Is it your goal to recruit or add associates to your organization? If so, the new course offering from the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants (IARFC) will be of interest. The Financial Planning Process ™ curriculum presents a very significant potential.
A Great Opportunity!
The financial advisors who represent the greatest source of candidates for an organization seeking to expand are students. Not college or graduate school students, but those who have enrolled in a professional education program.
Forty years ago these would have been enrollees in the Life Underwriter Training Council program. They would have attended classes for an extended period, gradually acquiring the skills of prospecting and presenting insurance solutions. These persons eventually received the LUTC Fellow (LUTCF) designation.
The original five part Chartered Life Underwriter program was also where the “fast–tracker” life insurance agents could be found, securing the CLU designation. They were mastering the business applications of insurance as well as estate planning.
Then the Certified Financial Planner program was offered by the College of Financial Planning – appealing to the persons who wanted to deliver a more holistic approach than just incsurance or securities.
Eventually the CFP Board of Standards extended the CFP preparation course to over a hundred institutions, primarily traditional colleges and universities.
Instructors of these courses (LUTC, CLU and CFP) had excellent opportunity to meet the brightest and most aggressive entrants into financial services.
What Happens to Students?
Some percentage of the enrolled students was destined to leave financial services. Notice I did not say they “failed”. This was simply not the most appropriate field of employment for them. They went on to be very successful in some other career. That might have been 20% to 30% of the enrollees.
A very large number were with excellent companies. They were receiving effective support and offering good products. They admired their manager and company leaders. That might be 50% to 60% of the enrolled students.
However, about 20% of the students – be it LUTC, CLU, CFP – were excited about the career of financial services – but they weren’t in the right location. Maybe their company didn’t have the right product mix. Maybe there had been a management change. Some had joined firms specializing in a market that was wrong for them. Perhaps there was some type of ethical challenge. They were happy with the financial services career, but not happy with their current vendor relationship. They had to make a change – where would they turn?
How would they make the choice? Who would they turn to for career advice? The answer, of course, was the instructor of their professional education program.
Recruiting Prospects
Is part of your job to gradually build an organization of financial advisors? If so, then for you to serve as a professional instructor might bring to you four of five outstanding candidates every year. If you have been their instructor, then they will be turning to you! You’ll already know how much they know, how well they can articulate financial concepts, and you’ll know if they can do the job!
Do you recruit from the instructor’s podium – of course not! That would not be appreciated by the leaders of the companies sending their representative to the course. No one appreciates a person who proselytizes in an inappropriate fashion. Such a person does not command respect.
However, if you are training 20-25 students how to operate effectively as a financial advisor then a reasonable number (perhaps four or five) will turn to you for personal career advice.
Recruiting Strength
There is another value to serving as the instructor of a professional education course: You will garner respect and admiration. During a recruiting interview when you tell a candidate you are the instructor of an important curriculum, you are indicating you are the type of manager or leader they are seeking. What better opportunity for them to get a rapid start in a new career than to be associated with an instructor of repute?
Instructors Strengthen Their Own Skills
As the primary course lecturer you’ll be reading the manuals, and studying the PowerPoint, presentations. You will be returning to the marketing basics, and refreshing your own financial planning skills. No one learns as much as does the instructor!
Gain Recruiting Power
Most of the designation courses are no longer offered in classrooms. Many institutions have now migrated exclusively to distance learning and textbook, subject-based-education as opposed to classroom training and hands-on education.
The new Financial Planning Process™ course developed by the IARFC can be presented in two venues. The first is an intensive five day class, followed by the completion of exams and the submission of a comprehensive plan by each. The second option is in the old LUTC format – physical classes one morning a week for thirteen weeks – primarily for recent local entrants into financial services.
You will be able to dramatically enhance your recruiting and increase your professional prestige in your market.
For further information on Instructor Opportunities, please contact Jim Lifter, MBA, RFC® at the IARFC: 800 532 9060 ext. 18 or e-mail: Jim@IARFC.org
Ed Morrow, CLU, ChFC, CFP, CEP, RFC, is Chairman of the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants. A financial planning pioneer, he is recognized for having established financial planning in China and the Pacific-Rim countries. Morrow was a close associate of Loren Dunton who founded financial planning in the USA. Ed Morrow created the world's most widely used financial planning software. His financial writings have been published in twelve countries.
Morrow speaks frequently at professional conferences nationally and internationally, on topics related to his successful practice experiences, highly beneficial computerization, and enabling financial advisors to increase their sales production and client services by building their practices through effective client relationship management. Morrow has spoken at the famous Insurance Pro Shop. According to Financial Services Advisor Magazine, "Morrow is one of the best-known and most respected professionals in the financial planning industry." Contact: 800-666-1656, Ext. 14, or edm@iarfc.org (e-mail), or www.IARFC.org (Web Site).
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