Some advisory firms hire fresh faces right out of college

At one of the nation’s fastest-growing investment advisory firms, recruiters aren’t looking for MBAs as they search for fresh faces.

Fisher Investments of Woodside, Calif., wants to hire its future financial advisers before they seek a master’s degree in business administration.

“We are heavy on recruiting young people right out of college,” said Ken Fisher, founder and chief executive of the 1,300-person firm. “Once a good young person goes on to get a top-tier MBA, it’s hard for a small firm to compete for them.”

Fisher Investments provides extensive training and boasts an employment policy that’s probably more familiar to young graduates’ parents. The firm, which has 35 employees who concentrate on recruiting, promises prospective employees not just a job but a lifetime career.

The firm moves individuals “aggressively from function to function” to provide them with varied experience and to keep them engaged in their jobs, Mr. Fisher said. Graduates are exposed to an environment where everything is new and changes regularly, he said.

Investment advisory firms have to compete with other financial professions and each other to attract top talent. For some firms, that has meant bringing in younger individuals and focusing on training them. For others, it means luring proven professionals and supporting them in doing business their own way.

Part of Fisher Investments’ recruitment strategy is to bring in as many as 60 college students at a time as interns. The firm expects these individuals to return to school with a positive attitude about their company and to share that sentiment with classmates.

Fisher Investments recruits heavily from colleges in the Western United States, including the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the University of California system of schools, said Mr. Fisher, whose firm manages $40 billion in assets.

Ameriprise Financial Inc., which has $445 billion in assets including its institutional business, also has found success recruiting from colleges such as Florida State University, Rutgers University in New Jersey, the University of South Florida and a handful of other schools that they target, said Peter Velardi, a senior vice president with the firm’s U.S. adviser group. Certain schools are producing students most likely to follow a financial planning career path, he said.

The Minneapolis-based firm, which has more than 10,000 advisers, seeks graduates with at least a 3.0 grade point average, lots of extracurricular activities and leadership roles — and it considers their potential for building market relationships, Mr. Velardi said.

Today’s economic uncertainty and the well-known struggles of many banks and wirehouses make it a great time to attract more advisers from other financial firms, he said.

“A lot of people are concerned about their careers right now,” Mr. Velardi said.

Ameriprise is targeting professionals who are looking to make a career change into financial planning and those with financial sales experience, he said. The firm can offer marketing support and payouts that Mr. Velardi said are the highest in the industry.

“They are seeing Dennis Hopper in our ads, and they want to be part of this,” he said. “They don’t see us in the newspaper needing financial support or laying off employees.”

The advantage of hiring experienced advisers is that the firm immediately feels their impact in terms of client base, Mr. Velardi said. However, the firm then has to help the adviser fit within the Ameriprise culture.

“Someone right out of school has a blank slate,” Mr. Velardi said.

Partnervest Financial Group LLC’s recruiters search for advisers who have the best credentials, a proven ability to gather assets, a clean regulatory record and who specialize in certain areas of planning that the firm as a whole may need, said Marcy Burton, who is responsible for recruiting and business development at the seven-year-old company.

“We work with advisers to figure out the best business model for them and support them in that way,” she said.

Advisers can outsource clearing and other operations to Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Partnervest, they can become a corporate Partnervest adviser or they can craft a hybrid, or affiliate, relationship, Ms. Burton said. Advisers can remain independent but be affiliated with Partnervest, which allows advisers to use its infrastructure and makes them part of a network that offers a wide array of services, she said.

“It’s increasingly important for advisers to operate as part of a wealth management team,” Ms. Burton said.

Partnervest, which has about 70 advisers and $1.4 billion in assets under management, increasingly attracts advisers who are looking to leave commission-based businesses for those that charge fees, she said. Additionally, many individuals come to them because they don’t want to contend with compliance issues or they are looking for succession partners.