CFP Board Launches Center for Financial Planning, TD Ameritrade Institutional is Lead Founding Sponsor

Center will focus on building a more diverse and sustainable financial planner workforce

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) today announced the creation of the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning with a Lead Founding Sponsor contribution from TD Ameritrade Institutional. The Center will deliver on CFP Board’s mission to benefit the public, with a focus on fostering a more diverse and sustainable financial planner workforce and establishing an academic home and body of knowledge for the profession, in order to meet Americans’ increasing need for competent and ethical financial advice.

“CFP Board sits at the crossroads of the financial planning profession. And CFP Board’s Center for Financial Planning will serve as the catalyst, unifying response to the major challenges facing the financial planning profession,” said CFP Board’s Chief Executive Officer Kevin R. Keller, CAE. “With the support of academic institutions, educators, researchers, firms and practitioners from all corners of the profession, the Center will build a financial planner workforce for the 21^st century.”

The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning will bring a variety of stakeholders to this broad collaboration, including the almost 73,000 CFP® professionals; over 230 colleges and universities that offer a CFP Board Registered Program; researchers from financial planning and numerous related disciplines; key individuals and organizations that focus on racial and gender equality; and large and small firms, representing each geographical region and business model within the profession.

The Center will conduct research, convene forums and support initiatives in three key areas:

• NextGen Pipeline: Attract and develop the next generation of financial planning professionals, providing them the knowledge and skills to competently and ethically serve the public.

• Diversity: Address the lack of gender and racial diversity within the financial planning profession to better mirror the diversity of the American public through a systematic approach that brings research to action to results for the broader profession.

• Academic Home: Build an academic home for the profession, bringing researchers from financial planning and related disciplines to conduct research that directly impacts practice, while providing opportunities for faculty to generate and publish new research that adds to the body of knowledge.

As the Lead Founding Sponsor of the Center, TD Ameritrade Institutional is making a five-year multi-million dollar commitment to support these important initiatives, continuing its longstanding commitment to workforce development.

“We believe that CFP Board’s Center for Financial Planning will serve as a catalyst for the industry to come together around the challenges of workforce development, diversity and building a body of knowledge for financial planning,” said Tom Nally, president of TD Ameritrade Institutional. “The work the Center does will be influential to the success, health and sustainability of the profession.”

According to recent research conducted by CFP Board, 40 percent of Americans now work with financial advisors, compared to 28 percent in 2010, reflecting the increasing demand for personal financial advice. At the same time, the financial planning workforce is aging and shrinking and does not currently represent the diverse population it serves. In addition, the profession faces a shortage of qualified faculty to teach the next generation of planners and conduct academic research that contributes to the financial planning body of knowledge. 

“The work of the Center cannot be done by one organization or firm. It will take the collective effort of financial services firms, academic institutions, educators and practitioners across the country to address these challenges facing the profession,” said Richard P. Rojeck, CFP® and chairman of CFP Board’s Board of Directors. “We invite all who share in our vision for the profession to join us with financial and thought leader contributions to create a diverse, highly qualified pipeline of future financial planners to serve the public.”

To learn more about the Center’s initiatives and how to support its efforts, visit the Center’s website at www.CenterforFinancialPlanning.org.

ABOUT TD Ameritrade Institutional

TD Ameritrade Institutional is a leading provider of comprehensive brokerage and custody services to more than 5,000 fee-based, independent registered investment advisors and their clients. Our advanced technology platform, coupled with personal support from our dedicated service teams, allows investment advisors to run their practices more efficiently and effectively while optimizing time with clients. TD Ameritrade Institutional is a division of TD Ameritrade, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC, a brokerage subsidiary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation.