It's no secret that financial planners are in short supply these days.
With an aging advisor population — more than half are over 55 — and not a whole lot of newbies coming in to take up the slack, the area is ripe for growth. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has put its estimate of the potential for job growth within the field at 27 percent through 2022; that's considerably more than the 11 percent the BLS anticipates for job growth as a whole nationally.
Some financial firms are rising to that challenge, as BenefitsPro reported earlier about TD Ameritrade. And now Northwestern Mutual has jumped on the bandwagon, announcing that it will recruit 2,000 full-time financial representatives and more than 3,000 college interns across the country.
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While it won't be the full-time degree pursued by those who seek out financial planning certifications — just 700 such degrees were handed out in 2013, which leaves a huge gap — Northwestern says it will provide these prospective new "financial representatives" with "training, mentoring and joint work programs for hands-on experience" as well as "access to ongoing education resources on the latest industry information and advanced professional designations."
Success in the financial services industry has less to do with direct experience as it does with what drives an individual, according to Steve Mannebach, Northwestern Mutual's vice president of field growth and development.
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