Passionate about business history, financial planning, and storytelling from someone who lived it.
About Thomas Intoccia
I’m Thomas Intoccia, an author, professor, and former financial services executive, living in suburban Philadelphia with my wife, Beth, while teaching at my alma mater, Temple University.
My investment career, encompassing brokerage, wholesaling, and investment custody leadership, tells a story of an industry and me as a person. After retiring as an investment custody executive at Charles Schwab in 2019, I now mold young minds as a professor at Temple.
I have a passion for financial literacy and writing. My new book, THE PROFESSIONAL, chronicles my career in sales within the financial services industry. It is a personal story, but one which recounts historical events and the influencers on my career, like my father, who told me, “Sales wasn't a profession.” It’s my journey seeking professionalism, with its ups, downs, triumphs, and tragedies, but always with a lesson.
About The Professional: A Memoir of Sales, Self-Doubt,
and Reinvention in the World of Investments
In 1987, my goal was to work in a socially significant industry, become a "professional," and please my father. The only problem was that he didn't consider sales a profession. I would blaze my trail selling birth control pills, an ethical dilemma for a good Catholic boy, then as a stockbroker and investment wholesaler. But I would learn lessons, some the hard way! As a stockbroker with Smith Barney in 1990, I was fired by its president after telling a prospect, “I wouldn't do business with you even if your name were Donald Trump!” I was hired by Paine Webber, but a fire destroyed my building and a year's worth of prospecting records. This led me to the hottest new profession of the '90s: investment wholesaling...
Latest Blog Post
How often have we heard this Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, and what does it really mean? I’ve often heard people describe their career path as if they were traveling long distances, moving from place to place, sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively. I didn’t realize how true that statement was until I looked back over my career and thought about the places I’ve been and the companies I’ve worked for.
The Financial Literary of College Students:
A Case Study of Financial Attitudes, Beliefs, and Confidence
Financial literacy is a persistent problem in society, exemplified by poor financial knowledge among college students and exacerbated by high student debt and inadequate understanding of savings concepts. The goal of this study was to better understand how college students develop financial literacy. This qualitative exploratory case study was guided by the overarching research question: How do students at a large northeastern university develop their financial knowledge? Sub-questions of this study were: (a) In what ways do students’ family experiences influence their financial attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors? (b) How do students describe their financial attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors after completing the financial literacy course at a large northeastern university?