Week 2 at NFP M&A

Here at my 2nd week at NFP's Mergers and Acquisitions department in New York City, I have learnt quite a bit. I have been working on the diligence for multiple deals that are critical to NFP and the growth of the company in terms of its' revenue and total value of assets. I have noticed that in this business and in this field of wealth management and corporate management, a lot of time is spent on excel and on the phone. I have learnt to be proficient in excel but also the math involved in predicting the finances and valuating your next acquisition. I was informed by my boss this week that his plan for me for the next 5 weeks is to be able to close a deal from start to finish and experience this first hand which makes me nervous however I am excited for this opportunity and hopefully I can learn off it. My project for the summer is also to gain and understanding of Salesforce.com a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that uses a cloud based software to share data, spreadsheets and information between NFP and the client. It is pretty much the social network platform for the business world and combines aspects of facebook, twitter etc. It has been an awesome experience being involved in such huge deals where millions of dollars are being spent where risk and judgement has come into play and I have been able to learn off this. We are currently about to close a huge international insurance and benefits deal with a benefits company in the UK and acquire their assets and business. I have been joined by a couple other interns and I have found some 'finance bros', yes that is common language in such an office. I have realized the importance of a very 'bro' and a heavily male influenced environment. A lot of conversation revolves around sport, money, gambling and more sport and I love it. Lunch consists of 10-15 of us in the AV conference room, eating and watching sportscenter, heavily debating current affairs in sports whilst the top 10 plays are on the 2 giant 60 inch televisions in front of us. Another aspect of Wealth Management and finance that is important, especially at the higher level of executives and VP's is the game of golf and if I want to pursue a career in such a profession, being able to play golf is almost essential. Definitely need to step up my golf game!