Why an Intern?

Two advisors show how interns can help you organize and move your practice forward.

By Lucretia DiSanto Jones

Many insurance and financial advisors have at one time or another met another advisor who has hired a college intern or part-time help. Have you thought about doing it yourself? How would you start? What would you delegate to your intern? Do you pay them, or do they work for school credit?

Rich Hartman, LUTCF, CLTC, agency sales director for MetLife Financial Services’ Westchester Agency in Elmsford, N.Y., and Nance Crosby, CFP, AEP, ChFC, CLU, CSA, president of Estate and Corporate Advisors in Tucson, Ariz., have both hired college interns and part-time staff. Their reasons for doing so are quite different, however. Hartman hires for clerical help, Crosby for technological help. Other advisors can learn from their many years of experience.

The organizers
Hartman, a member of Westchester AIFA, hires interns from two local colleges. “The schools I work with have programs to help people get back into the work force, so I get free interns because working is part of their training. It’s all school credit; none of it is paid,” says Hartman.

Hartman acknowledges that advisors hiring interns from this pool will have to provide tutelage, but he says the return on investment is fantastic. “They give you 110 percent, because it’s their chance of getting back into the workforce. They go to the school and get the computer skills they and you need—Excel, PowerPoint and Word—but then they have to learn office skills to get a job, and you can give them those skills,” says Hartman. “Then they come through for you. They can’t give you enough.”

Hartman gives each intern upon arrival a clear overview of what he needs to get done. “I want them to help organize a sales rep’s book of business. If the rep is doing a seminar, a mailing campaign or a client-contact program, the intern will do all of that for the rep,” he explains.

Hartman’s agency is No. 10 in the country among MetLife agencies. That means a snappy, well-presented office environment is critical, even for the interns. “I’m looking for someone who shows me some maturity, because they’ve got to work in a very high-end, professional atmosphere,” he says.

Hartman believes that senior advisors trying to get to the next level and new managers who think they can’t afford clerical help should call their local colleges and talk to the business or computer departments to find out about similar programs in their areas. “It can be a great situation,” he says, and not just for your professional life. For Hartman, who grew up in an environment that stressed the importance of reaching out and helping others, working with interns brings great personal satisfaction.

The techies
Crosby, a member and past president of Tucson AIFA, is typically looking for a very different kind of intern. “We don’t want them here for office help; we want them for their technological aptitude, their innovation,” she points out.

Crosby’s clientele originates from an academic environment, so it was natural for her to look for help from the university. She works closely with the Ellers School of Business at the University of Arizona, which has a special entrepreneurship program that Crosby says turns out top-notch students. Crosby has hired part-time staff as well as project-specific help. At any point, she may have two or three interns focused on different areas. “One might be focused on a database project, another on some new technology or tool,” she says, mainly because she is moving toward a virtual office.

Having someone charged with working on one task is just one advantage of bringing on an intern, or part-time or summer help. “Everything is new to them, so we can get them to really focus and have a fresh look at something. They have enthusiasm and a lot of energy,” she says.

Crosby cautions other advisors about a disadvantage of hiring college interns. “Some of the best and the brightest can be plucked off quickly by, or want to work for, a much larger entity. And then there are those who will resign by email on the day they are supposed to show up. That can be a bit challenging!” she says. She prefers sophomores, juniors or seniors headed to graduate school, “so we’ll have at least a few years with them.”

She suggests that advisors looking for technology-minded interns turn to the entrepreneurship programs that business colleges have in place. “They can be a very rich resource for all kinds of talent. These interns are really, really bright, and they are really adaptable,” she adds.