BANKING & FINANCE INTERVIEW
Passing the torch As the current generation of wealth advisers reaches retirement age, the next generation is being groomed to take over
Gregory Kadet Managing Director & Market Head Florida Gulf Coast, UBS Global Wealth Management U.S. What is the state of affairs for wealth management firms in the Tampa Bay area? The average age of wealth management advisers nationally is approaching 60 years old. Therefore, recruiting and training the next generation of advisers is paramount to our industry today. Specifically, there are a number of paths to becoming a financial adviser at UBS. One path in particular is our intergenerational program called IGAP, which is dedicated to developing the sons and daughters of our current advisers. It is a three-year program and candidates can start upon college graduation. Throughout the program, our young professionals rotate through different wealth management departments, with the goal of producing well trained and capable advisers. We also have our Wealth Management Development Program (WMDP) based in the local market and open to any candidate. In addition to in-market training, participants attend four development meetings in New York City. Our third program is within our Wealth Advice Centers. This program is dedicated to generally younger professionals with at least three to five years of experience. They are located in either New York City or Charlotte, and work on teams servicing our emerging affluent clientele. After a few years, they can choose to work in any of our offices nationwide What challenging trends have you identified with regard to working in Tampa Bay? In the last 18 months there has been a marked difference in our transportation flow regionwide. Our company has concerns about future talent retention and possible reduced productivity caused by delays in work mobility. Our wish is for the Tampa Bay community to come together to address connecting our great region for the future. For example, employees and potential new hires in the East Bay (Riverview, Brandon, Valrico,
to name a few) generally will not drive to take on a role in Pinellas County. Even though these areas have employment opportunities, the thought of driving over two hours per day is a nonstarter. Commuting to work is a fact of life for most people; therefore, having multiple transportation options like light rail can bridge both the time and productivity gap. What are the key factors to keeping Tampa Bay’s growth sustainable? The recent transportation tax will begin to address our region’s mobility issue. We can, as a region, get it together; it is an easy fix just waiting to be done. Updating and expanding our highways and adding light rail, will make a significant improvement to work mobility and productivity. www.capitalanalyticsassociates.com
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