New programs to prepare students for careers in wealth management
Companies seek new generation of advisors as need for wealth management grows
New programs to prepare students for careers in wealth management
The Department of Finance at the Miami University Farmer School of Business has kicked off a pair of new programs aimed at preparing students to be the next generation of wealth managers.
The first is a new academic minor in wealth management financial planning, starting this fall. The 18-credit hour program is a series of classes that will allow students to meet all the education requirements for the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) exam. Students majoring in Finance or Accountancy will find that some of their classes for their major will also apply to the minor, thus requiring only 12 credit hours of wealth management classes.
Department chair Joel Harper said that the classes will roll out over the next two years.
The second program is the Wealth Management Career Development Cohort Program, a high-touch immersive program designed to provide participants broad extracurricular exposure to the wealth management industry.
“What we're really looking for are students who are highly motivated, self-directed, and very driven to seek out opportunities such as this,” FSB Director of Industry Partnerships Michelle Chevalier said. “We're looking for students who are going to be excited to show up on a Friday and get on a bus to go down to Cincinnati to visit firms. We're looking for students who are going to come at 5 p.m. and listen to an industry speaker panel because of the wisdom that's going to be shared.”
Each year’s cohort will be limited to 12 to 15 students, with preference given to first-year and sophomore students. Students selected will have access to an industry mentor, receive job shadow experience, and be expected to complete two internships.
The cohort participants' experience focus will change each year:
- Year 1 – Socialization and Recruitment
- Year 2 – Immersive Experiences
- Year 3 – Hands-on Experiential Learning
- Year 4 – Exam and Job Search Preparation
The announcement for the new programs came at the start of a panel discussion with several executives working in wealth management, who talked about their experiences and why they chose this field.
“It's an extremely powerful venue to blend human relationships with the complexities of finance,” Jennifer Damiano, Cincinnati Market President & Key Private Bank Market Leader at KeyBank, said. “The level of detail and understanding that I strive to understand about our clients, because if we understand how they make decisions we can actually help them make decisions at the right time, the right way, for the right reasons, and really assure them of having the life that they always dreamed of.”
“I think that our business had become more and more relationship focused over the years. I've been in wealth management for about 25 years, and my job has become more relationship based than anything else that I do right now,” Deanna Sicking ‘99, Senior Wealth Advisor at Truepoint Wealth Council, said. “I have my CFP, I have all the technical background. But when I am speaking and meeting with our clients, we become part of their families.”
“That family is relying on you to be the steward, and I think that's the whole professionalism that you have to adhere to. So it's not easy, but I think that's what you have to commit yourself to when you when you get involved in this business, is that you are going to be the one,” Greg Harris ‘90, President of Wealth Management at First Financial Bank, remarked. “At a time of great need, whether it be a fraud event, a death in the family, whatever the case may be, you're going to be that steward.”
The panel echoed what Nest Capital’s Lisa Howe told students last semester: A significant number of wealth managers will be retiring over the next decade, and Farmer School students are in a great position to take their places.
“We need to have the younger generation come in and learn from us as time goes on. And it can't be done in the computer. It has to be done face to face and it's going to take five, six years for someone new to really get ramped up in this business,” Scott Green ‘88, Senior Vice President of Wealth Management at UBS Financial Services, told students. “There's so much to it, but I will say this is one of the greatest businesses in the world.”
Barrett Driggett, Sales Desk Manager at Touchstone at Touchstone Investments, noted that there are a lot of jobs that need doing in wealth management, which means there’s a lot of opportunity to shine.
“I think it has a lot to do with finding where your passions lie, whether it be a tax specialist or whether it be an investment analyst or whether a marketing specialist. In every single case, you have this wide spectrum of opportunity within the financial services industry and every single one of these departments within our organization, we all work together. We're all one big team and it's just phenomenal,” he said. “So, your career path evolves and grows over time, and I think it really has everything to do with where you really see that your skills impact the company and can help drive the overall goal of everything that everyone's working on.”
