implementing internships - fjy financial · washington 2015 money manager awards. in the spring of...

WHITE PAPER: IMPLEMENTING INTERNSHIPS

© 2018 FJY Financial, LLC. All rights reserved

By Jon P. Yankee, MBA, CFP®

& Laurie A. Belew, MS, MBA, CFP®

IMPLEMENTING INTERNSHIPS


© 2018 FJY Financial, LLC. All rights reserved 2

ABOUT THE AUTHORSJon Yankee, MBA, CFP®

Jon P. Yankee, MBA, CFP®, founded FJY Financial (formerly Fox, Joss & Yankee) in January of 2006 with Marjorie Fox and Dan Joss. In addition to his duties as a Partner and Senior Financial Advisor, as Chief Executive Officer Jon leads the strategic direction of the firm, and the development and implementation of its well-known human capital strategy, including its highly regarded internship program.

In 2018, for the third issue in a row, Jon was named the top vote-getter for fee-only financial planning in Washingtonian magazine’s list of “Top Financial Advisors”. He was also named a Finalist for the SmartCEO Washington 2015 Money Manager Awards. In the spring of 2013, the National Capital Area (NCA) chapter of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) named Jon their “Planner of the Year”.

Mr. Yankee has been a speaker at a number of industry events and conferences focusing on internship programs and his firm’s hiring practices and strategies. He has also been quoted in numerous industry and non-industry publications. Jon was an original member of the CNBC Digital Financial Advisor Council, a group of 20 wealth management professionals from around the country who provide their insights and perspectives to CNBC’s digital offerings. Jon is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the FPA NCA, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Region of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), and is a NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor.

Jon earned his Master of Business Administration in International Management with a focus on Finance from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in 1998. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies with a concentration in Asian Studies and Japanese from the University of Richmond in 1992. Prior to founding FJY, Jon earned his Certified Financial Planner™ certification following coursework at the College for Financial Planning in Denver, CO and after a stint as a Financial Advisor for Merrill Lynch.

Laurie A. Belew, MBA, MS, CFP®

Laurie A. Belew joined FJY Financial as an Associate Advisor and was the first of our team members to progress through the career path. She is now a Senior Financial Advisor and Partner. Laurie also leads the firm through her efforts as Chief Operating Officer, Director of HR, and Chair of the Investment Committee. Laurie was included in Investment Advisor’s “Five to Watch” list of visionaries and business builders, and Financial Advisor magazine has named her one of “10 Young Advisors to Watch”. In 2014, Laurie was also named to the Investment News list of “40 Under 40”.

Laurie was the 2015 President of the FPA NexGen community, an organization of more than 2,000 young financial advisors, and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the FPA NCA chapter. She also writes a recurring column for Investment Advisor. She has co-authored papers published in Financial Planning and Investment News, and has been quoted widely in many industry publications.

Laurie earned her Master of Science degree in Personal Financial Planning, as well as a Master of Business Administration degree from Texas Tech University. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank numerous people for their kind and generous input on this paper. Without their help, this paper would not have seen the light of day. First, and most important, our team at FJY has been integral to the development and success of our internship program. Marjorie Fox, Tess Downing, Kelly McNerney, and Angie O’Grady have each made invaluable contributions to the development of our internship program and to this paper.

We want to thank Kelli Cruz of Cruz Consulting Group, Lori Silverthorne (formerly of Charles Schwab & Co.) and Bob Veres for their invaluable brainstorming and encouragement when the original version of this WhitePaper was forming back in 2011. We also wish to thank Michael Kitces for his support and insights as we have worked to update this paper this year.

To the professors and program directors at financial planning programs throughout the country, especially Derek Klock, Ruth Lytton, Luke Dean, Vickie Hampton, Deena Katz, John Salter, John Gilliam, Mitzi Lauderdale, Chris Browning, Dottie Durband, and numerous others, we appreciate your continued support and assistance in helping us identify talent at your schools.

To Elissa Buie, Dave Yeske, Cheryl Holland, Dusty Wallace, Lisa Kirchenbauer, and all the colleagues of ours from companies in the profession who have contributed their ideas and thoughts on this topic, we thank you. Our paper and internship program very much include some of the best ideas we have heard from all of you at your firms.

And last, but not least, our alumni summer associates have all provided us with the invaluable, honest feedback to and wonderful memories of our evolving internship program. Nnamdi Odi, Ben Cummings, Alex Eaker Perez, Michael Guillemette, Rianka Urbina Dorsainvil, Josh Blair, Honeigh Meletis Strickland, Clint McCalla, Ginnie Baker, Albi Kacani, Abby Reisenfeld Bennett, Yoni Berhane, Carey Yeary, Angela Collins, Jennifer Pritchard, Nicole Dunn Morgan, Natasha Glennie, Tony Reick, Aaron Wall, Stephen Horstmann, Jon Ludwig, Jacob Gurock, and Matt Lazar. A heartfelt thank you goes out to each of you. We are proud of what each of you are doing both personally and professionally.



INTRODUCTIONIt takes time and effort to run an internship program that maximizes the benefits to both the interns and an advisory firm.

When it works well, skilled and properly trained interns can significantly reduce demands on advisors, allowing them to use their time much more effectively. Interns can also cross lower priority tasks off an ever-expanding to-do list, enabling the firm to grow and develop. Perhaps even more importantly, an internship is a great way to “test drive” a potential future employee to see if they would be a good fit with the firm’s culture and goals. It is also an opportunity to showcase the benefits your company could potentially offer them going forward.

Our advisory firm, FJY Financial, has had 23 summer associates in the 12 years we have had our internship program. Of those great people, we have hired two – not because they all weren’t worthy of a full-time job, but because with most small businesses, we just aren’t hiring for full-time positions all the time. However, both of those full-time hires were at a significant advantage during the interview process and, with our most recent hire, we did not feel a need for an interview process because we had seen everything we needed to see to make that hiring decision.

