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Intern Success Story 1
By Estelle Stephens
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“The door is
now wide open and it’s up to me to see
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how far I
can go.”
- Sabrina Lowell
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Former Intern and current Paraplanner
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Boone Financial Advisors, Inc., San Francisco
Becoming
a certified financial planner for one of San Francisco’s boutique fee-based
financial advisory firms 18 months after college graduation was not on Sabrina
Lowell’s agenda when she entered Principia College in 1998. However, the
transformation from undergraduate to CFP®
certificant is nearing completion and is hardly surprising
considering her intellect and resourcefulness, bolstered by solid training and
support.
“My internship experience at Boone Financial
Advisors exceeded my expectations in every way,” said Sabrina Lowell, now a
paraplanner at the firm. “It gave me a direction, crystallized my career path,
and opened opportunities for future advancement. With the skills I’ve
developed, a respected company name on my resume, and business relationships
made inside and outside the firm, I’m credible and marketable. The door is now
wide open and it’s up to me to see how far I can go.”
“The experience also gave me a full
understanding of what fee-based financial planning means and how it differs from
the output of commission-based brokerage firms,” she continued. This factor was
instrumental in her decision to join Boone Financial Advisors as a full-time
employee following her student internship and college graduation. Sabrina
recommends an internship for others interested in the financial planning
profession. “No matter what, the experience helps you learn about the field,
plug into the planning community, and jump-start your career,” she asserted.
Win-Win
for Employers and Interns
“A successful internship benefits students and
employers,” added firm president
Norm Boone, one of Worth Magazine’s Top 100
U.S. planners. “Students build critical on-the-job skills to further their
careers, while making notable contributions that more than make up for the cost
of bringing them aboard.”
“From
the perspective of a successful planner, an internship is a way to give back to
the community and gain an extra set of hands to address those hard-to-get-to
tasks often placed on the back burner,” he said.
Boone Financial Advisors has participated in
Principia College’s internship program for the last six years, which has
provided a stream of talent for the firm. In addition to hiring undergraduate
interns, the company hires ‘professional interns’ who’ve already demonstrated a
commitment to the field. These include students enrolled in CFP educational
programs, preferably at least mid-way through their coursework, as well as those
who’ve completed their coursework and passed the CFP exam. “Sabrina was the
third of three Principia undergraduate interns to receive an employment offer
following graduation,” Norm explained.
Alumni Feedback Adds Depth To Prospective
Employer Research
A native of Bellevue, Washington, Sabrina was a
Business Administration major at Principia College, a private liberal arts
school in Elsah, Illinois. Fully engaged with campus activities, she
participated in student government, studied business in Japan during a semester
abroad, worked at the college bookstore and campus personnel office, and played
on the school’s champion tennis team.
With initiative to spare, Sabrina started her
search for an internship in the Fall quarter of her junior year. Every other
year, the college’s business department matches 20 juniors and seniors with San
Francisco employers for a one-quarter internship. The college’s Web site boasts
that recent graduates who served as interns were twice as likely to have
employment offers by graduation as those who had not. “This level of support
made it easy to find an internship,” said Sabrina. Fairly
certain she wanted to work with investments, Sabrina interviewed Principia
alumni who had already interned, including one who worked at Boone Financial
Advisors. She learned that “alumni who had joined smaller firms came away with
a better understanding of their targeted industry and were more positive about
their experiences.”
Those candid discussions also provided
invaluable insight for interviews with potential employers. “I uncovered
information that a prospective firm probably wouldn’t tell a candidate,” she
said. Armed with a list of questions shaped by alumni feedback, she interviewed
with three companies: Boone Financial Advisors, a commission-based brokerage
firm, and an investment research firm.
Probing
Questions Screen For The Right Match
Although Sabrina said she “wasn’t sure
what to expect before her internship began,” today, with nearly 18 months of
professional experience under her belt, she’s clear about how to make the most
of the interview process. “It’s important that your values mesh with a firm’s
culture and philosophy,” she said. To glean that information, she believes the
most important questions to ask a prospective employer include:
- What services does the firm provide and how
will my job relate to those services?
- What are the firm’s goals and values?
- What revenue stage is the company at – growth,
stability, or cost reduction?
- How would you describe the culture?
- What is the employee turnover rate?
- What will be the scope of my responsibilities?
- What specific projects will I work on?
- What would a typical day look like for me?
- What will my career path look like and what
are the time frames for each step?
- If I get hired as a full time employee after
graduation, how will my responsibilities change?
- Does the company support field-related
education and, if so, to what extent?
- Is there a reimbursement plan for CFP classes
and examination?
- Will I get compensated for time off to study
for the CFP exam?
- Is there a bonus for passing the CFP exam?
- What is the compensation package?
Contact
With Senior Advisors Tips The Scale
Sabrina selected Boone Financial Advisors for
her internship principally because of its smaller size and the likelihood of
having direct contact with senior planners. “I can walk into Norm’s office at
any time and get his perspective on topics covered in school. A larger company
wouldn’t have been comparable because of its layers of management and number of
employees,” she said.
