Lynn Ballou, regional director at EP Wealth Advisors in Lafayette, Calif., credits speech and debate training for her success. “To be able to be articulate and think on your feet is a great skill,” she said. “And when you are in a debate situation, you have to be able to look at all sides of an issue and be prepared to argue against or support any side. It trains you to look at concepts and ideas with a 360-degree view. I think that leads to better critical thinking and therefore planning.”

Sabrina Manville, cofounder of Edmit, a Boston-based company that provides financial advice to families about paying for college, may have one of the more unusual educational backgrounds among financial advisors, majoring in religious studies at Yale.

“My ethics courses are highly relevant every day, as I need to always be thinking about the impact of my actions, whether I'm treating the families I work with ethically and giving honest and deeply considered feedback, and whether I am earning the trust they put in me,” she said.

“I find that financial advising is all about a values system,” she added. “In order to be a good advisor you need to understand how your client prioritizes the considerations around a decision and also what they value and believe in. For example, I have families who are absolutist about not taking on any student debt, while others are more open to debt if they can be shown there is a return on investment. The exploratory process of getting to know a family and their values is highly informed by what I learned in college.”

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