How do you implement a program that can achieve all these goals without overwhelming advisors’ already limited time? A few things are key: make sure you are hiring the best candidates (as interns) from the beginning; engage the entire firm in creating and managing the program; and commit to providing the interns with the full “advisor experience” – you never know what hidden talents you may discover.

If you would like to develop an internship program at your own practice, or enhance and improve an existing one, consider this a sort of “Internship in a Box” primer, a quick and simple guide to developing a program that is effective and can be adapted for your specific business circumstances. This paper is based not only upon our firm’s highly successful summer associate program, but also dozens of discussions with advisors, CFP Board-registered Program Directors at colleges and universities throughout the country, respected consultants and – perhaps most importantly – students.

“We know through research at our company Angela Herbers Inc., a human capital management company, internship programs are not only very low cost but also dramatically enhance the ability of an advisory firm to attract top talent. Fox, Joss & Yankee has proven through its dedication to hiring interns, the true value an internship program can bring to the company, and they have outlined how it can be done in this useful whitepaper.”

Angela Herbers Founder, Angela Herbers LLCangelaherbers.com

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WHY HIRE AN INTERN?A better question might be: why NOT hire an intern? The benefits to your firm, the students, the profession, and yes, even your clients are numerous.

FOR THE FIRMTime is one of our most precious commodities, and there are never enough hours in the day. Bringing on a seasonal associate to help ease capacity issues can free up an advisor’s time to focus on business development, strategic planning, improved processes, or even achieve more of a work/life balance. Interns are an especially valuable resource for younger advisors, as being able to temporarily offload some of their responsibilities affords them additional time to focus on professional growth and developing to the next stage of their career.

Additionally, interns can assist in implementing many of those wish list projects that you never seem to quite get around to in the average workday: beneficiary confirmations, Medicare reminder letters, Roth conversion reviews, data gathering, etc. Every member of your team can probably cite at least two projects they would see completed to the benefit of the client or the organization.

And while it would likely be impossible to make a full-time employment offer to every high-performing intern you bring on board, it is a great way to do a “trial run” of potential future employees, so that if you do need to hire a new, full-time support advisor in the not too distant future, you already have a pool of pre-vetted candidates from which to choose. This is no small thing when you take into consideration that, according to a 2016 Human Capital Benchmarking Report by SHRM, the average cost per new hire is $4,129. This includes advertising, recruiting, interviewing, background checks, paperwork, etc.

Even worse, despite the costs incurred, most hiring decisions are made after spending only a handful of hours with a candidate, which means an employer has no true idea if the person will actually be a good fit. By contrast, a seasonal internship gives you several months’ worth of data on which to assess a potential new hire: how strong are their technical skills, how quickly do they learn, do they show initiative, can they handle stress, how do they interact with clients, and are they a good fit with the firm’s culture?

By the same token, you’re given ample time to demonstrate all of the tangible and intangible benefits a future team member could receive by accepting a permanent position with your firm. Since the most qualified candidates will often have multiple job offers upon graduation, it’s a real competitive advantage if they already feel like part of the team.

Not to be overlooked is the value provided to younger advisors: by allowing them to oversee the program, they can begin developing the mentoring and management skills they will need to progress further along their own career path. My colleague Kelly McNerney (an FJY Advisor who started her career 4 years ago) notes, “I believe that mentoring our Summer Associates in both technical knowledge and internal processes has made me a more confident and overall better advisor. That alone has made the time spent training them well worth it.”



FOR THE STUDENTSFJY has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from past graduates of our Summer Associates program. They have embraced the chance to work hands-on with many of the technologies they only received a brief introduction to in their coursework. Former interns also appreciated our team approach to training, and the opportunity to learn from and observe a variety of advisors helped them see the value in different approaches to client service. But overwhelmingly, the one experience that all of our past interns have unanimously recognized as important was the ability to sit in on and participate in client meetings. They have noted that even doing routine paperwork becomes much more meaningful when you’ve met the people who are relying on you to complete it correctly. Former summer associate Ginnie Baker, observes, “I knew I would be preparing for client meetings but I really didn’t grasp what that meant and how the work I did was very relevant to clients and meetings. It was not just little behind the scenes things. I got to sit in meetings with clients, and learn how the advisors presented the work I did.” Our interns also spend time with the managing partners, gaining knowledge and insight into the ins and outs of running a practice. As Yeske Buie’s CEO Elissa Buie explains: “When students get input from people who are out in the world doing (the work), it’s really valuable.”

FOR THE PROFESSIONBy interacting with the next generation of financial planners, your firm will become influential in the future of the industry. The time spent with interns will shape their expectations of full-time employment, the financial planning profession, and their career paths. For the right candidate, a great internship experience will influence his/her career choices for years to come.

FOR THE CLIENT?Yes, believe it or not, even clients can benefit from a well-run internship program. In discussing Yeske Buie’s internship program, Elissa Buie shared that, “Our goal is for all of our interns to positively impact our clients in some way. For example, Jeff Realjo, an intern in our Virginia office in 2014, did a lot of the research to help us find IdentityForce as a partner in keeping client identities safe. In spring 2015, Anthony Castaldi did an enormous amount of research and reading to help us advance our Financial Literacy offering to the younger generation. Additionally in summer 2015, our two California Financial Planning interns, Taylor Agostino and Aviv Florenthal, worked diligently to revamp our summary templates to include more valuable and pertinent information we like to track.” FJY and Yeske Buie have seen real, tangible benefits to our client deliverables and service because of work that interns have completed for us.

“One of my professors, Dr. Vickie Hampton, advised us that FJY was extremely well-respected in the financial planning community, and further, that the ability to learn from Partner and TTU alum Laurie Belew was a golden opportunity.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the internship was being able to sit in on meetings and observe how the advisors interacted with different clients. It helped me develop my own style of communicating with clients and reinforced my desire to work for a fee-only firm.

