More F&I managers are quitting. Are expectations for output, speed and compliance to blame?

Overcoming customer objections. Racing to complete deals. Scrambling to boost profit. Staying compliant.

F&I managers tackle a multitude of challenges daily, and the stress could be taking a toll.

Thirty-eight percent of F&I managers left their jobs last year, up 1 percentage point from 2014. And the median F&I manager tenure was a mere 3.1 years, according to the 2016 Dealership Workforce Study from the National Automobile Dealers Association.

To some dealers, the high churn among F&I managers comes as no surprise.

"There's a lot more that goes into an F&I job than 10 years ago," said Frank Pugliese, vice president of finance operations at Atlantic Auto Group, especially in terms of complying with state and federal requirements for the F&I process. "Top that along with identity theft and the creative ways people are going about buying cars on false pretenses [and] we're battling terrorism on our own fronts." 

Not all F&I manager turnover is related to job stress, dealers and experts say. Some dealerships see the post as a stepping stone to senior management levels. "The higher turnover is not because they are jumping ship. It's [because] they are promoted in their organization," said Tony Dupaquier, director of The Academy, the national training center of F&I provider Service Group in Austin, Texas. F&I managers are "leaders inside the dealership" and get promoted to finance director, sales manager or general manager, he said.

Still, some harried F&I managers are walking away. Along with being overwhelmed by rising performance goals, F&I managers can be frustrated with their pay plan and long hours, their store's turnover process from sales to F&I or simply the way they are treated.

"It's a high-burnout job," said Lycia Jedlicki, performance partner for 20 group operations at NCM Associates. "It's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of hours. With shrinking margins [on vehicle sales], the only thing left is F&I. If you don't produce, you're not going to survive." 

F&I managers are also under stress to keep customers' deal structures transparent as regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and state attorneys general keep dealerships' F&I practices under scrutiny. 

"Saying the right thing at the right time has literally become a full-time job," Pugliese said. "I think everybody is afraid." 

Most dealership staffers want to be compliant, but Pugliese questions whether they really know how. Atlantic Auto Group in West Islip, N.Y., has an in-house compliance officer who examines all the dealership's transactions. "If we spot something, we handle it ASAP," Pugliese said. 

At Yark Automotive Group in Toledo, Ohio, F&I managers who leave before they have put in one year typically do so because they don't understand how much knowledge they need to do the job, said Finance Director DJ Supan. 

F&I managers also can become frustrated when they feel they aren't being treated well by managers and colleagues. 

A former F&I manager at an Illinois store who asked to remain anonymous said he left the dealership for a variety of reasons that add up to burnout. He made good money, he said, but it's "not worth it because of the way you're treated or viewed. You spend so much time there that you live there. There's no real reward."

The former F&I manager now works at a window company where he has a more flexible schedule and higher compensation with salary, commission and bonuses. Some of his former colleagues left the dealership to go into banking. They still work in automotive but on the lending side. 

Eric Savage, president of Freedom Auto Group in Pennsylvania, said at some dealerships F&I managers are held in high regard while at others they are treated poorly. "Sometimes [F&I managers] are revered as the king or queen," he said. Other times they "are treated as second-class citizens."

Today's F&I managers are expected to increase F&I income with financing and product sales, boost customer satisfaction, keep up with compliance and fill out paperwork error-free. And some are expected to get it all done in 15 minutes, says F&I trainer Ron Reahard, president of Reahard & Associates in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.

In dealerships where sales consultants have taken over financing duties, the F&I manager's sole role has become selling add-on products. It sounds like an arrangement that would lighten the load, Reahard said, but it actually puts the F&I manager at a disadvantage.

"Selling an intangible product is much different than selling a vehicle," he said. When F&I managers enter the buying process that close to the end, they don't have time to learn the customer's needs, which makes F&I products a tougher sell.

"Everyone with credit issues has a story to go with it," Reahard said. F&I managers' traditional role was to be the customer's advocate to the lender. If you take that function out, that customer sees this person as someone coming in after the fact" trying to sell something.

Employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction go hand in hand. Each has to exist for the other to exist, Reahard said.

"Anybody who still thinks everybody is replaceable is a dinosaur. The real strength of every business is its people."