Northwestern Mutual Internship Summer '21 & '22
Financial Planning for Underrepresented Communities & Identities:
How my Past Two Summers as an Intern Have Shaped the Way I Look at Money as a Woman in Finance
Katie Gail Kelbrants
What is Financial Stress and how does it Effect people?
According to the Federal Reserve bank of San Francisco, people dealing with financial stresses or significant debts tend to report health problems and struggle with mental health. On March 30th, 2023, the New York Times headlined the article, Why Money Makes People so Anxious, with stories from families across the country sharing financial stresses contributing to familial conflict and struggles with mental health; as of February 2022, 65 percent of Americans considered money a major source of stress. The significance of this statistic not only illuminates the pertinence of the issue, but also provides insight as to how common financial stress really is. Additionally, financial stressors disproportionately affect single women and people of color; especially when these individuals come from fiscally disadvantaged families that have dealt with significant stressors themselves.
What Makes Me Passionate
Coming from a low-income neighborhood in South Minneapolis, I have always been passionate about spreading financial literacy. The world of Finance and Economics is historically male dominated, creating a barrier in the workplace but also creating an opportunity for me to lift up voices of those that have been historically marginalized. As a woman-identifying individual myself, I have found that there is a heightened demand for financial planners that represent various identities such as mine. As an Economics major at Macalester, I conducted one of my capstone projects on the behavioral economics behind risk aversion and gender. Unsurprisingly, and from a small sample, my partner and I found significant results that women are much more risk averse than men when it comes to entering competitive and male dominated fields, such as finance. This project really contributed to my further motivations to pave the way for other women thinking of entering finance, and sparked my passions of spreading financial literacy to marginalized individuals and communities.
Background of NM
Northwestern Mutual, founded in 1857, is one of the oldest investment and insurance firms in the nation. Because of their massive scale, Northwestern Mutual is not only able to support their advisors’ development and future trajectories, but they are able to serve as the largest sponsor to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a foundation that raises money for childhood cancer research across the United States. Additionally, various Macalester students in STEM have received funding for summer research positions from Alex’s Lemonade Stand thanks to Northwestern, so they are very involved in funding undergraduate research as well.
My district office, located in downtown Minneapolis, is the place I have called home for the past two years. In April of 2021, I was accepted into a financial representative internship. Although the name “internship” may deceive, I was held accountable to the same level and expected to act in a full-time capacity. I had the responsibility of reaching out to people in my community that valued my work to see if I could be of any resource to their personal finance picture, and held various “joint-work” meetings per week with senior advisors in the company. The exposure to the real-world problems I have been exposed to have allowed me to expand my understanding of behavioral finance and hindrances that many have to the discussion of money; and the subsequent influence it has on their mental health.
Although my title is a Financial Planner, many times I tell people I act in the capacity of a financial consultant. Many of my clients are school teachers that had never been educated on how to read their work benefits package and enroll in proper programs and insurances to protect their health. I learned early on that my job is a lot more than teaching people “Finance 101.” My job allows people with the peace of mind to feel more comfortable about their future trajectories. Debt guilt is also a major indicator of those that tend to struggle with anxiety and/or depression, especially for women and BIPOC persons, and it has been rewarding to have the opportunity to help aid in easing such anxieties.
Personal Titles
Aside from my capacity in working as a Financial Planner, I also held the title of College Unit Captain this past summer, where I was responsible for leading the other interns and conducting weekly check-ins with younger interns. I helped them flesh out their own anxieties when it comes to approaching new people, a very common place of stress in the business, and was able to facilitate questions and discussions that translated into motivation and assurance for our younger interns. I am part of iLead, which is a effort to increase young leadership within our network office, and I served as a member on the Diversity & Inclusion board and continued (and am still continuing) to increase diversity in our internship program.
Next Steps & What I have Learned from my Experience
As I am still working as an Intern at Northwestern Mutual, I am continuing to learn more with each meeting. One of my most valuable takeaways from the experience is that helping alleviate financial stresses can positively alter people’s mental health and their ideas of the future; as well as the fact that creating plans with adequate insurances can help hedge people from all of the unknowables in life. My experience has overall shaped the way that I approach complex financial problems; with not only trust and intent to make a positive impact, but also by the rewarding feeling of uplifting voices that have been historically silenced or left out of financial decision making. I will continue full-time with Northwestern Mutual post-graduation, and hope to take these same values along and continue to learn and create pathways for other young women and BIPOC individuals to enter finance. Representation matters.
Katie Kelbrants
Hi, I'm Katie and I am an Economics major with a Minor in Arabic with a concentration in Community & Global Health. In my time at Mac, I have served on the board of O.D.E.; Economics International honors Society, served as a Mentour for WIE; Women in Econ, Competed as a varsity diving athlete being captain of my team and was a member of SAAC; Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
In my free time, I love to run along the river and spend time with my family and friends. After graduation, I plan to continue my endeavors in Financial Planning post-graduation, and am a continual advocate for women in finance.
Image Credits: Steve Bernstein, Your Spectacular Face