Rev. – Celebrations of Rev. Communities, businesses and organizations have the opportunity to reflect on their efforts in supporting and promoting diversity at these events.
Recent milestones were achieved by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., (CFP Board), in an effort to increase diversity of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANCERTM professionals. From 2019 to 2020, the number of Black and Latino CFP® professionals increased by 12.6 percent – nearly five times the growth rate of all CFP® professionals. The number of female CFP® professionals also increased in 2020 and now totals 20,633, reflecting a growth rate of 3.1 percent over 2019.
The total number of CFP® professionals continued to rise as well, reaching an all-time high of more than 88,700. The strong and consistent growth underscores the attractiveness of financial planning careers and how CFP® certification has become the must-have designation for professionals providing financial advice.
Scholarship programs that help aspiring advisors with different backgrounds are one way the profession of financial planning has made it more diverse. The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning, for example, offers six scholarship programs that help to cover the costs of the coursework required to become a CFP® professional. Five of the programs were specifically designed to help individuals from underrepresented groups in financial planning, based on race, gender, disability, or sexual preference.
At the close of 2020, 48 new scholarship awards were announced by the Center. This brings the total amount of scholarships it offers to 100. The Center’s programs have a combined value of approximately $500,000. Nearly 50 awards were granted in 2020. 32 went to female students, 32 to Black and 2 to Latino students. 4 were awarded to members of other underrepresented groups in terms of disability and sexual orientation. These scholarships play an important role in advancing diversity and building the profession’s talent pipeline. To date, 11 scholarship recipients have become CFP® professionals, while 37 others are in the final stages of their CFP® certification process.
To learn more about the Center scholarship programs and other resources for diverse candidates for CFP® certification, visit CFP.net/get-certified/tools-and-resources.
