Fowler Students Explore Careers in Wealth Management

The Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University held an online panel session on February 17, 2021, designed to share information and insight with students interested in careers in the personal financial wealth management industry.

The panelists included four wealth management advisors from Reilly Financial Advisors — a La Mesa, California-based wealth and investment management firm — who talked about their career paths and the education and training necessary for careers in the industry.

Andrew Ferrette earned his MSBA from the Fowler College of Business in 2019

The speakers included senior wealth advisors and SDSU alumni, Andrew Ferrette (’19, MSBA) and Bradley Johnston (’15, finance; ’17, MSBA); senior wealth advisor, Joshua Land; and chief investment officer, Tom Weary.

Both Ferrette and Johnston got their starts in the financial industry after earning their undergraduate degrees, however, both started off in non-advising roles. They each determined that they wanted to pursue investment and wealth advisory positions, so they sought additional education and their financial planning certificates and MSBA degrees to put them on the right path.

Though the right education and accreditation is essential for the role, one of the most critical components of being a successful personal wealth and investment planner, according to Ferrette, is the “human element.” “I’ve had to have some pretty challenging conversations with people while they were at their emotional worst,” said Ferrette. “There’s a huge human element to this job and it was an opportunity for me to be able to give back and help people by providing some guidance.” 

Johnston also emphasized a need for “soft skills,” however, he also pointed out that for those that lack good people skills “there are a lot of different career paths in the industry, whether it’s operational or business development.” Land agreed and pointed out there were plenty of jobs on the analysis side of the industry such as stock research operations “that goes on kind of behind the scenes, where you’re not necessarily on the front lines talking to clients every single day.”

Bradley Johnston earned both his finance degree and his MSBA from the Fowler College of Business

As a follow-up to Land’s portion of the presentation, Weary talked about his position as chief investment officer where he analyzes stocks and bonds. One piece of advice Weary gave the student audience was how it may be best to start a career in the personal financial services industry in a large company. Weary, who started his financial career as an actuary in a large company (Farmers Financial Services), said: “Starting at a large company is good because there’s a lot of different opportunities. You can see what’s available in your area of interest and they tend to have better training programs — you can always go to a smaller firm later.”

A short presentation by Juliana Saenz, interim director of SDSU Career Services, ended the panel session by discussing the Aztec Mentor Program and how a mentor can help a student “define your professional goals and provide guidance on how to achieve those goals.” There are nearly 2000 mentors in the Aztec Mentor Program and many of them are SDSU alumni who would be able to offer career advice and networking assistance to those seeking positions in the wealth and investment management industry.