Interview Assessment 2

Name of person interviewed: ​Rohan Garg

Profession:​ Financial Planner

Location and business name: ​Merrill Lynch- 1 Cowboys Way, Frisco, TX 75034

Date of interview:​ January 5, 2018

Time: ​4:30pm

Mr. Garg, who now works for Merrill Lynch, only graduated from the University of

Texas at Dallas four years ago. In this time, he explained how he started off by working for large

companies, but made the right decisions in his career to expedite his success. As he spoke about

his career and how he reduced a six to eight year pathway to only four years, I learned how it’s

important not to get comfortable and ensure that you are always moving forward in your career.

The main thing I wanted to learn about in this interview was the similarities and

differences in a financial planner working for their own firm versus for a large corporation- and

fortunately, I learned just that. Mr. Garg said that he too was interested in working for his own

firm, but then discussed the benefits he experiences from working for a large corporation like

Merrill Lynch. He explained that financial planners at Merrill Lynch experience a lot of freedom

over their advice to clients and their management of their clients’ portfolios- which was contrary

to what I believed. I learned that the tag of a big company like Merrill Lynch helps attract clients

and make connections, but after that, a client is hiring the financial planner and not necessarily

the company, since the planner is going to be the one working directly with the clients. Hence,
the corporations don’t force many guidelines onto their financial planners. However, because of

this, they are extremely stringent about picking talented planners.

Additionally, when I asked about the limits of success in a corporation, Mr. Garg said

that the planners at Merrill Lynch experience increased salaries with time and success with

clients. Thus, a planner can control their salaries by working with more clients and presenting

impressive portfolios. The ideas of a corporation controlling my actions and working from a set

salary are what led me to think about opening my own financial owner. However, this interview

taught me that companies like Merrill Lynch don’t encompass any of these practices. This has

opened me up to the possibility of working for a corporation, which I will research more about

this year.

The last benefit I learned about joining large financial corporations is not having to worry

about compliance. The financial field has countless laws and regulations that need to be strictly

followed. Mr. Garg said that as a private financial planner, one has to spend a great amount of

time following up on these laws and ensuring that all business operations are in accordance to

them. This is a time consuming and tiring job that corporations take care of if a financial planner

works for them. This saves a lot of time for financial advisers, and they can spend this time

meeting with more clients and increasing their network. For me, this was a large point towards

joining a corporation since I don’t enjoy loads of paperwork.

Overall, I gained immense insight through this interview with Mr. Rohan Garg as it

completely changed my perception about joining a financial corporation. I am now more open to

the idea of joining a corporation in the future, rather than open my own firm as I had planned
before, since I now recognize that the potential of success in corporations isn’t limited but

endless.