By: Alex Ortolani, WealthManagement.com featuring Kelli Kiemle, AIF®, Managing Director of Growth and Client Experience and Phoebe Switzer, Finance Intern at Halbert Hargrove
While the industry is concerned about a looming advisor shortage, some RIAs are doubling down on efforts to run internship programs that can lead to hires for their firms and the wider industry.
Registered investment advisor Halbert Hargrove has strived to build its firm on a unique business model in an industry known for aggressive recruiting and poaching: training and hiring interns.
Kelli Kiemle, managing director of growth and client experience at Halbert Hargrove, said the Long Beach, Calif.-based RIA often has five to six college interns at the firm at any given time. It also has a dedicated intern manager who runs the program, recruits interns and meets with them weekly.
“We actually have 10-plus employees at this point that have come from our intern program,” she said. “All of them are at different stages of their career, with some people who are just recently graduated, and I have a couple of interns who have been with us for 10-plus years and are at higher-level positions in the firm.”
Halbert Hargrove is among what industry watchers say is a relatively small group of RIAs with dedicated internship programs. These types of programs are rare, but much needed, said Jimmy Zhao, a partner in McKinsey’s Boston office and lead author of a much-quoted report forecasting a shortage of 100,000 financial advisors by 2034.
“An internship program can be an effective way to help bridge that gap and bring talent into the industry,” Zhao said. “It is also a way to differentiate your firm at this stage.”
Despite what should be the attractiveness of wealth management, Zhao said there “seems to be a reality-perception gap” for students when considering career options.
Several colleges and universities, as well as financial planning programs such as the CFP, are trying to change that. For example, Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, consistently ranks as one of the country’s best financial planning programs. Founded in 2011, it now has more than 300 enrollees a year.
“Many of our students come from blue-collar backgrounds and work part-time or full-time while in school,” said program director Scott Stratton. “Their drive to succeed in a demanding academic and professional environment is a big part of what sets our program apart.”
Stratton added the school maintains relationships with dozens of local and national wealth management firms, which helps source internship and full-time employment opportunities.
“Our students are often embedded within firms while still completing their degrees, gaining practical experience and building long-term career paths,” he said. “The feedback from firms has been overwhelmingly positive, often noting how prepared and professional our students are from day one.”
Vitali said the RIA message of being a trusted fiduciary to a client will resonate with the next generation, and the more they understand it, the more they’ll be drawn to the space.
Modera had early success with its internship when it was a smaller firm in 2008. Kelly Henning, now a principal with the firm, started in the program, not knowing much about wealth management. Henning took a role in client services and then steadily climbed the ranks, becoming a financial advisor and eventually joining the firm’s leadership team.
That was a far cry from when she started.
“Prior to my internship, my only real knowledge of investing was what I had heard about Wall Street,” Henning said. “I wasn’t really aware of what comprehensive wealth management was.”
Henning’s internship took place during the Great Financial Crisis, which she said was impactful because it showed her how important financial advice is for people and why she wanted to pursue it as a career.
“I was able to really see the passion that the Modera advisors had to help clients,” she said. “I saw the advisors with their calm and reassuring words to clients. It showed me how I could really help others through financial planning and make them feel confident that they could reach their retirement and their personal goals. I thought that would be an admirable way to build a career.”
Today, interns like Phoebe Switzer, who is coming to the end of one year at Halbert Hargrove, are often interested in financial services, but aren’t aware of the wealth management space. Switzer found her way to Halbert Hargrove when she met Kiemle at a fitness center where Switzer was working the front desk. On Switzer’s first day at Halbert Hargrove, she was impressed by the warm welcome from everyone at the office and those working remotely.
“My manager took me on a tour throughout the office,” she said. “Everyone that I met in the office that day asked me how I was and said I could come to them with any questions. Many had been interns themselves. They made me feel very comfortable on my first day.”
