How recent high school graduates can help your practice

It’s no secret that business continuity planning is going to be essential for your business — if not now, then in the future. It’s also safe to say that actually establishing a succession plan can be challenging, not least because it is a tall order to find someone you would trust to take over your clients.

If that is a problem for you, maybe you are not considering young-enough candidates.

Jason Peplinski, MBA, FSS, has gained much of his retirement-planning client base by acquiring practices and thus has a lot of experience with business succession. The answer to his own business continuity has come from an unexpected place: recent high school graduates.

“These young adults come out of high school with all the eagerness in the world to build their resume and be successful,” said Peplinski, a five-year MDRT member from Lincoln, Nebraska. “They’re teachable, fast and attentive. They’re an untapped resource.”

The first person like this that Peplinski found was Noah Walz, who reached out on LinkedIn looking for an internship. Previously, Peplinski had found interns through an online job site, and the people hadn’t worked out. With Walz, though, he saw a lot of himself, especially when he learned Walz read Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” in sixth grade.

“If he could read that kind of book as a sixth-grader and then become someone with interest in investing and being a financial advisor, I knew that person could be molded,” he said.

• Read more in “Hiring young advisors”
• Find out why you may want to expand your staff in “How hiring employees can save you money”
• Watch: MDRT member Stephen Kagawa, FSS, LUTCF, explains why you should focus on hiring for attitude