The biggest takeaway I got from my time as an intern was the value of being a team player. I entered the program with a goal of proving my worth, and I didn’t realize until later that that was the wrong attitude. An internship is an opportunity to learn.”

Tony Rieck, FJY Summer Associate, 2016Financial Planner, West Financial

7 © 2018 FJY Financial, LLC. All rights reserved

WHERE TO FIND AN INTERNThe first place to start is the easiest and most obvious – in your own backyard – your website and your social media (Facebook and LinkedIn are the most appropriate portals).

Develop a detailed job description for your internship, just as you would for a permanent position, and post it prominently. Encourage team members to share among their networks as well. Make sure the job description is comprehensive enough in listing the education, technical, analytical, and communications skills that you’re requiring, so that it primarily attracts fully qualified candidates. Even if a potential hire learns of the opening from another source, most will immediately visit a prospective employer’s website to learn more about the position and the firm. Both of our 2016 summer associates mentioned in exit interviews that our website gave them a strong positive impression of our culture and technology, and played a significant part in their wanting to come work for our firm.

Next – you can contact one of the more than 100 colleges and universities that offer CFP Board-registered programs. There are 103 bachelors, 45 masters, and five Ph.D. programs at U.S. universities and colleges that teach a financial planning curriculum that satisfies the education requirements of the CFP Board of Standards. Among the most active and well known of the CFP Board-registered programs are Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Utah Valley University, Boston University, Kansas State, the University of Akron, the University of Missouri, and the University of Georgia. These schools have undergraduate and/or graduate degree programs, or certificate programs in financial planning, and are finding their programs increasingly popular among the best and brightest students. A full listing of qualified programs can be found at cfp.net/become-a-cfp-professional/find-an-education-program.

Once you have located a few schools in your area, (although you do not need to limit yourself geographically, as many students are willing to relocate for the right opportunity) develop relationships with the program directors so that they can help you proactively identify the best candidates for your firm, as well as advocate for you with the students. You will also find that many universities offer an online portal where you can post jobs and search resumes. Check out www. depts.ttu.edu/hs/pfp/internships_jobs/ jobboard.php as an example.

Many of the top schools participate in (or host their own) annual Career Fairs in early spring, and these events offer an excellent opportunity to meet and interview the most qualified candidates. FJY recruits the majority of our summer associates from two such popular programs: Texas Tech’s Opportunity Days, and the FPA’s National Capital Area (NCA) Career Fair. Opportunity Days is a three-day event that allows employers to conduct interviews with students, as well as allowing them the chance to interact more informally at social events like Casino Night and the Awards Banquet. The FPA NCA Career Fair attracts dozens of top financial planning undergraduates from schools throughout the Mid-Atlantic region for a full day of interviews and panels. Check your local chapter for



similar events in your area. FPA’s Dallas/Ft. Worth chapter also has a long-standing, highly successful Career Fair, originated by Caleb Brown of New Planner Recruiting.

Even if they do not host dedicated career fairs, most industry organizations have websites where you can post opportunities and review student resumes. These include:

• NAPFA www.napfa.org/careers/opportunities • FPA https://www.onefpa.org/business-success/Pages/Job-Board.aspx

Industry-specific conferences and events are another excellent resource for locating top talent. Charles Schwab invites a wide range of students from CFP Board-registered institutions to attend their annual IMPACT® conference each fall. The FPA Annual Conference, as the largest independent gathering of financial professionals, has also historically been a magnet for students looking to network with a broad range of firms. Many of the national and regional conferences will invite scholarship winners to attend, which is another excellent source for potential candidates.

Finally, if you don’t have a dedicated financial planning program near you, contact the program directors in your local colleges’ or universities’ business or finance departments. Many of these schools offer portfolio management, finance, or some sort of financial planning classes, even if they do not have full-time degree programs. There are highly qualified students out there who might have a keen interest in an opportunity with your firm – if they only knew that you were looking.

Omega Wealth Management How many interns do you hire, and where do you find them?“We’ve been running our program for about seven years. We originally started with one intern per summer, but have expanded to two per summer, and we have primarily been recruiting by advertising at Virginia Tech’s financial planning program.”

What do you look for when hiring interns? “We try to hire people who are different from each other (we use the Kolbe assessment to help us figure that out), The students don’t have to have had an internship before, but we want enthusiastic, ready-to-learn interns. It’s always nice to have a male and a female to mix things up.”

What exactly do Omega interns do? “Interns receive both lecture-style and hands-on training, work on projects related to tax planning, cost basis research, mutual fund analysis, financial life planning, client data management, and investment research. They also assist with client meetings, as well as participating in FPA meetings and conference calls.”

What advice would you give to a firm just starting an internship program?“Start with one student. Have an onboarding/training program, provide weekly check-ins for them to ask questions and you to provide feedback. Don’t just give them grunt work, try to get them in meetings, have them meet with all the team members to understand different roles within the firm.

FJY Associate Financial Advisor, Evan Meyers, was an Omega 2016 intern

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TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY

Program Founded: 1987 | Alumni: approx 12,000 (BS, MS, PhD)

Degrees Offered and Fall 2017 Enrollment:• BS in Personal Financial Planning (PFP) and Undergraduate Minors - 236• MS in PFP and dual degrees offered for JD, MBA, MS Tax - 127• PhD in PFP - 50

The internship program at Texas Tech is the largest and most robust in the country. Each year, the personal planning program (PFP) sends 45-60 students into the workplace to be mentored by some of the top advisors in the country. The formalized program requires internship sponsors to be vetted and approved by PFP faculty before they are able to take on summer internship students. Sponsors sign a contract committing to giving the intern a wide variety of experiences, from back office operations to planning support and client services. Students are required to spend 300 hours at the firm, working a 40-hour week paid internship. At the completion of the internship, students write a comprehensive report on their experiences with the firm. Sponsors provide evaluations that contribute to 30% of the student’s grade.

