Many students ask me what the right path is, as if I know. In many cases, they are struggling with society’s expectations of what a first job should be, versus their gut reaction or feeling for what they want. Be mindful of this reality.
Secondly, be transparent about the initial few years when you describe your culture and expectations. If I know you expect 200 phone calls a day or neighborhood prospecting, I can target my recommendations of students who may thrive in that environment. Others will enjoy the small, family feel of an RIA. Many large firms have become so adept at marketing their recruiting they forget to actually describe the first few years or gloss over expectations. Next-generation planners aren’t stupid and they aren’t afraid to leave a job they do not enjoy. If you want to keep them, be honest about your expectations during the networking process.
Conclusion
When you share your vision and I share mine, we become top of mind for each other. When students visit my office and ask about internships, potential jobs, or contacts, I can match the objectives and personality of my students with the objectives and culture of your firm. Again, this is no different than your usual networking strategy—build awareness so you are top of mind when the need arises.
As you develop your growth or succession strategy, consider bringing a finance professor or financial planning program director into the mix. While building your client base is not our primary objective, our relationships with students can evolve into your future employee.