Increasing Number and Diversity of CFP® Professionals Will Expand Access to Financial Planning

In her prior role as assistant manager of community development for the City of Jacksonville, Florida, Chynequa King worked with a lot of families who struggle to manage their finances. Many of these families told her that nobody ever taught them about personal finances. Or they learned the hard way — by making costly mistakes.

These experiences inspired Chynequa to make a career change. She wanted to become an advocate for these families and educate her community about:

• The importance of investing early,
• Saving for future goals and
• Passing down generational wealth.

Today, Chynequa is pursuing CFP® certification, supported in part by a Richard B. Wagner Memorial Scholarship awarded through the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning.

The more CFP® professionals we have, and the more our CFP® professionals reflect the diverse populations they serve, the more people we can reach and help to improve their financial trajectory.

Her decision comes at a time when consumer demand for holistic, integrated financial advice — what we call financial planning — is steadily growing. Expanding access to financial planning is a top strategic priority for CFP Board, and one way we are doing that is by increasing the number and diversity of CFP® professionals.

The more CFP® professionals we have, and the more our CFP® professionals reflect the diverse populations they serve, the more people we can reach and help to improve their financial trajectory.

Attracting New CFP® Professionals, One Scholarship at a Time

The 10 scholarship programs administered by the Center, including the Wagner fund, comprise a key component of our efforts in this area. The Center’s scholarships play a critical role in building our talent pipeline and advancing workforce diversity by awarding funds to students from underrepresented populations within the financial planning profession.

In 2021, the Center presented a record-breaking 80 scholarships to aspiring CFP® professionals, offering more than $300,000 to help recipients complete the education and exam requirements for CFP® certification. It is a significant increase over the number and value of scholarships awarded by the Center in 2020. This brings the Center to a total of 180 scholarships awarded and more than $800,000 distributed since the launch of the first scholarship program in 2016. We anticipate expanding the number of scholarships even further in 2022 and beyond.

The majority of the Center’s scholarships are directed at individuals who come from populations underrepresented in the financial planning profession. Scholarships are one of many initiatives we are undertaking to expand the profession’s gender, ethnic and racial diversity. And we are proud to say these efforts are getting results.

A New Class of CFP® Professionals

In 2021 we reached milestones in the number and diversity of CFP® professionals. And the “Class of 2021” was the largest and most diverse class of new CFP® professionals in CFP Board history. For example, we had a record number of new female, Black and Hispanic CFP® certificants in 2021.

The “Class of 2021” was the largest and most diverse class of new CFP® professionals in CFP Board history.

Altogether, there are now more than 92,000 CFP® professionals in the United States. These professionals know that in a competitive financial advisory environment with more than 200 designations, CFP® certification allows them to accelerate their careers and demonstrate their commitment to CFP Board to put their clients’ best interests first.

CFP® professionals also know that as the financial planner workforce better reflects the changing demographics of wealth in the United States, there will be greater opportunity for transparency and trust to be built between more financial planners and clients.

Building a More Diverse Talent Pipeline

While we celebrate these milestones, we also recognize there is much work ahead of us to strengthen our profession’s talent pipeline. In short, we need more people like Chynequa to join our profession. We want people who bring their varied backgrounds and experiences to financial planning, and who are driven to help clients improve their well-being.

But there are only so many “career changers” like Chynequa in the U.S. Raising awareness of financial planning careers among the younger generation — high school and college students — is essential to the profession’s future. Right now, when these young people make major decisions about colleges, majors and career paths, they have little if any awareness of financial planning as a career option. We need to change that.

CFP Board supports promoting financial planning as an attractive career choice among college-bound high school graduates. We need to generate more awareness among younger demographics about the rewarding, in-demand careers CFP® professionals enjoy as they help people achieve their financial goals. And we hope leaders from across the financial services industry will join us as we mold the future financial planner.

CFP® professionals have the knowledge and competencies to help families of all backgrounds bring all their pieces of their financial life together. And all of us at CFP Board are committed to creating a more diverse and sustainable financial planning profession so that every American has access to competent, ethical financial planning advice.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn on January 27, 2022.

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About the Author: Kevin Keller, CAE is Chief Executive Officer of CFP Board. CFP Board’s mission is to benefit the public by granting the CFP® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for competent and ethical personal financial planning.