Alumni Spotlight: A Certified Success
Fall 2019
Ryan Hook leveraged DCE's
Personal Financial Planning certificate
program to prepare for his MBA and
CFP® mark, and shares sage advice
learned along the way.
Ryan knew he wanted to become a
Certified Financial Planner — “career
insurance,” as he calls it. He had
already finished his Bachelor's in
Economics from UC Irvine in 2007 and
capitalized on a successful internship
at MetLife to become a full-time
staffer. What next… he wanted to
pursue a graduate business degree.
It was a no-brainer. The DCE Personal
Financial Planning certificate program
could give him a jumpstart to both
goals: satisfy the educational
requirement to take the CFP® exam,
as well as provide transferable credits
to the MBA program at California
Lutheran University.
“I always knew I wanted to earn a
graduate degree, and one of the
nice benefits of the program at DCE is
I could transfer some of my units and
pass out about one-third of the MBA
in Financial Planning at Cal Lutheran,”
said Ryan, a DCE Advisory Board
member and instructor. “It also saved
me another few months of studying
because the Cal Lutheran program
doesn't require the GMAT if you
finished the financial planning
program at DCE.”
Today Ryan is a wealth manager at
Creative Planning in Irvine, a nationally
recognized firm that manages
approximately $40 billion in assets. It's
a position that wouldn't have been
possible without his certification in
financial planning, he says. And his
DCE experience made it happen.
“There is zero-percent chance I would
be a wealth manager at Creative
Planning without UCI's certificate
program and my CFP® certification.
Getting my CFP® mark through UCI is
the best thing I did for my career.”
Ryan, a recent Alumni Achievement
award recipient, recently found time
to discuss his life, his DCE experience,
and strong family ties to the Irvine
community. With a 1-year-old
daughter and demanding job, it
was no small task.
“[O]ne of the nice benefits of the program at DCE is I could transfer
some of my units and pass out about one-third of the MBA in
Financial Planning at California Lutheran University.”
Ryan Hook
Alumni
Let's talk about why you chose
UCI in the first place.
I've always had a close family
connection to UCI. Both my parents
went to high school right across the
street from UCI at University High.
My Grandpa Ken and Grandma Pat
moved down from Palo Alto to Irvine
in the ‘60s, and they said Irvine was
basically all strawberry fields and
orange groves, and the 405 was a
two-lane road back then. In the
summer, my parents would send me
to a math and science camp at UCI
and I would stay at my grandparents’
house, just one minute away from UCI
in Turtle Rock. So, UCI was a natural fit
for me.
How did your economics degree
help launch your career?
Well, UCI is getting better and better,
so my degree is getting even more
valuable since 2007. I'm very proud
that UCI is ranked as a Top 10 public
school in the country, and I was lucky
to get a paid internship my junior and
senior year at MetLife Investors. After two years, MetLife liked me enough to
hire me full-time after graduating from
UCI. I will be forever grateful for that
opportunity and encourage every
college student I talk with to
aggressively pursue an internship,
ideally paid. It's an invaluable learning
experience and one of the easiest
ways to get a job after college.
What prompted you to take the next
step and get your CFP® certification?
After college, at MetLife, I was one of
80 people on the sales desk in the
Irvine office. Less than five people had
their CFP® certification. I knew that if I
became a CFP® professional it would
help me get promoted. So, I looked
up local CFP® certification programs
and the DCE offered an accelerated
program where I could complete the
classes in less than one year.
What sort of advice would you
offer those starting out in financial
planning? How important is it to get
the CFP® mark?
I strongly advise getting your CFP®
certification as soon as you can.
Anytime is good, yet the sooner the
better, before you have too many
work and family obligations. Life seems
to get more complex as we go. I
was 25 at the time, definitely at a
disadvantage experience-wise, but
was still young enough to remember
college and my cram-study skills. With
no wife and kids at home yet, I had
a lot of free time.
You called the CFP® mark a good
form of “career insurance.” What
are the practical benefits of getting
certified?
It will 100% help you be a better
advisor to your clients and give them
confidence you have a baseline level
of experience and competency.
Ultimately though, it will help you
advance your career by getting
promoted where you are or help get
you a job at one of the top wealth management
firms in the country.
What's the career outlook for those
looking to enter the financial planning
field?
The outlook is very bright. The financial
planning world is changing fast and
clients are demanding an advisor that
is a fiduciary, 100% fee-based instead
of upfront commissions, and is fully
independent. You want to be at one
of the top-ranked firms so you remain
competitive over the next decade or
two, but there's nothing wrong with
working underneath a successful or
established financial advisor to learn
and grow.
I'd really like to hear about your
charitable work with the Raise
Foundation. I understand your
community work was a factor in
your Alumni Achievement award.
The Raise Foundation is Orange
County's official Child Abuse
Prevention Council. I've been very
involved with their Spring Gala, the
main fundraiser they have each year,
and every year I adopt a low-income
family for Christmas. I also started
volunteering for Junior Achievement,
a charity that goes into low-income
schools and teaches kids about
money. I was lucky to teach a 3rd
grade class in Fountain Valley this
spring. They were so cute and eager
to learn. The teacher sent a thank-you
note from each student in a book
tied together with yarn. It was really
touching. I will keep that book for a
long time.
Learn more at ce.uci.edu/pfp