Financial planners play a critical role in managing the finances of everyday folks. People are often unsure how they can responsibly plan for big purchases in life, so the role of a financial planner is to ease these worries and restore confidence. Financial planners use their knowledge to translate learned insights into practical advice, tailored to the person they are serving.
BLB&B Advisors, the Pennsylvania-based financial advising firm, through their giving arm, BLBB Charitable, awards scholarships each year to exceptional financial planning students at the Fox School of Business. Through BLBB Charitable, at least two students who have demonstrated successes in balancing strong academic abilities with a commitment to serving others are selected as BLBB Charitable- Ellis Foundation Financial Planning Scholars.
Daniel Lugo, a rising senior double majoring in finance and financial planning, is one of this year’s scholarship recipients. A member of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) at Temple and a former student ambassador, Lugo was recently elected to become the president of FPA.
“It was amazing news—that money really goes a long way,” says Lugo. “With the help of the scholarship I’ll have more time to focus on school.”
Lugo’s consideration for the scholarship was elevated by his involvement as director of networking for FPA. During his time as director, Lugo helped create and facilitate the organization’s first mentoring program. The program paired industry professionals with students to foster genuine connections and unique learning experiences outside of the classroom.
“The director is supposed to be creating events for people to get to know each other, but because of COVID, it would have been impossible to have something like that happen,” says Lugo. “We came up with this mentoring program as a way to combat not being in person.”
Lugo sought out professionals who had been involved with FPA in the past and opened the opportunity for student members to participate in the program. The program, which ran from fall 2020 through spring 2021, produced over a dozen successful pairings. As it concludes, Lugo can finally reflect on the first run of his project.
“We were able to run a successful program in the COVID era,” says Lugo. “We sent out feedback at the end of the cycle and asked people to be as honest as possible, it will help us improve for the next time.”
As Lugo steps into the role of president, he will have the opportunity to oversee the mentoring program next year. The BLBB scholarship will allow Lugo to dedicate more time to FPA and to build upon the successes that have earned him this distinguished award.
“We have a lot of opportunities for growth,” says Lugo. “I’m excited to see what we can do with the organization.