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About Us

About Us

Merage Courtyard

Our Vision

The Center for Investment and Wealth Management (CIWM) provides discussion, study and application of financial education for all. The Center offers leadership and serves as a resource for financial education with goals of increasing financial literacy, minimizing financial instability for the benefit of society and training the next generation of financial industry leaders.

Our Mission

To provide financial education for individuals across all socioeconomic backgrounds to:

  • Empower individuals at all stages of life to make smart financial decisions
  • Provide opportunities for students, the public and financial services professionals to enhance their financial knowledge
  • Connect the business community with the next generation of financial industry leaders for professional networking and mentorship opportunities

For more than a decade, we have positively impacted over 50,000 individuals with our innovative and accessible financial literacy programming.

Community Programs

UCI Programs 

UCI Programs

Personal FinANTs

Learn about the fundamentals of managing your money, and put yourself in charge for the rest of your life.

To promote financial literacy across the UCI student population, we’ve provided students with the opportunity to take Personal FinANTs. It’s a free literary resource, and you will learn about the fundamentals of managing your money so that you are in charge for the rest of your life. 

With Personal FinANTs, students take charge of your financial future immediately:

  • Get help with the essentials: planning, budgeting, credit, debt, saving and investing
  • Use customizable financial tools to build an action plan around your goals
  • Get answers to your real-life money questions

Students who successfully complete the Personal FinANTs modules between 4/10/23-5/8/23 get a $20 Amazon gift card! (Qualification details can be located by clicking the “More Info” button below. They are also at the bottom of the Personal FinANTs Canvas course homepage).

For students who wish to enroll in Personal FinANTs, please use the link below to add the course to your Canvas.

Bloomberg Terminal Training

The industry’s most powerful platform for financial professionals who need real-time data, news and analytics.

Located in the Schwab Trading and Technology Lab, UCI’s Bloomberg terminals are the industry’s most powerful and flexible global, multi-asset portfolio and risk analysis tools.

Bloomberg Basics Workshops

Attend our workshops taught by Bloomberg specialists to place the power of the terminal in your hands.

Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) is an eight-hour, self-paced, e-learning course that takes you into the world of financial markets. BMC can be completed within a week, and participants receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course.

Packed in four modules – economics, currencies, fixed income and equities – BMC weaves data, news, analytics and television together to impart knowledge and market essentials.

For UCI students who register for BMC, the $249 USD course fee is waived in full.

The Internship Experience

Working at the center offers a wide variety of benefits and opportunities for personal growth and professional development:

  • Professional Development
    Through exposure to project and operations management, communication with academic and advisory board personnel and assembling business emails and financial literacy articles, interns quickly learn essential professional development skills.
  • Supporting Our Orange County Community
    Our interns have the unique opportunity to give back to the Orange County community by helping educate students on important topics in budgeting, investing and career planning. Highly qualified interns have the opportunity to mentor high school students from underserved communities to be the first in their families to attend and succeed college.
  • Business and Project Management
    Interns gain experience managing several center programs and develop valuable professional skills and leadership qualities essential for careers in business.
  • Financial Literacy Research and Writing
    We also have numerous opportunities for interns to further develop their professional writing abilities and emerge as a UCI student thought leader through research and composition of financial literacy articles.

2022-23 Internship application have been closed. Thank you for your interest.

Scholarship Opportunities 

Scholarship Opportunities

MERCER SCHOLARSHIP

Mercer Advisors provides scholarships for undergraduate students in The Paul Merage School of Business (Business Administration & Business Information Management only) at any level based on the criteria below. Recipients are known as Mercer Advisors Scholars.

The Merage School will select two undergraduate students (BA or BIM) to receive $2,500 scholarships during the Spring quarter of the 2022-2023 academic school year, based on merit.

These scholarships are awarded through the Center for Investment and Wealth Management.

Recipients

  • Should be in good academic standing – demonstrating a 3.0 GPA (overall) or higher and have full-time enrollment status (12 units or more).
  • Will have participated in diversity, inclusion, or leadership student programs such as Women in Leadership, MUSA, or ASUCI.
  • Have completed the Center for Investment and Wealth Management's Personal FinANTs course and/or participated in the Financial Literacy Association’s undergraduate stock market competition.

