Utah Valley wins FPA college planning challenge, ushering future financial planners into the field

After missing out on the finals in 2021 following four straight finishes in first or second place, Utah Valley University won the Financial Planning Association's hotly contested student planning challenge.

As the largest membership organization for certified financial planners, the FPA and fellow sponsors Ameriprise Financial and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards provide a national stage for students from the hundreds of colleges and universities that have degree programs in the field. Last month, Orem, Utah-based Utah Valley beat second-place Kansas State University and third-place Fort Hays State University for the top prize of a $10,000 scholarship, an hour of career coaching and free admission to FPA training courses.

An increasing number of scholarship programs and internships in recent years are seeking to usher more young people and career changers into the profession. The industry aims to create partnerships between retiring planners and younger ones who will inherit their customers and expand the base of clients among underrepresented groups. The FPA's Financial Planning Challenge drew entries from 18 college programs, with eight making the second round based on their comprehensive plans for a "case study" of a prospective client. Utah Valley prevailed in the virtual contest after oral presentations and a game-show style quiz.

"The top cases that I thought really stood out were just very well-organized," said financial advisor Stephanie Trexler of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Golden Goose Wealth Planning. She served as a judge in the initial round of the competition, in which the students compiled a plan for a 35-year-old "starving artist no longer" by the name of Sky Jay. "They really took into consideration how one recommendation affected the other," Trexler said. "There are so many small details in the plan, and those top cases really picked up on them."

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In addition to the finalists, teams from Texas A&M University, Ohio State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Western Kentucky University and the University of Arizona made the second round. The repeat champion from the past two years, Texas Tech University, didn't make the cut this year. Each team submitted their case study by May 27, with the top eight announced in July and the second and third rounds early last month. The FPA held its first planning challenge in 2010, and Utah Valley took its third title in six years. Second place winners Kansas State earned a $5,000 scholarship and Fort Hays State received $1,000 in third place. All participants received credit toward the experience requirements of CFP certification.

"The energy these students bring to the competition and to our profession is contagious," Kim Hays, the CFP Board's director of corporate relations, said in a statement. "It is wonderful to see so many talented young people entering the financial planning profession right now; their education and skills equip them to become contributors to their firms or organization right away."

Led by faculty sponsor and Blue Barn Wealth financial advisor Hyrum Smith, Utah Valley's team included students Abby Adams, Colten Orton and Siria Trochez. Each year in late April or early May, Smith recruits from his tax planning and retirement planning courses for the challenge, which requires entrants to be in an undergraduate degree program registered with the CFP Board in the spring semester. Utah Valley's planning program spans around 170 to 200 undergraduates and an additional 30 to 40 graduate students.

"I always look for students who are hungry and there's a little bit of a competitive edge to them," Smith said. "They want to do well and represent the university well."

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Adams, Orton, Trochez and their faculty sponsor met with each other several times each week over the past six months, two of the students said in an interview. Orton graduated from Utah Valley after the summer session in August, and he's currently studying for his Series 66 and CFP exams while working at a Merrill Lynch branch in Salt Lake City. Adams is a senior at Utah Valley and an intern with FirstPurpose Wealth in Orem. She became interested in finance at a young age after the death of her father, an accountant, in a car crash when she was an infant. Her father had prepared for the unexpected in a way that helped the family through the tragedy.

"I didn't even know him, but I still see the effect of his decisions," Adams said. "When people say that this career can change someone's life, I believe it and I can really see that."

Orton took "kind of a different track than most students" into the field after growing up on a dairy farm and entering the workforce directly on a fracking crew right after high school. He enrolled in Utah Valley's program after conversations with a colleague who was interested in finance in turn sparked Orton's attraction to the field.

"There are so many options in this career, and I don't think there's a bad path you can take," Orton said. "It's a little hard to decide what route to go."

In addition to being a judge in the planning challenge, Trexler and other members of FPA's Michigan chapter are planning their third annual Student Success Summit in February after drawing 300 registered attendees last year from schools across the country. She does a lot of the volunteer work to honor her own college planning program director, the late Douglas Iles of Central Michigan University who "went above and beyond" for students there until his untimely death from a heart attack in 2016, Trexler said.

"What can I do to live out his legacy every day?" she said. "I need to help students the way he helped me."