Summer financial advisory internship turns into a guided pathway to a career

An ABEM student interns with a boutique financial advisory firm for summer 2024.

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Will Seidman, an Agribusiness Economics & Management (ABEM) undergraduate student, experienced a summer internship in Bethesda, Maryland, with the Seventy2 Capital Wealth Management team. As Will set personal goals to work towards during his internship, he found himself achieving those goals and beyond. Will mentioned that he now understands the pathway that’s calling out for him and is confident in how to pursue it. Read here about Will’s internship experience, the goals he made, and what’s next for him! 

Seventy2 is considered a boutique financial advisory firm, which sponsors and employs talented financial advisors as they grow clientele. Will explained that he went into this internship a little blinded, but very open-minded to understand wealth management. He said, “I had a large interest in the position of being a financial advisor but did not exactly know how one gets into that position.” 

His day-to-day routine was everchanging; filled with observing and tracking markets, running StockTrack simulations, running reports, and shadowing in on client meetings. Will went on to explain, “Between side tasks, StockTrack, meetings, and especially Sector Reports, I stayed busy and was frequently put in situations where I was able to gain knowledge in ways that reading a textbook could not provide.” 

As his days filled with projects and time passed quickly, Will was mindful of his established goals and outcomes and kept them in mind as he learned and contributed to the company. 

Will’s goals at the start of his internship: 

• Learning professionalism and its impact on the work environment 

• Understand and observe behind-the-scenes of financial management 

• Being able to generate wealth for clients 

Using his prior knowledge and experience of working at a country club in Tucson, Will was able to observe and take note of the differences in communication between colleagues, managers, and subordinates at Seventy2. He began the internship with the understanding that the communication would be highly professional within the Seventy2 team and their individual clients, but he also knew there was much more to learn.  

He explained, “While working on my communication was important, I also wanted to keep an ear out for common communication methods amongst the bosses in the office, I wanted to deepen my understanding for leadership, and specifically, how friendships and strong relationships are formed between coworkers and subordinates.” 

Will’s second goal was to understand the ins and outs of financial management. In the financial advisor (FA) role, he came to realize that this would fit more to his liking and he’d have more responsibility to continue relationships with his clients. He said, “I learned that my job as an FA is to make people feel like I am the doctor of their money and to give me access to care for their assets.” 

His final goal was to gain an understanding of how financial advisors support the upper class in creating wealth with their assets. Will mentioned that his boss provided an analogy that best-described wealth management, “Wealth management is like making a pyramid of buckets and filling them with water. The top bucket is personal spending that is budgeted for you, the second rose is your liquid savings, and your bottom buckets are for investing.” 

These three goals were not the only key takeaways from the summer internship for Will. He was able to receive the best experience in a work environment that was of interest but still allowed him to dip his toes in the several opportunities at this type of office.  

Will stated, “All these goals were set with the mindset that I would gain the understanding of my future and what the commitment to being a financial advisor meant, and if it was what I was wanting to do.” 

Will excitedly shared that he has chosen to follow this career path as a financial advisor after completing his degree with AREC. He was fortunate to discuss a second internship with Seventy2 next summer, which will likely lead to the steps of completing the paperwork that is needed to take the tests that are required to give financial advice legally.  

He stated, “With the advice and discussion that I had with James, and all the other learning at Seventy2, I now feel prepared to work as hard as I can to pursue this profession.”