Five years in, how are Seneca grads faring?

In 2006, Ontario’s Seneca College launched its Financial Services Practitioner Program. From a small beginning—the study body was in single digits in the first year—the program has grown to produce a growing number of financial advisors.

For some, earning their insurance and mutual fund licenses was the first step toward a second career.

“This year, we have 23 paid students, up from 18 a year ago,” says Sam Albanese, who is consulting for the Centre for Financial Services at Seneca and spearheaded the program’s development. “We’ve had an increase in enrollment every year since the program began.”

Moreover, all the students who have taken the Seneca course have passed it—a success rate which Albanese attributes to the program’s careful screening of applicants. “We look for mature students—usually 30 to 35 years old—who have solid academic marks and five years of work experience. Some are second-career students.”

In addition to acquiring the technical knowledge necessary for their life insurance and mutual funds licenses, the students also take course modules devoted to sales and marketing.

“They learn people skills,” says Albanese. “They learn how to close, how to anticipate objections. They learn how to market themselves, how to deliver speeches and PowerPoint presentations. You are the brand.”

So where are these graduates landing? Most of the Seneca grads have ended up working with IPC, Investor’s Group, Sun Life, Edward Jones and London Life, according to Albanese.

Some graduates have become back-office personnel, working with existing advisors. Most, however, emerge from Seneca with an entrepreneurial outlook and are eager to build their own book of business.

“All of them are very excited about the variety of career options they have,” Albanese says.

Deborah Veska, a managing director of Desjardins Financial Security Independence Network in Toronto, has hired three Seneca graduates. One, a foreign-born graduate, “didn’t work out,” she says, deciding to return to her homeland to be near her family.

But the other two, embarking on second careers in their 50s, “are developing their businesses very nicely,” she says. “They’re both above the industry standard in commissions.”

Veska likes the maturity of the Seneca graduates. “They’re not a flash in the pan like some of the younger people in the industry. They may be slower to put the business on initially, but they keep on growing it.”

She also likes the practical side to the Seneca program. “What you learn from a textbook is not what happens in real life,” she says. “The program takes them through the sales cycle, the psychology of selling; it takes them into the field to do co-op placements with experienced advisors. They’re not just memorizing facts to pass an exam.”

Steve Palmer, a dual-licenced rep at Desjardins Financial in Toronto, is one of the Seneca grads whom Veska hired. He enrolled in the program in 2008 at the suggestion of Albanese, a long-time friend and neighbour. At the time, Palmer was seeking a second career following 30 years in corporate sales. He had worked for a company that sold education applications to financial services firms, so he had some familiarity with the sector.

“Mine was a small class with only eight or nine enrolled,” he recalls. “The instructors were former or current professionals from the industry who could provide real-life stories to back up what they’re teaching you. The sales and marketing pieces were especially helpful in positioning me to go forward.”

Also helpful was his co-op placement with Desjardins, which gave both Palmer and the firm a chance to get to know—and appreciate—each other. In fact, he had three job offers when he graduated.

“The instructors tell you when you begin the program that employers will be out there looking for you,” he says, “and, of course, you don’t believe them. But it’s true.”

Not that success was guaranteed. Starting on straight commission, Palmer lacked a large network of friends and relatives as potential clients. “The first year was rough,” he recalls. “There was no consistency [of earnings]. But now, in his fourth year, he’s earning more than he did in his previous job, and he’s on-track to more than double his first-year income.

He likes running his own business under the Desjardins model of independent advisors, and is working on the CFP designation.

James Zaza, a senior financial advisor with Romac Financial Group in Markham, Ont., enrolled in the Seneca program in 2006 at the suggestion of his cousin, Robert MacDermott, the firm’s founder. At 65, with a lifetime as an entrepreneur behind him, Zaza was the oldest member of the program. “The other students were mostly young people,” he says.

Zaza doesn’t downplay the difficulties of returning to the classroom at an age when most people are retiring. “I was constantly concerned about how much of the study material I was absorbing. But the instructors were extremely helpful. I could call them at home, and meet with them on weekends.” (He was so impressed with the program that he’s steered his 35-year old daughter into it.)

The course gave him a sense of “how important what we’re doing is to help people with their financial security.”

After graduating from Seneca, Zaza joined Romac and in his first year as a financial advisor earned $70,000, strictly on commissions. By 2010 he was earning $380,000. “Selling was in my background,” he says. “I had been in sales for 50 years. But the course fed into this big time.”

Nevertheless, he says, “I don’t want to be rich. I just want to make a good living and help people.” He’s writing a book on how to become a millionaire using Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA). Although about to turn 70, Zaza has no plans to slow down. “If you love what you do, you’re already retired,” he says.

S. E. Gordon is a freelance financial writer in Toronto.