Advisors find rewards in pro bono work

Prisoners serving sentences aren't likely to have a financial advisor. That’s why John Boyd finds fulfillment in working with them on a pro bono basis.

Boyd, founder and lead wealth advisor at MDRN Wealth, teaches financial literacy to people incarcerated in Arizona. He helps them gain an understanding of personal finances, financial planning and business — skills that can help them get parole and build a life when they’re free.

“By teaching this course, we give them tools to be financially literate upon release so that there’s less chance they end up back in the system,” said Boyd, who holds a certified financial planner designation. “Serving a demographic no one would think twice to help out is really rewarding.”

The CFP Board of Standards Inc. is encouraging all CFPs to do what Boyd does — devote time to pro bono work. The organization announced Tuesday that it has approved a resolution recommending that CFP professionals commit a minimum of 20 hours annually to pro bono service. It also is pushing advisory firms to “make pro bono activities part of their workplace culture,” the CFP Board said in a statement.

That call resonates with Alvin Carlos, a CFP at District Capital Management. Carlos has participated three times in the Financial Planning Association’s Financial Planning Day. Those events involve CFPs offering their services for free to people who might not be able to afford an advisor.

“It’s nice to be able to help the regular people, the Main Street people, who may not be able to hire an advisor, who may be living paycheck to paycheck,” he said.

Carlos said CFPs who take part in Financial Planning Day embrace the chance to reach farther down on the financial spectrum.

“They are craving to give advice to people who don’t have $2 million,” he said. “Most advisors who go into this profession [do so] to help people.”

Most of Jamie Lima’s pro bono work, which he estimates is 80 to 100 hours a year, focuses on divorced women who need help getting back on their feet financially after their marriages collapse. It’s a way of giving back that is especially meaningful to Lima, whose mother had to handle the family’s finances after a divorce.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for people going through that,” said Lima, founder and president of Woodson Wealth Management. “There are people out there who need the help and don’t know where to turn.”

Lima, who also is establishing a firm that focuses on working with divorced women, backs the CFP Board’s push to get more CFPs to do more pro bono work.

“I’m surprised they haven’t done it already,” he said.

But one CFP had a bad pro bono experience.

“I have done pro bono work in the past where the clients were clearly desperate,” said Nicholas Bunio, an advisor at Retirement Wealth Advisors. “Desperate people can do desperate things. What if someone wanted to sue hoping to get money to bail them out of a bad situation?”

Bunio opposes setting a floor for pro bono work. “While it’s a nice idea, I don’t think we should be forced to pursue a certain amount of hours,” he said.

The CFP Board said that 76% of respondents to its 2021 CFP survey said it’s important for CFPs to offer pro bono help to people in need.

“CFP Board exists to advance the financial planning profession to benefit the public,” CFP Board Chair Daniel Moisand said in a statement. “Pro bono financial planning does just that — it can strengthen our profession and positively impact individuals and communities for years to come.”