MADISON, Wis.–For the first time, this year CUNA Brokerage Services (CBSI) is reaching out to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions to become summer interns as it seeks to not just open career paths for a more diverse group of candidates who may have never considered a career in financial services, but also to help fill a void created as older advisors retire.
The interns will be part of CBSI’s larger Multicultural Advisor Growth Strategy.
Robert Comfort, president of CBSI, said a variety of reasons have contributed to the establishment of the program, but what they share are mutual benefits for both CUNA Brokerage Services and for people of color looking to get into a field that has not traditionally been seen as a career option.
“When you look at the credit union industry as a whole, credit unions are extremely—what I would call—under-advisored,” Comfort explained. “They don't have near enough advisors for the number of members who would like to get help with these critical needs. The problem we have in the industry is there's a growing shortage of financial advisors, because financial advisors are aging and there's not a lot of new advisors coming into the industry…One of the reasons is the industry has created these barriers to entry.”
Unintentional Obstacles
Comfort stressed those barriers were not created intentionally, but instead by good intentions when it came to serving members, the result of which has been to exclude many from the career option.
“The industry has said, ‘Hey, unless you have this many years of experience, unless you bring this much in assets and clients with you, we’re not really going to hire you as an advisor. And, by the way, the compensation is full commission’,” Comfort said. “So, we said, hey, wait a minute, we can solve a couple of problems here. We can develop the next generation of advisors so we can help really increase the number of advisors that are out in the credit union space, And, number two, we can tear down these barriers to entry and allow less-experienced, high-potential, more diverse people to come into this industry.”
Comfort said it was understood that to meet the needs of the latter would involve mentoring and training and development of advisor candidates.
“We really want to invest in developing a whole new generation of financial advisors that can move into the credit union space rather than continuing down the road of beating our heads against the wall,” he added.
Getting Them Early
But good intentions are just part of the equation. If the program is to be a success it will require communicating the potential prosperity ahead for candidates.
“The internship program is just one component of this overall strategy of really tearing down the barriers to entry,” said Comfort. “We've created positions within our company that will allow people to enter this wealth management space.”
That includes providing mentoring on obtaining the various licenses required for financial advisors, and making clear to groups who have previously not been attracted to that industry that the company is doing more than just reaching out, it is providing support.
Comfort said the goal of reaching out to students who are still in college and in partnering with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, as well as predominately Hispanic colleges, is to get them aboard early, “because once they graduate, what we're seeing is it's very difficult to attract minorities into this.”
CUNA Brokerage Services is seeking approximately 20 students for the initial internship program. Comfort said those selected will not begin in the main office, but will instead head right to the field where they will be paired up with a senior advisor and spend 10 weeks over the summer inside credit unions and participating in client consultations.
The Objective
The objective is to have the student interns return to school, graduate and then want to enter into one of the full-time positions that have been created for them in which a longer training and mentoring program will then be available, including working under a successful advisor team in an entry-level role before going out into the field.
CBSI has some experience in developing more diverse advisors, according to Comfort.
“We were making really good progress in attracting women into some of these new positions we've created, but we were struggling attracting minorities. That's why we thought let's move out into the HBCU colleges and create the internship program,” he added.
But how during the recruiting process will the company overcome the initial response from students who may not see themselves in a career as a financial advisor?
“I think you overcome that by creating positions where they can enter the business and feel comfortable doing it right, instead of saying we're going to kind of throw you into this (and make you work on) full commission,” Comfort answered, noting the candidates will instead begin on salary as they learn and grow.
Basic Qualities Sought
“We've created the training program assuming that they don't have any experience right now. We've tried to create a program that doesn't say what you really need is one or three years’ experience and then you can come here,” Comfort told CUToday.info. “We created a training program that says even if you have no experience, but you've got these basic qualities--you're a caring person, you have empathy, you're driven right, you align with the values of credit unions, you're willing to work hard, you want to make an impact in people’s lives, which is what this industry does--we will invest in you. You will get both on-the-job experience and also go through the formal training program.”
Comfort stressed that credit unions will never be in the business of serving only high-net-worth individuals, so it’s important to identify candidates who understand the mission-driven orientation of the CU movement.
The reason for making the investment in expanding the number of advisors in the pipeline, according to Comfort, is the demand is there. Calling it a “dilemma,” he noted credit unions are short on financial advisors at the same time more than half of members said they would like to get financial management guidance from their CU.
Comfort said just 2% of CU members use their credit unions for wealth-management needs, including retirement planning. By acting now, he noted again, the company hopes to solve a big potential future problem of not having a new wave of talent available as a generation of advisors retires.
A License to Thrive
Comfort said that when students finish their internships the objective is to leave them with skills that include understanding the administrative work involved, as well as operations and processing. Just as important, the interns will also be exposed to the human skills needed as they watch more seasoned advisors work with members on some of the most important decisions they can make.
During the internship students will also be encouraged to begin pursuing the various licenses needed, such as a Securities Industries Essentials (SIE) license, the first step toward a Series 7, to be a financial advisor. Ideally, Comfort said, a student could earn the SIE license before graduating so that when they join the company they are further along.
“It also tells us how bad they want it, because you have to study to pass it,” said Comfort. “By having this basic first license it shows that there's a real interest in pursuing the industry.”
Establishing the Program
Before the students can begin putting in the work necessary, there was also considerable work that had to be done first at CBSI so that the program could be effective and benefit everyone, according to Comfort, who said a “pretty big team of people” was involved in the process of not just designing the program but working with the HBCUs and the predominately Hispanic colleges.
That included spreading the word at those colleges, structuring the internships, onboarding, working with credit unions (Comfort said a number of CUs have embraced the idea and said they wish to participate) and more.
“There was a lot of work that went into designing the whole program, but the whole idea is we want them to say at the end of the summer that ‘This is what I want to do in my career. This is where I want to go.’ Everything that we designed was about getting them to that point where they say, ‘Wow, this is this is cool, I'm really interested in doing this.’ If you’re serious about it being a great experience for that college student it takes a lot of work to create it.”
Comfort said CBSI has worked to build relationships with the colleges, including aligned organizations within the schools.
Comfort said plans are for the internship program to be ongoing, including identifying entry-level positions for students to fill after graduation.
Why Age Shouldn’t Matter
Will members take a young advisor seriously, as it’s their finances that are at stake?
“We find that members are very willing to deal with someone young if they are caring, they're genuine, and they've been properly trained,” Comfort responded. “Usually, when members are dealing with a really young, new financial advisor, it is a junior advisor under the leadership of a much more experienced advisor, so people know they are part of a team. Sometimes that helps but we find that people are very comfortable dealing with an advisor who's younger. Keep in mind that in America the members we are serving are far more diverse than they were before, and I think people welcome new people coming into the industry who really have what it takes.”