BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2016 - 14

Work to Live, Not Live to Work Luke Dean, director of the financial planning program at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, offered his take on millennial students who are forging careers in the financial planning field. On what motivates the millennial generation: On challenges millennials face with the job: Millennials want a job where they can make a difference and have an impact, but also maintain some flexibility or control over their schedule. They also prefer to work in teams as opposed to flying solo. Previous generations prided themselves on outworking everyone else to get to the top. This generation wants to contribute, but they'd rather take less pay to have more hours to pursue their own passions and hobbies, or to have time with friends and family. The biggest challenge is that some corners of the industry still want to "dial for dollars," or have you harass friends and family until you don't have any friends and family left. Millennials would really like to provide superior client service so that the existing clients refer their friends. They will go the extra mile for their clients, but they don't want to walk a mile knocking door-to-door. On retaining millennial advisors once they are on board: On what attracts students to the financial advisor profession: If you were a mad scientist and you went into your lab and created the perfect profession it would have all of the following components: * Your work is meaningful and helps make a difference in the lives of others. * You get compensated well for your work. * You have flexibility and control over your schedule. * The work is mentally stimulating. "Financial advisor" definitely checks all the boxes, but very few students are aware the profession exists, and very few business schools are strategic enough to train students for this rapidly growing career path. nie Madoff. "Those stories are so loud, they squash the goodness of what our industry really is," Harness said. Listening to industry feedback Academic financial planning programs are also listening to feedback from the industry regarding how to prepare students for the advisory profession. Skills being taught to aspiring advisors include how to communicate verbally and through written means, such as how to write a clearly articulated email, Harness said. He pointed out millennials' communication strengths in other areas, however, such as their ability to communicate through multiple chan- 14 www.bisanet.org Millennials want a defined career path where if they meet or exceed expectations they can gain more responsibility and make more income. They want to "work to live" instead of "live to work." They want some flexibility and control over their schedule and maybe even a more flexible environment to get the work done - sometimes work from the office, sometimes from the coffee shop, sometimes from their home. On attracting more students to the advisory profession: I am always out in the hallways recruiting students to this profession. We attend freshmen orientation meetings, we meet with the parents of incoming freshman and transfer students. We have our student leaders go out to the local high schools and teach financial literacy, and then let students know about our major and the industry/profession. We are recruiting every day, every week, every month. We have employers who want to hire the students, we just need more students in the program. nels that the client of tomorrow will be using. What can the industry do to help grow this crop of potential financial advisors? Technology is another key part of the Texas A&M program. "When I look at the future of financial services, technology will permeate all that we do. It already has," Harness said. All students come out of the program with exposure to two of the most widely used financial planning software platforms, eMoney and MoneyGuidePro. "Spread the word," Dean said. He suggests that program executives 'go to their local business school and light a fire under the dean's chair' to encourage them to start a financial planning program. Program managers and advisors can go to local high schools and colleges to speak and raise awareness about the profession. Bank program executives who are interested in financial planning students can go to the CFP Board website (cfp.net) to search by state and type of program. Not surprisingly, women graduates are in high demand. They get more scholarships, faster internship offers, the most job offers and the highest pay, noted Utah Valley University's Dean. "I've had two female students in this past year get six-figure offers before they'd finished their undergraduate degree," he said. Harness said he welcomes calls from investment programs interested in financial planning students. "We have incredible talent and opportunities," he said. ▲ http://www.cfp.net http://www.bisanet.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2016