CFP Board's Women's Initiative:
How CFP
®
Professionals Can Get Involved
Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, Managing Director of Public Policy and Communications
Eleanor Blayney, CFP
®, Consumer Advocate
• Accessing Today’s Webinar
- Press F5 to refresh (Command-R on Mac)
• Submit questions through webinar interface
• On Twitter? Use hashtag
#CFPsWIN
• No CE for attendance
• Recorded webinar presentation will be
available on
CFP.net
• About the Women’s Initiative (WIN)
• Update on WIN
• WIN Advocate Program
• WIN Toolkit: Resources from CFP Board
• Presentations from current WIN Advocates
• Next Steps: How to become a WIN Advocate and
access the toolkit
• Questions and answers
About WIN
Seeks to address the chronic shortage of women CFP
®
professionals:
1)
Identify why relatively few women choose to
become part of the financial planning profession
2)
Make recommendations for encouraging and
supporting women to pursue careers in financial
planning
3)
Undertake efforts and campaigns to address the
“feminine famine” in financial planning
• Defined by three key phases:
• Phases 1 and 2 completed April 2014, with release of “Making More
Room for Women in the Financial Planning Profession” white paper
• Now in Phase 3 – implementation – expected to require sustained
effort and dedicated resources over a number of years under
guidance of the newly formed WIN Council
PHASE 1
Year-long research study on the causes
of female underrepresentation PHASE 2 Development of recommendations by WIN Advisory Panel of experts PHASE 3 Implementation of certain key initiatives by CFP Board
About WIN
• Advise and assist CFP Board
on the development of WIN
initiatives
• Inaugural meeting held at
CFP Board on December 17
• Experts in the areas of women’s
issues, diversity and recruitment, as
well as leaders from financial planning
and advisory firms and CFP
Board-registered education programs
WIN Council: Convening Experts to Advise
Implementation Efforts
Nancy Kistner, CFP®
Chair of WIN Council Managing Director
Wealth Planning Solutions Market Director
U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management
Lazetta Rainey Braxton, CFP®
Founder & CEO
Financial Fountains, LLC
Mindy Diamond
Founder & President Diamond Consultants
Mary Beth Franklin
Contributing Editor Investment News
Bob Glovsky, CFP®
Vice Chair & Senior Financial Counselor The Colony Group
Kate Healy
Managing Director, Institutional Marketing TD Ameritrade
Kate Holmes, CFP®
Founder & CEO
Belmore Financial, LLC
Dr. Ruth Lytton
Director, Financial Planning Program Virginia Tech
Elda Macias
Vice President, Retirement & Segment Marketing Corporate Marketing
Kathleen McQuiggan
Senior Vice President Pax World Management
Elissa Ellis Sangster
Executive Director Forte Foundation Karen Schaeffer, CFP® Managing Member Schaeffer Financial LLC Anne Weisberg
Senior Vice President
Families and Work Institute
• Correct misperceptions: Financial planning is
holistic discipline requiring communication
and relationship skills
• Educate guidance counselors and placement
officers to promote financial planning as
distinct profession, great career for women
• Make women leaders in profession more
visible to women and girls
WIN Recommendations:
• Encourage top management at firms to
commit to measurable gender diversity
goals
• Encourage firms to adopt transparent
compensation structures and to offer
alternative forms of compensation to
entry-level employees
• Build, sponsor and encourage in-firm
mentoring and networking programs for
women
WIN Recommendations:
• To date, over 500 WIN
Volunteers signed up, including
180 WIN Advocates
• Newsletter with updates and
calls to action sent regularly to
WIN Volunteers
• “A Great Career for Women”
brochure created highlighting
the benefits of CFP
®certification as a career choice
for women
Financial Planning / Tina Smothers Photography
As a result of WIN, industry and consumer media have raised awareness
about the lack of gender diversity in the financial planning profession.
