In the News

CFP Board's diversity summit aims to follow calls-to-action with accountability

By Maddy Perkins November 15, 2019 Financial Planning

When she was asked to speak at the CFP Board's second annual Diversity Summit, advisor Lauryn Williams wasn't interested.

"I did not want to do this speech," she told attendees from the conference stage. A track and field athlete and bobsledder, Williams was the first American woman to win medals in both the summer and winter Olympic Games. "I do not like to focus on all the ways that women and people of color have been held back," the founder of RIA Worth Winning said.

Ultimately, Williams said she decided to participate because she felt she needed to. "If I'm honest, I'm long overdue to take on the feelings that overtake me whenever anyone talks about diversity. Internally, there's a constant conversation being had about the responsibilities I have because of my gender and my race," she said.

"I am just part of the solution. Myself and other minorities are not meant to carry this burden of diversifying the industry alone."

Following a provocative inaugural event last year, the program was tailored in part to help the near 370 attendees from across the country form and articulate a business case for diversity and inclusion to bring back to naysayers and skeptics. The panels and speeches echoed a common theme: The lack of diversity is a problem for everyone in the industry...