Recorded at the Envestnet Advisors Summit 2022. Presented by:
Advisorpedia interviewed Jean Heath, Managing Director and Head of Asset Manager Network at Envestnet, at the Envestnet Advisor Summit in May, 2022.
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Transcript:
The Envetnet Institute on campus was started in 2015 by our CEO Bill Crager. It is an online educational program available to college students across the country looking to seek a career in wealth management. The goal of this program is to bridge the knowledge in the classroom, to the workplace, and to have workforce ready interns and entry level employees. We offer this curriculum at no cost to colleges and universities across the country. . .
Today, we have over 50 schools participating, more than 6000 students have completed the curriculum. And of those students 33% were women and 31% were to racially diverse. We believe that we are at a unique spot in this business to help drive that diversity by partnering with other firms, and having them work with us on this initiative. So what we have seen is, many of the students complete the program and then are able to then pursue a career in the wealth management industry. They credit the curriculum, which is designed to bridge the knowledge in the classroom, to the workplace, that they feel once they were on the job.
They had understandings of terminology and the ways in understanding the role of a financial adviser channelize distribution, whether it's RIA, independent broker, dealer banks, and also the different products that are offered separate accounts, mutual funds, ETFs alternative sustainable investments, and understanding you know, what people refer to as a rap account in the way they charge fees.
That's the type of information we teach these students and that's what we believe helps them be more effective once they start a job. So our goal is to expand this curriculum down into the high school level, we believe the way in which we're really going to drive more diverse individuals into our business is to start that education at a young age.
We want to start to go into high schools and deliver this education and also see about ways in which we can have the college students in the program, then mentor, the high school students completing the curriculum, so really to tie in not only the educational piece, but just instilling at that young age the importance of giving back and mentoring the next generation of future leaders