CFP Board Center for Financial Planning Announces Expanded Partnership with Charles Schwab Foundation and Schwab Advisor Services

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning ("Center") today announced that Schwab Advisor Services and the Charles Schwab Foundation are expanding their support of the Center's work with a new four-year grant to help build a more diverse and sustainable financial planning profession.

The new pledge builds on past donations that helped launch the Center in 2015. It allows the Center to continue driving comprehensive growth and strategic diversification of the financial planning profession through research, education and thought leadership directed at students, certified advisors, financial services executives and consumers.

Specifically, the donation will create a scholarship fund over the next four years to support scholarships for CFP® certification candidates, including candidates from underrepresented groups. The donation will also provide support for the Center's annual Diversity Summit in October and funding for co-branded research on diversity in the financial planning profession.

"Schwab Advisor Services and the Charles Schwab Foundation have been tremendous partners of the Center, and this pledge demonstrates their lasting commitment to our mission," said CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller, CAE. "CFP Board is grateful for this generous support for research and scholarships in the interest of increasing diversity in the financial planning profession."

Past contributions from Schwab Advisor Services and the Charles Schwab Foundation to the Center have made possible wide-ranging research on racial diversity in financial planning as well as the Center's annual Diversity Summit, which features nationally renowned speakers, networking among CFP® certificants and candidates, and breakout sessions exploring how financial planning can attract and retain ethnically and racially diverse talent.

"Trust between advisors and clients is anchored in a clear alignment between an individual's needs and values and the relationship that they have with the advisor. So, it follows that championing diversity across the independent advice industry is critically important," said Bernie Clark, head of Schwab Advisor Services. "Investors are increasingly turning to independent advice, but they also want to be able to work with advisors that can understand their individual world view, and so we must continue to attract and develop advisors from all different backgrounds."

"With this new charitable pledge, Schwab Advisor Services and the Charles Schwab Foundation remain the single largest donor to the Center," said D.A. Abrams, Managing Director of the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning. "As the Center works to attract, onboard and train the next generation of financial planners who can competently and ethically serve the public, we are grateful for the generous support from Schwab Advisor Services and the Charles Schwab Foundation that helps make our vision possible."

To learn more and support the Center's initiatives, click here.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. is a professional body for personal financial planners in the U.S. CFP Board sets standards for financial planning and administers the prestigious CFP® certification – one of the most respected certifications in financial services – so that the public has access to and benefits from competent and ethical financial planning. CFP Board, along with its Center for Financial Planning, is committed to increasing the public's awareness of CFP® certification and access to a diverse, ethical and competent financial planning workforce. Widely recognized by firms as the standard for financial planning, CFP® certification is held by more than 92,000 people in the United States. 

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.  

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SOURCE Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.