Because of TTU’s Schwab Technology Complex and software gifts of more than $4.5 million, students are fully prepared to add value to their internship experiences immediately. Interns have knowledge of financial planning programs, CRMs, portfolio management, and even document management. Many students have installed and integrated software into firms, prepared financial plans, taken notes in client meetings, and a few have even prepared business and marketing plans for their sponsors. Interns have been placed in 48 states and 9 countries.

The program is designed to give undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity for career exploration and development related to the PFP major. Although most positions involve advisor support, all placements enable students to learn new skills, explore career interests, and encounter new social and intellectual challenges. Students are encouraged to view the program as an opportunity for a learning experience with long-range benefits, not just for valuable career experience, but many have been offered employment after graduation after completing their summer internship.

Deena Katz, CFP® Associate Prof, Personal Financial Planning



VIRGINIA TECH UNIVERSITY

Founded: 2007 (earlier program registered with CFP Board 1997-2007) Alumni: 400 since 2008, 40-50 per year, working in 20+ states

The Virginia Tech Financial Planning Program has long supported, and in some cases required, an experiential learning component to the undergraduate education. Students are encouraged to develop relationships within the profession and to learn more about the financial planning career by attending professional conferences, interviewing and “shadowing” professionals, or doing short-term exploratory externships over Winter Break. But the most beneficial opportunity takes the form of summer internships – that sometimes continue as part-time virtual employment. Approximately 50 VT financial planning students annually complete internships, and the benefits are noticeable both inside and outside of the classroom. Students return to campus eager to share their experiences with others and demonstrate a higher order of thinking and application of knowledge. They often comment on the value of seeing, in real life, what they have been studying – and are motivated to work even harder to complete their degree and tackle the CFP® exam. Most importantly, several return to campus with an offer for permanent employment in hand – with the benefit of avoiding the job search while completing their degree, and perhaps planning to sit for the CFP® exam on an earlier date.

Internship experiences help students (1) confirm that planning is the right profession for them; (2) identify which career path may be the best fit for their personality and professional goals; and (3) truly understand the integrated and recursive nature of planning and the nuances of client-planner relationships. Without experiential learning, financial planning is “just words on a page,” but with it the “profession comes alive.”

Students from the program have completed internships in every corner of the US – from Boston to San Diego, and in every channel – from banks and wirehouses to independent RIAs and wealth management firms. Students find these opportunities through (1) firms that send internship announcements and come to campus to recruit and interview; (2) the regional FPA of the National Capital Area Career Day; (3) contacts from professional conferences; (4) personal inquiries to firms in a targeted geographic area; and (5) networking with alumni. But increasingly it is the firms that are proactively seeking interns to establish a firm identity on campus and to develop a pipeline – for interns and future residents and entry-level hires.

It is amazing how much the firms and the students benefit when firms take the risk of hiring interns and giving them meaningful work. The interns tend to exceed the firms’ expectations, often leaving behind work product and procedures that are instituted within the firm. The students gain knowledge, experience, confidence and a much richer understanding of a profession that are excited to enter. It is a win-win-win, for the student, the firm, and the first employer, all of which contribute to the growth and success of the profession.

Dr. Ruth H. LyttonFinancial Planning Program Director and Professor

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UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Founded: 2011 | Alumni: approx 125

Degrees Offered:• BS in Financial Planning

Woodbury School of Business (AACSB accredited)• MS in Financial Planning beginning Fall 2017

Although still somewhat in its infancy, the UVU financial planning degree program currently boasts 491 declared PFP majors, the most of any school in the U.S. And, with a student body that is approximately 27% female and 13% non-white, one of the most diverse as well. The size of the program has allowed UVU to expand its financial planning faculty to eight - the largest of any business school in the country.

While most other programs only require students to complete seven PFP courses prior to graduation, UVU’s degree includes a 13 course requirement, so it’s perhaps no coincidence that alumni have won almost every major national Financial Planning competition in existence (FPA, NAGDCA, AFCPE, WARFC, SFSP).

UVU undergrads are required to complete an internship, and have done so everywhere from RIA, investment, and accounting firms, to credit unions and FinTech companies. Luke Dean, Ph.D. Financial Planning Program Director

Founded: 2013 | Alumni: 80

Degrees Offered:• Financial Planning Minor & Financial Planning Certificate

Winner: 2014 TD Ameritrade Institutional Emerging Program Grant

Students in the Texas A&M University internship program can appren-tice in the industry through a traditional academic credit internship or non-credit internship. The design of the internship is to provide students with real world experience that will bring classroom content to life. Most recently, we have also been working with a limited number of companies for externships. An externship is a one to two day micro internship that allows students to shadow a financial planner and/or a particular firm. We think this provides students with a wider vision of business models and practice methods prior to graduation.

Jeanie Long Izurieta Financial Planning Program Manager



CHOOSING THE RIGHT CANDIDATEBegin recruiting early and often. The best candidates are often snapped up quickly, so make sure to start putting out feelers at least 4-6 months in advance of the program’s start date. The more time you give yourself, the more options you will have, and the more opportunities you will have to assess their fit.

When choosing an intern, just like a new full-time hire, you want to make sure that the people you select have the integrity and personality to fit in your office and culture. Your confidence in their ability to respect your client privacy, data, and your office environment is of utmost importance.

Next, make sure that you are intentional in creating the job description - you want it to be a document that accurately reflects the true scope of the duties that will be performed and the skills/experience/personality that will be most successful in achieving those goals. This will be your primary tool in attracting candidates, so you want to make sure it is attracting the most qualified ones. Draft something similar to the one you have for what a paraplanner/associate/support advisor position does in your firm. You want to give the intern a flavor for what their career will be like in their first few years, and thus, their experience should mirror what newer, less experienced advisors go through in their first years.