Catalyzing Interest from Media
“Where Are the Women? Bridging the Gender Gap in the Advice Business”
May 2015
“Gaining Confidence Through Certification” November 2014
Op-Ed: “My Word: Calling More Women”
June 2014
Nancy Kistner, CFP®, Chair of CFP Board
WIN Council
“Women Face Hurdles to Entering the Advisory Business” May 2014
“Why Do Advisors Have Such a Hard Time Reaching Women?” February 2015
“Female Financial Advisers Sought as Boomers Need Planning” November 2014
Tell your story! How and
why you became a CFP
®professional and the
challenges and
opportunities you have
met
Offer to speak to target
audiences: girls’ groups,
groups of professional and
business women, students
in registered programs or
finance-related fields
Write an article on WIN for
the newsletters of your
membership organizations
or alumni publications
Identify speaking
opportunities at firm and
professional conferences
for CFP Board to talk
about WIN
Raise awareness within
your own firms about WIN
and the importance of
diversity
Keep in touch with CFP
Board about your WIN
Advocate activities
To encourage and equip WIN
Advocates, CFP Board has created a
Toolkit of tools and resources
Scripted presentations intended for
general and professional audiences
Short video clips on WIN to use in
presentations and social media
Facts sheets on WIN research
Frequently Asked Questions about
WIN
I am here to talk about a great career for women – financial planning.
A little background information: I am a Certified Financial Planner™, or CFP®,
Professional. As a financial planner and CFP® Professional, I work with clients to
determine whether and how they can meet life goals through the proper management of financial resources.
WIN Toolkit
Communication tools and
templates
• Sample letter to send to
organizations that may be
interested in hosting a WIN
presentation
• Summary descriptions of
presentation material
• Presentation tips
• Sample Tweets
• List of women’s
organizations to contact
Sample Letter to Promote WIN Presentation
RE: Presentation on Opportunities for Women in the Financial Planning Profession
Dear <Name>,
As a Certified Financial Planner™ professional, I have recently been designated by Certified Financial
Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) to serve as an Advocate for their Women’s Initiative (WIN). I would be very interested in speaking to your
<organization/firm/board> about financial planning, the career opportunities it affords to women, and what CFP Board is doing to attract more women to the field.
WIN Advocate Story: Mary Ballin, CFP
®
• Featured speaker at an event for
several troops of Girl Scouts on
April 16 in the San Francisco area
• 60 middle and high school girls and
parents in attendance
• The event was focused on the
theme of “What a Girl Can Do”
featuring non-traditional careers for
women
Mary and colleague, Alise
Kraus, with Girl Scouts
WIN Advocate Story: Cynthia Branca, CFP
®
• Spoke to a group of high school
students in New York City about
career opportunities in the financial
planning profession
• Mentored a young woman studying
finance
• Guest speaker at upcoming events
for high school and college students
• Article in a local publication
discussing work as WIN Advocate
Cynthia with student mentee from
Rockland Community College
WIN Advocate Story: Sameer Somal, CFP
®
• Conducted several speaking
engagements with business
partner and fellow WIN Advocate,
Rita Cheng, CFP
®:
o
Presentation to 10 students in
the CFP Board-registered
program at Saint Joseph’s
University on March 31
o
Career workshop for 45
business school students at
the University of Maryland on
April 13
o
Presentation to 10 students
and faculty at Kutztown
University on April 14
Sameer and Rita with students
at the University of Maryland
How to Become a WIN Advocate
• You must be a CFP
®professional in good standing with CFP
Board (no public disciplinary history and not under investigation)
• Go to
www.CFP.net/WINAdvocate
and complete the online form
• CFP Board will send you instructions to access the WIN Toolkit
• If you have questions, contact
WIN@CFPBoard.org
Toolkit Terms of use:
• Toolkit may only be used in WIN activities by CFP
®professionals designated by CFP Board as WIN Advocates
• You are not authorized to send the Toolkit to another person
• If you know CFP
®professionals who are interested in becoming
CFP
®
Certification Requirements
1) Complete the education requirement
a) Online or in-person financial planning courses offered through more than 300 CFP Board-approved colleges and universities across the country
b) A bachelor’s degree is required for CFP® certification but does not need to be completed
to sit for the exam
c) Individuals holding certain higher degrees (e.g. Ph.D., J.D.) or professional credentials (e.g. CPA, CFA) can take the CFP® exam after completing only the capstone course
2) Pass the exam
a) 6-hour computer-based exam, offered on five testing day windows, three times a year
3) Meet the experience requirement
a) 3 years of qualifying work experience, or 2 years “apprenticeship option” working with a CFP® professional
4) Pass the fitness standards and background check
5) Meet continuing education requirements and ethical standards on an ongoing basis
