Financial advisors can add value to their services by helping clients with college selections for their children, according to Bruce Neimeyer, president and CEO of Global College Search Associates, a consulting firm in Chicago that helps clients search for colleges.
To help clients and to cement relationships with them, advisors should go beyond just the financial aspects of college education and provide a more holistic service, Neimeyer told financial professionals at the Financial Planning Association of Northern California (FPANorCal) during its recent conference.
“The combination of a college admissions consultant and a financial planner is a good match,” Neimeyer said. Between the competitive nature of getting into college and the expense, it is not just middle-class families that need educational assistance, but the wealthy as well. He added that a college consultant can bring the educational expertise to the table, while the financial planner can show the choices that apply to a specific family.
“When we were working with families, we were always telling them to go back and talk to their financial advisor about specific questions,” he said. “The advisor is helping the family spend the money that he or she helped them save,” Neimeyer said. “We can bring the depth of knowledge on education to find the right college for a student, which sets the student up for success and for potentially being a new client for the advisor in the future.”
Global College Search Associates reaches out to financial planners to help them work with their clients. This is particularly relevant as college becomes increasingly expensive, Neimeyer said. For instance, a knowledge of federal and state regulations that affect eligibility for federal- and state funded scholarships is one item that is valuable, he said. The firm also works with employers who want to offer college counseling as a benefit for employees.
“Families also need to be aware of the stability of the school if it is not a long-established institution,” he noted. “In addition, for international and domestic students, the pandemic had a wide variety of impacts that families needed to understand.”