Financial Planning Programs At Colleges May Not Translate to Wall Street

Texas Tech is one of 100 schools that offers a financial adviser program for students who want to be financial planners. Lubbock has programs at the undergraduate level and beyond into the graduate level. Those planners who are responsible for massive amounts of money generally do not have to have academic qualifications and certainly did not have to acquire a specific degree. There are many critics of these education programs – big financial advising firms among them.

Brokerage firms who hire many of the nation’s financial advisers do not actively seek students from these programs to hire. The firms respect the programs but many of them question how well a classroom experience will transfer into the fast-paced world of real-life financial planning. Most of the big firms have in-house education programs that teach the basics to their employees. The firms are looking for candidates who have salesmanship, people skills, and a long list of contacts. Critics also argue that the programs are often out-dated because investment strategies are changing quickly all the time – too quickly for education programs to keep up with successfully.

See Charles Passy, Can These People Teach Financial Planning, SmartMoney, Jan. 18, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing  (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.