If you want to understand where wealth management is going, don’t just look at markets. Look at talent.
Because for advisory firms, the biggest constraint (and the biggest opportunity) isn’t investment strategy, it’s finding and developing the next generation of people who can serve clients well, stay in the profession, and grow into leadership.
That’s exactly why I sat down with Craig Lemoine, Director of Financial Planning at the University of Illinois, on Journeys to the Summit.
Craig has a rare vantage point: he’s lived the older models of the industry, the academic evolution, and the new “career-first” reality that’s reshaping how advisors enter the field. And it all started with a physics final.
The early years: fintech roots and “the nerd in the back”
Craig’s first job out of college wasn’t at an advisory firm, it was with what is now MoneyGuide, working inside financial planning software in the early 2000s.
That mattered. He wasn’t just learning the profession, he was learning the plumbing behind the profession: modeling, distributions, assumptions, disability analysis, and the mechanics that make plans credible.
Then came Lincoln Financial, where he worked on a financial planning team in a high-volume environment, handling hundreds of plans per year.
Two things happened there:
- He became extremely strong quantitatively
- He discovered a real edge: he could explain technical topics clearly to advisors and salespeople who needed to sound confident in front of clients
That skill, translation, doesn’t show up on a resume, but it’s a career accelerator.
The “grid” era and why incentives are never neutral
Eventually, Craig transitioned into the agent side of the business on a GDC contract with a production target and a grid.
That experience is important, because it highlights a reality too many people ignore: Compensation structures shape behavior.
Even good people can be pushed toward suboptimal decisions if incentives are misaligned.
Craig gave a simple example: a client with $1M, allocating 10% to real estate. There are many ways to do that through public REIT ETFs, direct deals, or private structures. But in some commission models, putting that 10% into a high-commission product could generate a very large upfront payout compared to putting the money into a lower-cost portfolio structure.
This is not about “bad advisors.” It’s about how the system can nudge behavior when someone is young, hungry, and focused on hitting targets.
That’s why Craig teaches suitability vs. fiduciary duty as something students need to grapple with, not as theory, but as lived reality.
The second mentor moment: “You should do a PhD”
Craig’s path pivoted again when a professor asked him to teach a class at Texas Tech.
He did what he always did: brought diagrams, clarity, and energy.
And afterward, the professor hit him with another life-altering message: “We’re starting a PhD program. I want you in it.”
Once again, someone saw a direction for Craig before he fully saw it for himself.
So he left the corporate track and committed to doctoral work teaching, consulting, and deepening expertise.
How Craig got his professor job without a resume play
This story is one of the simplest and most powerful lessons in the whole episode.
At an academic conference, Craig saw an older faculty member struggling to carry a heavy box of textbooks.
He got up and helped.
A month later, the phone rang.
It was that same person now calling with a job opening and an invitation to interview at the American College.
Craig didn’t “optimize his resume.”
He distinguished himself by being the one person who took action.
In a world where resumes are filtered by software, this matters more than ever.
The University of Illinois: scaling a program the right way
Craig joined the University of Illinois financial planning program when it had 82 students.
Today it’s around 240…roughly tripled.
But what stood out wasn’t growth for growth’s sake. Craig’s approach was the opposite. He wanted a program size where he could still know the students and place them well.
Instead of inflating headcount, he focused on curriculum quality and readiness.
Some major changes he drove:
- Electives that reflect the human side of money
- Money & Happiness
- Women, Money & Power
- Community-facing applied personal finance education
- A stronger push for behavioral finance / counseling skills
- Making estate planning required
- Craig’s line is the one you remember: “Everybody dies. Not everybody retires.”
- Fintech exposure (MoneyGuide, RightCapital, Morningstar-style tools)
- Pre-licensing requirements in progress
Craig heard repeatedly from employers: candidates who have passed high-stakes exams (SIE/65/63) are perceived as lower risk and more ready.
He’s building a program that fits the reality of modern advisory firms.
Why Vivaldi changed how we hire (and why it works)
A major thread in our conversation was how the industry itself is maturing.
Not long ago, entering wealth management often meant starting in pure sales, learning planning on your own, and facing a high failure rate.
Today, that’s changing.
At Vivaldi, we learned this through experience: if you hire smart, hungry people who haven’t committed to the profession yet, retention is much harder because early 20s talent can be great, but still unclear on direction.
So we shifted.
For our advisory track, we increasingly hire from financial planning programs, especially when students have internship experience, CFP readiness, and clearer intent.
That doesn’t guarantee success, but it increases the probability dramatically.
And that’s what great talent strategy is: improving odds.
Craig’s honest outlook: “I’ve taught credit cards for 20 years”
Toward the end, Craig shared something refreshing…honest self-awareness.
He’s taught personal finance at scale since 2008. Thousands of students. Same fundamentals. Same problems.
He’s proud of the impact, but he can also see the next pivot coming.
In his words, he has “about five more years” of this role in him before moving into something new, likely building more public-facing education and innovation at scale.
That’s the theme of his whole story: growth doesn’t happen without reinvention.
The profession is becoming a real career – on purpose
This episode wasn’t just a conversation about education.
It was a window into what wealth management is becoming:
- More structured career paths
- More specialized training
- More emphasis on human behavior (not just numbers)
- More accountability around incentives
- And a stronger pipeline from university programs into advisory firms
If you’re a firm leader: invest in the pipeline.
If you’re early in your career: distinguish yourself through reps, involvement, and real-world readiness.
If you’re an educator: align curriculum with what the profession actually demands.
If you’re a student or career-changer exploring wealth management, or a firm leader building your next generation of talent, reach out to our team at Vivaldi Capital Management.
We’re always looking to connect with people who take the profession seriously and want to grow in the right environment.
And if you want additional conversations like this, follow Journeys to the Summit for more episodes on wealth, leadership, and building enduring careers.