Ric Edelman

And so our real mission first at Rowan University, we'll begin with New Jersey since it's a state school, of going to the high schools around the state to let these kids know of the career options.

Right.

And it's in demand.

And our next step will be to take this, put it in a bottle, and make it available to colleges and universities across the country.

We're just going to replicate this on a national scale.

way of getting because it's really hard to understand the career path for a lot of people and because of that you're absolutely right josh and because of that it is really important that we establish the effective career path for these kids and this is why edelman financial engines has funded this program with a 10 million dollar gift

and is going to be creating internship opportunities and career opportunities for these kids using its national stature with 175 offices around the country.

And that's why our big focus, Edelman Financial, is very heavily behind this, going to create these opportunities for these kids, not just in the Delaware Valley area, but on a national basis, and broadening this to other RIAs around the country, because our ultimate goal is to produce 500 CFP-ready graduates a year.

And we're

going to be trying to infuse this on a national scale and encouraging other schools around the country to replicate this model.

We're going to give it to them in a box so that they can very easily create this without having to reinvent it.

Why do you think of it that way?

It's because at the end of the day, as we all know as advisors in this business, it's about the human relationship.

Although we do know that AI will eventually be able to provide EQ, and some people are already getting therapy from online chatbots, we know that it's the human connection.

If you have a personal relationship with someone, you're going to want to maintain and sustain that.

And this is something that will be, I will phrase it as last man standing, that by the time AI does that, every other job will have already gone by the wayside.

So I don't know when it'll occur, if ever, but it'll be a very long time from now, creating the job stability and career opportunity in this profession that simply doesn't exist elsewhere.

Accounting will be history decades before the financial planning industry is.

I completely agree.

It's going to be the advisors using AI to augment what it is they do behind the curtain.