– Female financial planners, (specifically, CFP® professionals) are in need, and provide a pivotal role to wealth management firms in serving diverse client bases and delivering holistic financial planning services to clients.

These are the main findings of an Aite Group independent study titled “These Are The Two Main Findings”Building a Diverse Practice: The Value of CFP® Certification to Female Advisors”

Wealth management firms must recognize the unique value of female financial planners to clients in an industry that is dominated by men (80%) when hiring staff.

Meanwhile, women who are exploring a possible career in financial planning, or who already work in the profession but have not yet earned their certification, should consider how CFP® certification can help unlock professional growth and fulfillment.

Holistic Financial Planning

Research shows that female financial planners are able to offer clients a unique approach to financial planning. According to the survey, female CFP® professionals:

  • Provide comprehensive, formal and written financial plans to more of their clients compared to male CFP® professionals and other female financial advisors.
  • Feel that they’ve earned client trust (74%) as opposed to just 53% in their male counterparts.
  • Clients who are more likely to offer retirement planning, estate planning and tax and budgeting advice will be better off.

“Women are natural nurturers and working on someone’s financial plan can help people with some of the most important and vulnerable parts of their life, which makes that strength in women so key,” says Erin Voisin, CFP®, the managing director for wealth management services at EP Wealth Advisors in California. “We need more women in this profession to help put together those comprehensive plans to equip more people with financial security and encourage a more financially literate society.”

Greater Business Success with Financial Planners Who Are Female

A focus on holistic financial planning does not detract from female CFP® professionals’ responsibilities to their firms. According to Aite Group, female CFP® professionals are as likely as male CFP® professionals to derive a majority of their practice revenue from assets under management and financial planning service fees.

Financial planning leaders say that these distinctive strengths and characteristics are a reason for financial firms to hire more female advisors.

“We already knew that there has been a business case to have more women in the financial services industry, and now we know that having female CFP® professionals adds even more value to their firm and the clients they serve,” says Angela Ribuffo, CFP®, president of Raion Financial Strategies LLC in Alaska. “Female financial planners are invested in holistic planning, and to effectively achieve this, they excel in building strong relationships with their clients.”

Initiatives to Get Behind

The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning is one organization seeking to foster greater diversity within the financial planning profession, including by growing the number of female CFP® professionals.

“We are seeing an increasing trend that prospective clients –both men and women — specifically request to work with a female advisor. The work the Center for Financial Planning is doing to promote and cultivate diversity within the profession is imperative to serving a broader array of clients that so deeply need holistic financial planning,” says Sabrina Lowell, CFP®, Advisor and Managing Partner at Private Ocean in San Francisco.

The Center’s Women’s InitiativeThe WIN Council, Voisin Ribuffo, Lowell and Lowell are the governing bodies of the WIN Council. It is specifically focused upon addressing the problem of under-representation of women in the financial planning workforce. The WIN programs aim to attract more women to the profession and to make it more attractive for women.

More information on the Center for Financial Planning, including its diversity-focused programs such as the 2021 Virtual Diversity Summit and Career FairVisit cfp.net/the-center-for-financial-planning.