CFP BOARD ACHIEVES RECORD GROWTH of CFP PROFESSIONALS

CFP® Certificants in the News

Despite the specter of the pandemic, the number of CFP® Professionals grew in 2020 to 87,726. We will rely upon selected excerpts from CFP Board Reports Impressive 2020 Growth to summarize the growth and increasing diversification of CFP® Professionals.

Increasing Diversity

According to CFP Board CEO Kevin Keller, “The increase in the number of CFP® professionals of color reflects the strong efforts by CFP Board and the Center for Financial Planning to create a more diverse and sustainable financial planning profession…We will continue to work together toward a future where the financial planning professional reflects that of America.”

According to CFP Board,

  • The number of female CFP® professionals increased to an all-time high of 20,633 – 23.3% of all CFP® professionals — reflecting growth of 3.1% since 2019.
  • The number of Black and Hispanic CFP® professionals increased in 2020 to 3,688 – a percentage growth of 12.6% over 2019’s number of 3,274. This increase is nearly five times the growth rate of all CFP® professionals.
    • Black CFP® professionals – 1,493 (1.68% of CFP® professionals)
    • Hispanic CFP® professionals – 2,170 (2.46% of CFP® professionals)
    • Biracial Black and Hispanic – 25 (.028% of CFP® professionals)

Center for Financial Planning – Career Center

In addition to the number of new CFP® Professionals, CFP Board continues to connect job seekers with employers. “The Center for Financial Planning’s Career Center, now in its seventh year, connects firms with qualified job seekers in the financial planning profession. During this time, 3,800 employers have posted 6,000 jobs that have been promoted to 27,000 job seekers.”

CFP Board’s Candidate Forum

The increasing number of subscribers to the Candidate Forum has helped leverage the growth in CFP® Professionals by “connect[ing] candidates for CFP® certification with a valuable online community to provide support on their path to certification, with nearly 79,000 subscribers sharing 1,136 discussion threads related to all stages on the path to CFP® certification.”

Summary

CFP Board CEO Kevin Keller summarized how COVID-19 impacted the profession as follows:

“The financial challenges that have impacted so many during the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of financial planning…Financial planning also continues to be regarded as a highly sought after and attractive career choice, and CFP® certification has become the must-have designation for those providing financial advice.”

Disclaimer

The information presented herein is provided purely for educational purposes and to raise awareness of these issues; it is not meant to provide and should not be used to provide legal, compliance or financial advice. There are variations, alternatives, and exceptions to this material that could not be covered within the scope of this blog.