If you are meeting candidates at a career fair organized by a school or industry association, you should request resumes be submitted well in advance of the event, so that you have ample time to review

and select the individuals you are most interested in speaking with. Most of these events will allow the students to sign up for specific interview time slots. Develop a set of “hard” and “soft” criteria to use to evaluate the applicants. Ideally, you will want candidates who have educational experience in the financial planning field, exposure to a professional setting, and have shown initiative through community service, or extracurricular activities. Yeske Buie’s interviews are designed to look for: “a student studying financial planning who exhibits inquisitiveness, a natural understanding of our values and worldviews, and a drive to learn and succeed.” In short, we conduct our interview process very similarly to our hiring process for full-time hires.

It is important that interns are not only capable of doing a job well, but are able to fit into your culture and could eventually become a part of your full-time team. Look at existing employee performance evaluation criteria to identify questions for intern interviews. If possible, it is wise to involve your associate planner or other team members who will

be working closely with the interns, in the interview process. During FJY’s hiring process for interns, I’m told that our staff “finds the recruiting process to be exciting! During scheduled time together, we are observing both the student’s technical knowledge and their ability demonstrate professionalism and show his/her personality. The interview continues throughout the day and into the networking activities,

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even if the interviewee doesn’t realize it. While technical knowledge is impressive, hiring a Summer Associate who we believe will fit in with our culture is very important to FJY.”

If you are meeting with prospective interns outside of an organized career day, plan to schedule an initial 15-20 minute phone interview. This is an excellent opportunity to evaluate candidates’ soft skills, and gather a sense of their understanding of the program and commitment. After the phone interviews, select the top candidates for in-person meetings. It is important to ask similar questions of each candidate, so that you can have appropriate comparisons when making your decision.

Remember, this interview isn’t just about students impressing you, you want to make sure to impress them as well. Jon Ludwig, one of our two interns in 2017 (to whom we subsequently offered a full-time position), appreciated that a significant portion of his initial interview was focused on learning about HIS needs and career plans rather than just trying to sell the firm: “FJY showing an interest in me made me feel valued right off the bat. It gained them immediate respect.” Stephen Horstmann, our other 2017 intern, has told me that the clincher for him was being able to attend a Happy Hour with the partners after the interview. “I felt welcomed and easily clicked with their personalities. They were genuine and relatable in contrast to more formal interview experiences I had previously, and I felt like I could be myself.”

Finally, it is important to establish and communicate to candidates the anticipated timeline for this process, as the best students will be in line for other opportunities. If your program is due to start in June for a summer session, then your recruiting program should begin in the fall and be completed with offer letters sent by early April.

“I encourage all of the students and new planners I encounter to try and secure at least two internships while in college. This gives them a glimpse of what really goes on inside a financial planning firm and should solidify whether or not they want to pursue financial planning as a career. If they have multiple internship experiences, it increases their chances of finding the right firm type, fee structure and service model thus increasing their likelihood of success in the industry long term.

Frankly, most of the clients I represent won’t consider a candidate I present to them unless they have done at least one internship in financial planning. Doing an internship shows a potential employer that you are serious about your career and have at least a base level of knowledge about the inner-workings of an RIA firm. The candidates who complete multiple experiences clearly stand out over those who have not and their opportunities in the permanent position market are more plentiful.”

Caleb Brown, MBA, CFP® Partner, New Planner Recruitingwww.newplannerrecruiting.com



ONBOARDINGTypically, an intern only stays with a firm for a period of 2-3 months. There is a LOT that they will be expected to learn within that brief window, so it is vital to have a detailed onboarding schedule before your new recruits come on board.

A good starting point is to review the onboarding process you (hopefully) have in place for new full-time hires, and see how it can be streamlined and accelerated to fit the seasonal associate program. You don’t want to overwhelm them with too much all at once, but you do want them to be able to hit the ground running.

With that in mind, here are a few lessons we have learned over the years:

• Give thought to what skills your interns will need to learn first (generally your key software tools), what skills build on each other, and what can be filled in at a later date. This will ensure that the training follows a logical progression.

• Maintain an archive of presentations that introduce your key software applications and processes. This ensures you are covering all the key points, and provides a reference document that can be referred back to as needed.

• Follow up these instructional presentations with hands-on training so that interns can put their new skills into practice while the information is still fresh in their mind.

• Once the necessary technical skills are in place, your training should focus on the core aspects of the position: meeting preparation, post meeting follow up, and paperwork processing.

• Interns become much more invested in their work once they can attach a face and a story to the paperwork, so plan to have them sitting in client meetings early on in the program (at FJY this usually starts in Week Three).

• Throughout training put an emphasis on how each component of the intern’s role affects and enhances the client’s experience. Understanding the method to the madness will greatly aid your seasonal associates in retaining what they have learned and adhering to established firm processes.

• Don’t forget to make sure they are having fun, which brings us to…

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CULTURAL ONBOARDINGIn speaking with past summer associates about their experiences working at FJY, one of the recurring themes that came up in almost every interview was “I really enjoyed the culture.” Interns are only with your firm for a limited window of time, and are typically at a different stage of life than the rest of your team, so it can be easy to focus on their technical training to the exclusion of the more social aspects of your firm’s culture, which can actually be just as important.

At FJY, we emphasize the importance of culture right from the start: at each of our recruiting events, we invite all of the candidates under consideration to join us for a happy hour; both to get to know more about them in a less formal setting, and to give them a taste of what our firm’s culture is like. Interns have reported that this practice allowed them to feel welcomed, begin to develop relationships early on in the process, and relax and be themselves during an otherwise stressful process.

