CFP Board Center for Financial Planning Announces New Diversity Advisory Group

March 1, 2018 Zhane Squire

New Research, Diversity Summit on Group’s Agenda in 2018

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning announced today that it has formed a new Diversity Advisory Group to provide guidance and expertise in the development of diversity and inclusion initiatives that will increase the racial and ethnic diversity in the financial planning profession.

Currently, based on self-reported data, CFP Board estimates that there are roughly 1,200 African-American and 1,500 Latino or Hispanic CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals. Together this represents less than 3.5 percent of all CFP® professionals. (Note: CFP Board recently began requesting this demographic information in connection with the Center’s diversity initiative and will continue to update it.) The Center for Financial Planning seeks to address this challenge by launching research-based initiatives and forming partnerships to foster a more diverse financial planner workforce. The Diversity Advisory Group will provide critical input to assist the Center in implementing its diversity agenda.

“With the growing consumer demand for financial advice, it is imperative that we work toward increasing the ranks of financial planning professionals who can meet the needs of an increasingly diverse American public,” said Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, Executive Director, CFP Board Center for Financial Planning. “The Diversity Advisory Group is comprised of some of the brightest and most knowledgeable minds in the areas of diversity and inclusion, academic research and financial planning, and will guide the Center in forming actionable, research-based solutions.”

As part of its work, the group will review findings of a comprehensive study that identifies the barriers to racial and ethnic diversity in the financial planner workforce. Subsequently, the group will provide expert input for a thought leadership paper that will recommend solutions for increasing diversity among financial planners. The paper will be discussed at a diversity summit to be held by the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning in New York City on October 23, 2018. Members of the Diversity Advisory Group include experts in diversity and inclusion, representatives from financial services firms and academia, and CFP® professionals:

Cy Richardson, Senior Vice President, National Urban League (Chair)
Louis Barajas, CFP®, Founder, Financial Advisor & Author, Louis Barajas, Inc.
Danielle Beyer, Interim Chief Executive Officer, New America Alliance
Lazetta Rainey Braxton, CFP®, past President, Association of African American Financial Advisors; founder, Financial Fountains
Catalina Camoscio, Vice President of Recruiting & Development, Prudential Insurance Company of America
Marguerita Cheng, CFP®^, Chief Executive Officer, Blue Ocean Global Wealth
Rianka Dorsainvil, CFP®, Founder and President, Your Greatest Contribution; “I Am a CFP® Pro” campaign spokeswoman
Roberto Fernandez, Professor of Organization Studies, MIT Sloan School of Management
Jamie-Clare Flaherty, Director, Strategic Initiatives, The Obama Foundation
Kate Healy, Managing Director, Generation Next, TD Ameritrade Institutional
Gerald Loftin, CFP®, President, Association of African American Financial Advisors
Phuong Luong, CFP®, Financial Planner, Just Wealth, LLC
Jorge Quezada, Director of Leadership Development, Diversity & Inclusion, Northwestern Mutual
Gary Rozier, Senior Vice President of Institutional Marketing & Client Services, Ariel Investments
Leslie Tabor, Managing Director, Schwab Advisor Services Business Consulting & Education, Charles Schwab
Kara Underwood, Head of Wealth Management, Diversity & Inclusion, Morgan Stanley
Jocelyn Wright, CFP®, State Farm® Chair in Women and Financial Services and Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at The American College of Financial Services

“The Center is bringing a rigorous, research-to-action-to-results approach to a systemic problem,” said Cy Richardson, Senior Vice President, National Urban League and Chair of the Diversity Advisory Group. “I am pleased to work with the Center for Financial Planning to lead the Diversity Advisory Group in shaping new initiatives that can have a profound impact on communities of color.”

ABOUT CFP BOARD

The mission of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. 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. The Board of Directors, in furthering CFP Board’s mission, acts on behalf of the public, CFP® professionals and other stakeholders. CFP Board owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, CFP® (with plaque design) and CFP® (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. CFP Board currently authorizes nearly 80,000 individuals to use these marks in the U.S.

ABOUT the CFP BOARD CENTER FOR FINANCIAL PLANNING

The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning seeks to create a more diverse and sustainable financial planning profession so that every American has access to competent and ethical financial planning advice. The Center brings together CFP® professionals, firms, educators, researchers and experts to address profession-wide challenges in the areas of diversity and workforce development, and to build an academic home that offers opportunities for conducting and publishing new research that adds to the financial planning body of knowledge. More about the Center and its initiatives can be found at www.CenterforFinancialPlanning.org.

CONTACT: Jessica Lewis, Communications Specialist P: 202-379-2256 M: 301-655-0389 E: jlewis@cfpboard.org

SOURCE Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.