Texas A&M Financial Planning Program receives $25,000 TD Ameritrade Institutional grant

Writer: Blair Fannin 979-845-2259, b-fannin@tamu.edu

Contact: Dr. Gene Nelson, 979-862-2527, nelsong@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION – The Financial Planning program in the department of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University has received a $25,000 grant from TD Ameritrade Institutional.

The announcement was made Monday at the New York Stock Exchange. Faculty member Nathan Harness and Mariel Braun, a senior agricultural economics major, represented Texas A&M during the closing bell ceremony.

TD Ameritrade Institutional’s NextGen Scholarship and Grant Program is designed to help promote careers in financial planning and attract top talent to the advisor industry, said program administrators. Employment of personal financial advisors is projected to grow 27 percent from 2012 to 2022, much faster than the average for all occupations, according to Dr. Gene Nelson, financial planning program coordinator and senior professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M.

“The $25,000 grant will be used to facilitate launching the undergraduate academic program within the next 12 to 15 months, allowing students to earn a bachelor’s degree with a specialization in financial planning,” Nelson said. “A related objective is to meet an important need of the profession by recruiting women and Hispanics to careers in financial planning. This award will be used to develop recruiting materials and high-quality video presentations to attract students, particularly women and minorities.”

TD Ameritrade Institutional NextGen Scholarship program awards 10 scholarships to students, one $50,000 grant to a university with an established program, and one $25,000 grant to a university with an emerging program.

“More specifically, this one-time $25,000 grant for the 2014 academic year is to be used to strengthen an emerging financial degree program that is offering, or planning to offer, an undergraduate degree in financial planning,” Nelson said.

More information about the Financial Planning Program at Texas A&M University can be found at http://financialplanning.tamu.edu. Nelson said the program includes both an undergraduate academic program for enrolled undergraduates seeking life-long careers and an Extended Learning program for graduates looking to advance or change their careers.

“The Extended Learning program was approved as a registered program of the CFB Board of Standards in September 2013. Over the past few years, the program has grown from an idea outlined on a lunch napkin to the six-course curriculum, which includes the equivalent of 18 semester credits in financial planning core topics at the upper-division level.”

– Financial planning fundamentals.
– Insurance and estate planning.

– Tax planning.
– Investment planning.
– Retirement planning.
– Financial planning capstone.

Completion of this curriculum qualifies students, both undergraduates and extended learners, to sit for the Certified Financial Planner exam and become a certified financial planner, one of the most recognized and respected designations for financial planners and advisors.

“Although the fundamentals course was developed in 2010, the remaining five courses were developed after our executive associate dean approved the program’s business plan in September 2012,” Nelson said. “This past spring semester, 60 students enrolled in our fundamentals, Insurance and Estate Planning and our Retirement Planning courses, with students across the country taking the courses online.”

For an overview of the program and application information, visit http://financialplanning.tamu.edu.

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