As with technical onboarding, having an intentional plan for cultural onboarding from the beginning is crucial. When things get busy, it is easy for less client-focused commitments to get pushed to the back burner. By committing to a fixed schedule of social activities at the outset, you will be more likely to adhere to it and to receive buy in from the rest of your team. What we have found to be most successful is a welcome lunch on the first day, regular monthly happy hours, a day-long, off-site summer social (think Escape Room, go-karts, winery tour, miniature golf, or similar), and the occasional morning bagel delivery or late afternoon ice cream break.

Bonding during designated social times is great, but the reality is non-social time will make up the majority of the intern’s experience, so it is important to make sure to practice team inclusiveness throughout the work day as well. This comes naturally at FJY, as team focus is one of the cornerstones of our culture. As previously mentioned, it is beneficial to hire two (or more!) interns if at all possible – sharing the experience with a peer is consistently ranked as one of the top features of our program. It allows the interns to collaborate on tasks and share insights on the experience.

Additionally, we devise a schedule at the start of the program that ensures each intern will spend some time working with every advisor in the firm. An exposure to different meeting styles, financial planning approaches, and work habits is invaluable to their growth in the profession. We also make it a point to welcome the interns into our weekly all-team meetings, as well as both Financial Planning and Investment Committee meetings, so that they can be exposed to the internal workings of the firm and get a better sense of each individual’s role.

Why go to all this effort? The fact of the matter is, former interns are ambassadors out in the community – if they have a great experience, they are going to be much more likely to promote your firm to their fellow students (future associates), professors, networking contacts, and even friends and family who could someday be potential clients. It is part of our long-term human capital strategy to attract the best and the brightest.



MAXIMIZING THEIR POTENTIALTreat your interns like employees – you have to give them real responsibility if they are going to have a meaningful experience (and generate real value for your firm).

At FJY, our primary goal for the program is to fully immerse the interns in all aspects of the client side of financial planning. Over the course of the summer, interns are fully trained in meeting preparation and follow up, so that by the end of the summer they are performing most of the tasks of an Associate Advisor. This substantive work is what interns will remember and will use to judge the success of the program and their experience. Remember that they will almost certainly compare their experience at your firm with that of their friends after that summer – and you want to make sure that your intern’s experience outshines the others.

Once the number of interns has been finalized, meet and discuss what responsibilities each full-time individual will have in training the interns. Task each employee with some aspect of training, which should not be limited to just the various technologies the intern will need to learn, but should also encompass professional skills (such as telephone etiquette and client meeting protocol), as well as a discussion of your firm’s vision and strategy, client value proposition, and introduction to your internal committees and processes.

Break the job into two different roles: supporting your paraplanners or associate advisors, and managing some “project” of their own.

“The internship FAR exceeded my expectations! I didn’t really know what to expect but I never would have imagined I would have gotten to be as hands on as I was. I knew I would be preparing for client meetings but I really didn’t grasp what that meant and how the work I did was very relevant to clients, it was not just little behind the scenes things. I got to sit in meetings with clients and learn how the advisors presented the work I did. I also never imagined that I would get to be a part of firm wide meetings. It was very valuable to get to see the behind the scenes of a business as well.

I feel like I came out of my internship with much more hands on and relevant experience than some of my peers.“

Ginnie Baker, CFP FJY Summer Associate 2011Financial Planner, BeairdHarris

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The primary role of supporting the paraplanner/associate advisor at FJY includes assisting with:

• Preparation for client meetings - data gathering, compiling performance reports and rebalancing recommendations, and other due diligence related to a client’s investments or financial situation.

• Assisting during client meetings - taking comprehensive and detailed notes. This gives the intern a feel for the responsibilities of an entry-level type position. The goal is for the intern to be doing as many of the associate advisor’s job duties as possible by the end of the summer. It is also a great opportunity for less-experienced full-time advisors to begin developing their mentoring and leadership skills by supervising much of the preparation for client meetings and the intern’s workload. The leveraging of time can be significant after the intern has learned your firm’s processes and planning methods.

• Paperwork - preparing and submitting custodian forms for new accounts, beneficiary designations, IRA distributions, and the like.

Abacus Planning Group in Columbia, SC believes hiring interns has multiple advantages. They created the following checklist to capture the best practices, lessons learned, and tips for creating a terrific internship experience.

• Submit recruiting information and job description to schools• Develop intern project list with assistance from staff, assigning a leader to each project• Review resumes and conduct interviews in person and via telephone• Make offers only after completing background and credit check• Provide feedback to those applicants who did not receive an offer• Assist interns from out of town in finding housing• Send each intern advance reading, e.g., The Investment Answer• Train interns on phones, office software and systems, and allow for sufficient practical experience• Assign projects to interns, with project leaders properly delegating and managing the process.• Include interns in all internal meetings and have them lead one staff meeting during the summer• Have an expectations meeting at the beginning to ensure that both intern and firm understand

each other and can communicate well• Schedule appropriate social events to ensure interns are properly welcomed into the company• Ensure each intern has the opportunity to attend at least one business networking event in the

community with a senior firm leader• Mentor interns on business etiquette, e.g. thank you notes, proper attire, networking events• Give staff freedom to have regular lunches with interns to ensure good communication• Schedule one hour meetings each Friday afternoon to debrief intern experiences and invite

internal guest speakers on topics of interest to the interns, e.g., vision for the firm, investment philosophy of the firm

• Check-in regularly to make sure interns are comfortable with what is expected of them, and to monitor progress on projects

• Conduct exit interview at end of summer



By being an active participant throughout the entire planning process - preparing materials for a meeting, and then seeing how those materials are presented, as well as understanding how an advisor interacts with his or her clients - the intern is exposed to how all of the different elements come together as part of the bigger picture, and this will give them crucial insight into their future career. It is also useful to allow the interns to see a wide breadth of topics discussed, and to observe both clients who are new to your firm and those who have been with you for decades.

