CFP Board Center for Financial Planning Releases White Paper on the First Career Re-Entry Initiative in Financial Planning

The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning today published a comprehensive white paper detailing outcomes from the initial pilot of its Financial Planner Re-Entry Initiative (FPRI), an innovative workforce development program aimed at attracting experienced, professional women into the financial planning profession.

Launched in the spring of 2017 in partnership with the leading career re-entry firm iRelaunch, FPRI’s primary objective is to support financial services firms in establishing paid re-entry internships as a career pathway for highly educated and experienced professionals (primarily women*) seeking to return to the workforce after taking a career break, generally to raise their families. The program enables firms to tap into an exceptional talent pool of mid- to senior-level professionals and is modeled after similar programs iRelaunch has successfully launched in collaboration with leading firms from the engineering, technology and finance sectors. 

Firms that participated in the Center’s initial FPRI pilot include: Edelman Financial Services and United Capital, both of which were sponsored by TD Ameritrade Institutional; Luma Wealth and Yeske Buie, sponsored by Schwab Advisor Services through the Schwab Foundation; and Fidelity Investments. To date, a total of 11 internships have concluded, with 10 internships converted to full-time positions, resulting in a strong 91 percent conversion rate.

 “The initial success of this program demonstrates the value that re-entry internships have as a vehicle for attracting high-caliber talent to the financial planner workforce,” said Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, CFP Board Center for Financial Planning Executive Director. “Based on our initial results, we are issuing a call to action for more firms to establish re-entry internship programs as a pathway for professional women into the financial planning profession and CFP® certification.”

The white paper, Financial Planner Re-Entry Initiative: Career Path for Professional Women in Financial Planning, published by the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning, discusses the pilot program’s model and its key components, initial hurdles, successes and outcomes shared by the participating firms, as well as insights from re-interns and firm program managers.

The report also details best practices for managing a re-entry program that were gleaned from the FPRI pilot, including:

• strong support from firm leadership in the dedication of resources;
• an openness to collaborating with other firms to exchange ideas;
• selection of a competent program manager;
• a willingness on the part of the firm to experiment with a new program;
• establishing clear gender diversity goals and metrics;
• developing re-entry intern onboarding programs, as well as training for hiring managers and other staff;
• supporting CFP® certification as the preferred training and onboarding method for interns; and
• engagement of re-entry interns with clients and employee meetings early on.

Lessons learned and progress made by the inaugural cohort of firms will be replicated and built upon in the next FPRI cohort, and eventually on a profession-wide scale. In addition, the Center and iRelaunch recently launched a second FPRI cohort that will run through November 2019 and include the following firms: Ayco, a Goldman Sachs Company; Carson Wealth, sponsored by TD Ameritrade Institutional; The Colony Group; Moisand, Fitzgerald & Tamayo, LLC; Northwestern Mutual; Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney; TD Ameritrade and Vanguard.

“We are thrilled with the expansion of the number and type of firms participating in the second round of the FPRI,” said Carol Fishman Cohen, Chair and Co-founder of iRelaunch. “Our vision is for financial planner re-entry programs to proliferate in firms of all sizes and business models across the country.”

Firms interested in establishing a re-entry internship program leading to full-time positions in financial planning should contact Eddy Demirovic, Manager of Programs and Operations at the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning, at edemirovic@cfpboard.org.

*Note that men are eligible to apply for and participate in FPRI programs.  

ABOUT iRelaunch 

Established in 2007, iRelaunch is the pioneering company in the career re-entry space. iRelaunch runs the iRelaunch Return to Work Conferences and hundreds of customized career re-entry programs and events for employers and individuals returning to work after a career break. iRelaunch works directly with over 60 blue chip companies to introduce, implement and expand career re-entry programs to engage with and hire from the return-to-work talent pool. iRelaunch has built a global community of over 65,000 individuals in all stages of relaunching careers. iRelaunch co-leads employer career re-entry initiatives in the STEM and financial planning sectors in which nearly 35 new career re-entry programs hiring hundreds of “relaunchers” have piloted and in many cases, expanded. The award-winning iRelaunch podcast “3.2.1 iRelaunch” has nearly 60,000 downloads and has released over 60 episodes.