Application closes on 5/5/23 at 11:59 pm

Mercer Scholarship Logo

THE TODD AND LISA HALBROOK SCHOLARSHIP

Alumni from The UCI Paul Merage School of Business Todd (FEMBA '05) and Lisa (BA '08, FEMBA '14) Halbrook have established an endowed scholarship fund at the School and donated a legacy gift to the Center for Investment and Wealth Management (CIWM).

This gift will fund a scholarship in support of a first-generation undergraduate student committed to the study and practice of wealth management.

 

 

...COMING SOON! Check back in Spring Quarter for more details!

Halbrook Endowed Fund UCI

Student Thought Leadership

Student Organizations 

For students, by students – a campus organization educating UCI on all things finance and investment.

Offered to all majors. No club fees. Learn how to use and manage your money, and be in control for life. The Financial Literacy Association (FLA) was founded to improve lives through financial education. 

FLA’s most exciting program is the Stock Market Competition, which runs under CIWM and The Paul Merage School of Business. Students are provided a virtual amount of money to trade, using the stock trading platform StockTrak.com. All levels of experience are welcome, and FLA will host multiple workshops and office hours to sharpen stock market knowledge and trading skills.

LEARN MORE

Take action on our country’s fiscal future.

At Up to Us, we believe in the power of harnessing the ideas, creativity and energy of students nationwide to act on a major issue in our country: the rising national debt.

Up to Us is a group of students of all majors and political affiliations committed to educating our peers about the impacts of the national debt and the importance of a sustainable fiscal foundation. As young Americans, we have the most at stake in our fiscal future, and we are determined to keep our families, job opportunities and the future in our hands.

The Up to Us goals include raising awareness about the national debt and how it impacts our future, inspiring students to take action on the national debt and sign the pledge (remember to choose “University of California, Irvine” as your university), and amplifying young voices on this issue by using both social media and traditional media.

SIGN THE PLEDGE

For students, by students – a campus organization educating UCI on all things finance and investment.

Offered to all majors. No club fees. Learn how to use and manage your money, and be in control for life. The Financial Literacy Association (FLA) was founded to improve lives through financial education. 

FLA’s most exciting program is the Stock Market Competition, which runs under CIWM and The Paul Merage School of Business. Students are provided a virtual amount of money to trade, using the stock trading platform StockTrak.com. All levels of experience are welcome, and FLA will host multiple workshops and office hours to sharpen stock market knowledge and trading skills.

LEARN MORE

Take action on our country’s fiscal future.

At Up to Us, we believe in the power of harnessing the ideas, creativity and energy of students nationwide to act on a major issue in our country: the rising national debt.

Up to Us is a group of students of all majors and political affiliations committed to educating our peers about the impacts of the national debt and the importance of a sustainable fiscal foundation. As young Americans, we have the most at stake in our fiscal future, and we are determined to keep our families, job opportunities and the future in our hands.

The Up to Us goals include raising awareness about the national debt and how it impacts our future, inspiring students to take action on the national debt and sign the pledge (remember to choose “University of California, Irvine” as your university), and amplifying young voices on this issue by using both social media and traditional media.

SIGN THE PLEDGE

Advisory Board

We gratefully recognize the following individuals who have generously given their time and resources in support of the center and our programs. Our board members serve on a number of committees that focus on everything from student engagement and membership to center initiatives and professional development.

Faculty Director

Faculty Director

Christopher Schwarz

Christopher Schwarz

Associate Professor, Finance

Christopher Schwarz, PhD is the faculty director at CIWM and associate professor of finance at The Paul Merage School of Business. His research interests include the management, disclosure and operational risk of the investment fund industry as well as the impact of manager incentives and structure on investment fund performance. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and includes testimony before the U.S. Congress House Financial Services Committee.

News
Contact Us

 

Center for Investment and Wealth Management
UCI Paul Merage School of Business
4293 Pereira Drive, Suite 3402
Irvine, CA 92697-3125
949.824.2675
ciwm@merage.uci.edu

 

                                  

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For general questions, contact us via email at ciwm@uci.edu

 

Faculty Director         
Chris Schwarz
cschwarz@uci.edu 
Office: 949.824.0936

Associate Director          
Adriana Lucas
aglucas@uci.edu

 

Operations Assistant             
Davis Ho
davis.ho@uci.edu
Office: 949.824.2675
Cell: 949.797.6232
Program Manager                
Ray Hirzel
rhirzel@uci.edu
Office: 949.824.7330
Program Manager         
Daisy Sanchez
sanched4@uci.edu
Office: 949.824.2613
Cell: 949.797.6235