Some advisors experience trepidation in taking this step, but handled with sensitivity it can be beneficial for all parties. First and foremost, do your best to be sure that your clients are comfortable having the intern in their meeting. You know your clients well, and can pretty easily identify which meetings will likely be best for your interns to sit in and observe.

Ask the client for permission in advance, and also set expectations with the student that they are not in the meeting to participate, but only to be a silent observer. Of course, should a client initiate conversation with the intern, encourage some small talk, and view it as an opportunity for them to interact professionally with your clients. If you are not comfortable having an intern in client meetings, there are other ways to provide the opportunity for client interaction, such as answering phone calls, greeting them in your reception area upon arrival, and drafting communications to be sent to clients. At FJY we have had very few clients object to the presence of an intern over the years, and most welcome the opportunity to get to know a little about them.

In previous industry benchmarking surveys run by organizations like Charles Schwab and Investment News, it was revealed that almost 75% of RIAs ask interns to perform clerical tasks. Data gathering, investment research, and client meeting prep were also cited by the majority of the participants in these studies. But only 17% reported that they allowed their interns to participate in client meetings. It is our strong belief that offering this opportunity to students will set your firm apart as one of the top programs, and one more likely to attract the top talent as a post-internship full-time hire.

The secondary role of the intern is to take the lead on any number of different projects as defined by the firm. These projects could be tasks that you have been meaning to do for a long time, but just never get around to, or items that will get you even more in the loop regarding your clients’ financial affairs. Having an intern take a lead role in some of your due diligence on investments might also be a project that would be helpful to you and interesting for the intern.

Prior to the start of an intern’s tenure, taking time as a firm to develop a list of 5-10 such projects will lead to fewer worries about keeping them busy during their time with you. For example, one firm had an intern verify and confirm all the client IRA, 401(k), and life insurance beneficiary designations. During this process, numerous disparities were discovered in what the designations should have been, versus what they actually were. Interns have also worked at FJY on similar projects related to long-term care insurance, and also have helped to integrate new risk assessment tools among a firm’s client base. Again, the projects are there for the interns to have as a fallback if there is a slow week or not as many client appointments, but their priority focus during the summer is preparation for client meetings.

Just as you expect your interns to participate in the shared workload of the firm, you should also expect their participation in internal meetings. If you have periodic financial planning and investment committee meetings, allow the interns to not only observe but help prepare for, participate in, and sometimes present during your internal team meetings. Part of knowing what it means to be an advisor is to understand how your firm determines what advice to give to clients. You want to also provide them with insight into the business of financial planning. Therefore, involve them in your weekly staff meetings,

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long-term strategy meetings, and other discussions related to running your business. This involvement shows them the owner’s mentality necessary in our profession before their careers truly begin. They also love being included in these types of meetings, which usually exceeds any pre-set expectations they have about their internship.

As the program draws to a close, set aside time for each of the interns to sit down with a member of your team for an exit interview. As with the hiring process, afford the interns the same rights as full time staff when he/she is leaving the firm. The exit interview is an opportunity for the intern, the manager, and the staff to share insights, constructive criticism, and feedback on the program. Use this feedback from students to adjust your program and improve it.

BEST PRACTICES• If possible, hire two interns per season. FJY Summer 2017 intern Stephen Horstmann described it as

“absolutely phenomenal having a peer to learn from, split the responsibilities, and share the experience with.”

• Assign one team member to each intern to serve as their “lead” for the summer. The lead should schedule weekly check-ins to review what was accomplished the previous week, plans for the current week, and the status of ongoing projects. Use this as an opportunity early in the program to address any concerns you may have. This feedback gives the interns time to modify their performance.

• After the interns arrive, meet with them one-on-one to determine if they have any special skills or interests (i.e., creating presentations) that they had not previously mentioned. This will allow you to select projects that will more fully engage them and make the best use of their individual strengths.

• Dedicate the first week or two to intensive training on firm culture, standard processes, and all necessary technologies. Ensure that continual hands-on training is provided for each of the relevant technologies.

• Schedule time for each intern to shadow every lead and associate advisor so that they have the opportunity to experience and learn from different work styles and approaches to client interaction.

• Include interns in staff meetings, lunches, happy hours, and social events to assist them in developing a better understanding of the firm culture and building stronger relationships with fellow team members.

• Conduct an exit interview to solicit feedback on how to modify the program going forward. Gather input from all team members to provide interns with a complete assessment of their performance to guide them in progressing to the next stage of their career.



COMPENSATIONTo pay or not to pay, that is the question.

The answer is you ABSOLUTELY should financially compensate your interns.

Reason Number One: You will attract more, and more highly qualified candidates. InternMatch.com states that paid positions on their site receive an average of 2.5 times as many clicks as unpaid positions. Additionally, some programs require that interns be paid in order to receive credit toward graduation.

Reason Number Two: Paid interns are happier, more motivated, and more engaged in their work. By compensating your interns, you can expect a higher quality of work, which is crucial if your goal is for them to be producing work at the level of an associate advisor by the end of the summer. Additionally, projects completed during the course of the internship remain the property of your firm and can be used as an ongoing resource.

Reason Number Three: Paid interns have a greater chance of finding full-time employment after graduation, AND of receiving a higher starting salary. A 2015 report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers noted that 72% of the class of 2015 who completed a paid internship at a for-profit company received a job offer prior to graduation, in contrast to only 44% of the students who had unpaid internships. AND the paid interns, on average, were offered starting salaries that were 55% higher than their unpaid counterparts.

We are told by program directors at the CFP® Board approved schools that hourly wages can run anywhere from $12-$20 per hour. We pay on the high end because of the cost of living in the DC Metro area, and also because we are attempting to be an attractive location for the best candidates. To be competitive in hiring, you must be competitive in compensation.

In addition to a competitive hourly wage, many companies offer interns flexible work schedules and other perks, such as networking opportunities, skills training, and participation in local events. Most interns will not be eligible for your health insurance program, 401(k), or other benefits, but you should confirm this in your plan documents, and update accordingly.

