OREM — A team of three Utah Valley University students took first place in the Financial Planning Association’s National Financial Planning Challenge Oct. 2-4 in Nashville, Tennessee.
UVU has always placed in this competition, but this is the first time a team from the school has taken first. The team consisted of Josh Scott, Gerika Ballard and Brian Miller.
The challenge, which is open to undergraduate students from universities with financial planning programs, consisted of three phases.
During the first phase, teams were given profiles for two hypothetical clients for whom they prepared a comprehensive financial plan without the help of professionals or their adviser.
During the second phase, teams presented their case study orally to a panel of judges. The third phase consisted of a two-hour “Jeopardy”-style quiz bowl that tested the financial planning knowledge of each team.
Scott, Ballard and Miller scored 8,350 points in the quiz, 2,550 points more than that second-place team from California State University, Northridge.
The UVU team was awarded a $10,000 scholarship, a full scholarship to the association’s residency program and one hour of career coaching with one of the industry’s best advisers.