Internship Experience UBS Financial Services
Hello my fellow Beavers!
I am Richard Bonito, a rising junior who currently interns at UBS Financial Services. UBS has several different components that they refer to as “branches” all underneath the worldwide UBS umbrella. I work for the Wealth Management branch in an office located in Andover, MA. UBS’s Wealth Management division offers high net worth individuals a range of advisory investment products and services, which include but are not limited too: savings accounts, equities, fixed income products, mutual funds, options, futures, commodities and IRA’s. UBS Wealth Management acts as a brokerage service that provides these products for their client which is supported by the firm’s global research activities that all UBS employees have access too.
Over the course of my internship my roles include: updating risk profiles, constructing various investment models (often including hypothetical situatons involving client portfolios), charting specific company stock prices for data, analyzing client lists for lending opportunities and creating marketing pieces to help support my financial advisor’s business. Finally, I help out with the general office duties such as client data entry, report creation and cost basis calculations.
I must say, on the first day of my internship I was extremely nervous. I prepared for the internship by actually reading the text book from my previous security valuation class and rereading the associated course pack to be as fresh as possible for the start of the internship. However, as soon as I entered the office, I was pleasantly greeted by everyone and immediately felt comfortable. All of these successful grown men and women were actually genuinely interested in what I had to say and actually seemed impressed by what I had to offer. I expected my working space would be some sort of cubicle or a maybe even a table with a chair, working right next to other individuals..but no I actually have my own secluded space, with a dual screened computer and comfortable chair .. to say I was pleasantly surprised by my working environment would be an understatement.
Once I was settled, immediately I began participating in training modules to get up to speed with the workings of the branch. I had to watch interactive video after video, which included everything from office rules, internet etiquette, e-mail etiquette, phone etiquette, UBS ethics, how to talk to clients, how to use the intranet system, how to group accounts, the whistleblowing process for unethical action, and other training modules for various tools such as SAP and Morningstar Research. Upon completing these training modules, I immediately started tackling projects. I think what made me most comfortable was the trust that my co-workers had in me right off the bat, as they granted me access to confidential information but also immediately had me fielding client phone calls. What I found most fascinating was the company’s integrated ERP and CRM systems. Yes, I said it.. ERP and CRM those buzzwords and concepts we all learned in FME. The whole UBS enterprise shares and distributes vital, confidential information to make sure that the right people have the right information at the right time to make proper decisions, which is extremely crucial when dealing with investments and OTHER people’s money. When it comes to the company’s CRM system there is an abundance of client data that lists everything from personal information, to investment history, to the name of a client’s mother’s dog (kidding) but you get it. If someone is a UBS client, the advisers want to know as much about them as possible to make sure their needs are fulfilled and to ensure that they are as financially comfortable as possible given the circumstances.
It has been an absolute honor, and pleasure to work at this internship so far. It’s weird to think, but this internship doesn’t even feel like work at all as I actually genuinely enjoy what I am doing.
There will be plenty more to come as I will be blogging weekly for the remainder of my internship
RB