Should your firm choose not to financially compensate your interns, it is important to consider the legal limitations of performance expectations. The Fair Labor Standards Act states, “if a person meets the definition of an ‘employee,’ that person must be compensated according to mandatory minimum wage provisions. An ‘employee’ is defined as “any individual employed (to suffer from or permit to work) by an employer”. According to the FLS Handbook for States, Local Governments and Schools, an intern is not considered an employee when they are involved in education or training programs that are “designed to provide students with professional experience in the furtherance of their education and training and are academically oriented for their benefit” (Wage and Hour Opinion Letter, 1/28/88).

Short answer. You might be able to justify not paying them, but you should pay them.

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Yeske Buie

Yeske Buie, with offi ces in Virginia and California, has been using interns at both locations extensively since 2010, both in the summer and throughout the school year. They benefi t from the fresh ideas, enthusiasm, and specialized training many college students bring to the table, as well as he strengthening of their capacity. There have also been multiple successful projects implemented by interns that resulted in signifi cant operational improvement for the fi rm (data base projects, software research projects, fi nancial planning support and ongoing implementation of recurring tasks). In fact, for 2018 they are off ering a “re-internship” as part of a pilot program with the CFP Board. This program is targeted toward successful individuals who have been out of the workforce for at least two years, and now want to become a fi nancial planner.

YB interns typically take one of two tracks:

• Financial Planning: these students sit in on client meetings, do the initial prep work for those meetings (under strict supervision); update benefi ciary, insurance, and estate document summary reports; do ad-hoc research; update databases; participate in all company meetings and are given various projects to learn the art of balancing a workload.

• Business Management: these interns focus on more operational areas of the fi rm, and get a vast array of experiences ranging from social media strategy, to researching new software, learning about compliance, vendor management, marketing, business development, and database management/clean-up.

To what does Yeske Buie attribute its success with interns?

Designing their internships to provide three types of work in order to serve everyone involved:1. work that is all about the intern (e.g., education, mentoring, etc.);2. work that is all about the company (e.g., tedious database updating, reorganizing the back room, etc.);

and 3. work that is genuine learning AND genuine help to the fi rm (e.g., supporting fi nancial plan updates,

preliminary work on rebalancing portfolios, fl owcharting estate documents, etc.). Focus on all three of these types of work has resulted in robust learning experiences for the interns that have also provided exceptional support for the fi rm.

As evidence of the latter, here is a direct quote from a thank you note from one of the best interns Yeske Buie has ever had the privilege to work with: “My summer internship with Yeske Buie has been the most benefi cial professional experience of my life.”



FINAL THOUGHTSOur good friend Dr. Dave Yeske from Yeske Buie, summarizes it best: “Working with interns is a time-intensive endeavor. A firm just starting an internship program must be willing to invest the time to recruit, train, and continually give projects and feedback to the intern. However, it’s worth the effort as interns can and will perform valuable work for the firm, if deployed appropriately. The key is to strike the right balance between work of value primarily to the firm, work that serves both the firm and the learning needs of the intern, and pure mentorship.”

While an internship program is inherently temporary in nature, it does not mean it should end with a permanent break. Your intern alumni base will serve as a valuable resource in the years to come. Make a point to serve as a reference promoting your alums for future employment opportunities. Summer 2016 FJY intern Tony Rieck reflected to me how significant this was for him after I introduced him to an employment opportunity at what could be perceived as a competitor firm to FJY. “After my internship, I struggled to find the right fit. But you went out of your way to introduce me to my current firm, a competitor, and I am forever indebted to you for jump starting my career.” Kind words, but we all know that the financial planning community is relatively tight-knit. We should utilize our unique community to promote and build up our next generation of advisors.

By the same token, past interns will become ambassadors for your firm within the profession, and an invaluable source for referrals. We have had interns in our program who would not have known about our firm if not for the enthusiastic praise our alums provided. Most importantly, when your company is set to hire new full-time employees, as I have mentioned before, your pool of former interns will provide an abundance of “pre-vetted” candidates.

Over the years, FJY has found that the most important aspect of a summer internship program is to give students truly meaningful responsibilities within our firm. Trust them and challenge them. The rewards of an effective internship program greatly outweigh the associated risks and costs, allowing you not only to utilize and reward capable talent, but also to give back to this extremely important profession.

“My FJY internship set the foundation for my career, it was invaluable and taught me a lot. My internship exceeded my expectations - sitting in client meetings and being treated as an associate (not just an intern) gave me a great sense of responsibility. But each assignment - big and small - was excellent preparation for my future.”

Rianka Dorsainvil, CFP FJY Summer Associate 2009Founder and President, Your Greatest Contribution2017 Investment News Women to Watch

FJY is a fee-only, fiduciary, financial planning and investment management firm with offices in Reston, Virginia and Midland, Texas. Our mission is to provide every client with the highest level of personalized service our profession has to offer. In addition to giving each client planning recommendations and advice that is specific to their goals and needs, we also assist in the implementation and monitoring of client financial plans and investment portfolios.

• Focused expertise in helping clients articulate their vision and goals and customizing our advice accordingly.

• A fee only, fully transparent model—acting as our clients’ fiduciary, we never sell or recommend anything that puts our interests before theirs.

• A holistic, integrated approach that proactively anticipates every milestone in a client’s financial life, including retirement, estates and trusts, education and business succession planning.

Our clients consist of professionals, retirees, business owners, qualified retirement plans, associations, and other non-profit and charitable organizations.

VIRGINIA 1900 Campus Commons Drive #500 Reston VA 20191 | 703-889-1111TEXAS 3100 N A Street Building 125 Midland TX 79705 | 432-570-1305

fjyfinancial.com | @fjyfinancial | facebook.com/FJYFinancial

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