From January through March 2001, Sabrina worked
an eight-hour day, four days a week and earned 15-quarter units of college
credit. Program participants at Principia College are not allowed to accept
compensation and an employment contract was not used. In contrast, other
college internship programs, particularly those during the summer, may be paid
positions. As graduation approached, Sabrina weighed employment offers from
Boone Financial Advisors against one from a commission-based investment
management firm. “In the end, I valued the experience gained as an intern,
believed the firm’s smaller size would allow me to wear many hats, and preferred
a fee-only orientation,” she explained.
Client
Contact From Day One
Not one to relegate new hires to administrative
tasks, Norm Boone gives interns immediate client exposure. “I attended an
initial client meeting with Norm the day I began my internship,” Sabrina pointed
out. “After the meeting, Norm asked me to draft a client follow-up letter,
summarizing key messages and action items. When I asked for an outline that I
could use as a guide, Norm challenged me to create one by the end of the day.
That certainly got me into the swing of things!”
The scope and composition of Sabrina’s
responsibilities expanded as her proficiencies grew. “Starting out in Client
Services and gathering client data gave me a good understanding of everyday
tasks associated with client accounts,” she said. “As I completed more CFP
classes, I moved to account trading, maintenance of investment management
portfolio software, and financial planning duties. Now, with all my coursework
behind me, I serve primarily as a paraplanner, and, secondarily, as a trader and
investment manager."
Sabrina enrolled in CFP classes at the
University of California, Berkeley Extension, shortly after full-time employment
began. After an eight- or nine-hour workday, she attended two classes from 6:30
to 9:30 p.m. two days a week. “It was a bit challenging,” she understated, “but
I’m young and never stopped studying after college so I could handle the
workload. Plus, my job exposed me to much of the class content, making the
coursework often more review than introduction.”
Standardized Templates Build Consistent
Skills
As Boone Financial Advisors moves to standard
operating procedures, intern practices are being codified into structured
templates to provide a blueprint for consistent skill development. Job
responsibilities and expectations are now formally structured for three
functional areas: Client Services, Financial Planning, and Investment
Management. Each module specifies job goals, skills required and developed, and
technical expertise developed. Student and professional interns rotate through
the modules at different speeds and depth to gain an understanding of the firm’s
operation.
For example, the
Client Services module provides
insight into the infrastructure of the business. It includes opening and
transferring accounts, researching and updating personal client information,
generating quarterly reports, preparing agendas for client meetings, and
calculating minimum year-end IRA distributions. Performing these largely
administrative tasks “can be humbling,” Sabrina said, “particularly for interns
entering the field from other professions, but, it’s an integral part of the
business process.”
The Financial Planning module exposes interns to
all facets of the financial planning process. Interns prepare net worth
statements, cash flow analysis, and comprehensive risk management reviews. They
participate in estate planning, tax planning, capital needs analysis, and
investment analysis, and draft investment policy statements. Using commercial
and proprietary software, they experience the art and science of financial
planning. “This module is critical,” asserted Norm, “since we create a financial
plan for 98 percent of our clients and all other work stems from that plan. The
breadth and depth of our plans set us apart from other companies.”
Enduring Interest In Investments Drives
Career Choice
In addition to her responsibilities in Client
Services and contact data base management, much of Sabrina’s internship centered
on investment management and research. “I was very interested in investments at
the outset,” she explained. “I had my own brokerage account in high school, a
college sponsor who headed the Investment Department, and classes covering
investments, accounting, and business management.” She knew she had found her
niche when she began researching mutual funds on Morningstar and reviewing lists
of recommended funds, supervised by the firm’s Investment Manager. Today,
paraplanning consumes about 60 percent of Sabrina’s day. The remainder is spent
rebalancing portfolios, maintaining the investment management database, and
trading.
Ad Hoc Project Benefits Broader Planning
Community
Taking the initiative to look for ways to
deliver value to a firm beyond one’s normal responsibilities distinguishes a
student’s work. Realizing the company had not yet decided on which qualified 529
state tuition plans to recommend to clients, Sabrina proactively gathered
information and constructed a binder of available options. That compilation
“led Norm to establish a 529 task force with other Bay Area planners to compare
529 plan recommendations. The repercussions of that collaboration were huge,”
said Sabrina.
Frequent
Feedback Accelerates Training
Constructive feedback is crucial to honing
professional skills and Sabrina wanted more than what was built into the
program. Although she received formal bi-weekly and by-the-project feedback,
she requested informal feedback at more frequent intervals. “Everyone was
positive, saying ‘great job,’ but I wanted specific coaching on particular
projects so that I could know early on what was and wasn’t working,” she
stated. “The more I asked for, the more I got. If I hadn’t asked, the
feedback might not have been forthcoming.”
Peer Acceptance May Take Time
The toughest challenge Sabrina encountered while
transitioning from student intern to professional employee was being accepted as
a peer by her co-workers. The challenge is exacerbated in a small firm where
everyone originally knew her as an undergraduate. “Even though I’m about to
complete the CFP program’s final class, my credibility lags my professional
development,” she said. Sabrina believes that passing the CFP exam and asking
prospective employers the right questions before accepting full time employment
may help. For example:
- How will my roles change?
- What will my career path look like when I
change roles?
- What are the time frames for that career path?
Notwithstanding the immediate challenge, Sabrina
believes internships are the way to go, not only for students, but also for
employers. “The company gets a fresh perspective, a way to develop professional
staff, and an opportunity to shape a person’s skills and experiences to fit the
way it does business,” she concluded.
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