Amplified Planning, a Dallas-based financial planning education company behind the Externship, has just confirmed the largest class in attendance since the virtual training program began in 2020.
The firm said it enrolled 2,825 participants for the 2026 run of the program, making its seventh cohort 36% bigger than last year's. The course continues to draw an increasingly varied mix of college students, mid-career switchers and working professionals.
The latest figures arrive as advisory firms across the industry struggle to replace an aging workforce. They point to a recruiting problem that may have less to do with interest in the profession than with how firms decide who gets hired.
"The people who want to do this work are here," said Hannah Moore, founder of Amplified Planning. "They are showing up with extraordinary backgrounds, genuine passion and a commitment to this profession that is remarkable.
"The gap is not in the talent pipeline," Moore added. "The gap is in how firms think about who they're willing to hire and what counts as preparation."
The program, which lets participants observe real client meetings and train on the software advisors use daily, garnered more than 2,500 participants for its 2026 entrance survey, nearly 750 more than a year earlier, giving the company its largest read yet on people exploring the field.
Career changers, which made up 28% of this year's crop, ran the gamut in terms of their original fields. They came from technology, health care, education and the military, as well as journalism, marketing, government contracting, human resources, law enforcement, entrepreneurship and the arts.
Earlier Amplified Planning research with Schwab Advisor Services identified career changers as the largest share of participants, and the 2026 numbers suggest that trend is holding.
The student pipeline is also widening. Nearly 700 university students took part in the Externship's seventh run, up from approximately 530 in 2025, marking a new all-time high in participation from that younger crowd.
Roughly one-third of respondents (32.5%) said they already work in financial planning or related financial services. More than 600 alumni returned this year, most of them for at least a third time. The Externship has now trained more than 8,000 alumni, the company said.
This year the program also reached below college age. Working with Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, a national advocate for financial literacy, Amplified Planning ran a pilot for 30 high school students between the ages of 15 and 18.
"I hope they will see a place for themselves in this industry because financial services needs their talent, perspectives and ideas," Schwab-Pomerantz said.
Among 2026 respondents, 39.4% identified as non-white or multiracial, compared with 15% of new CFP professionals, according to the company, and nearly 42% of participants were women. That's compared to CFP Board demographic data showing women made up 23.8% of CFP professionals nationally as of year-end 2025.
Of the 2,825 who signed up, 2,113 finished the program, a completion rate of about 74.8%, up from 66.6% in earlier years. Some 81.8% of participants said the experience strengthened their commitment to a financial planning career.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of personal financial advisors will grow just 1% between 2025 and 2035, from about 299,400 jobs. Yet the agency expects roughly 17,100 openings each year, mostly to replace advisors who retire or leave the occupation.
The BLS put the median annual wage for personal financial advisors at $105,070 in May 2025. A recent CFP Board compensation study released over the summer found median total pay for CFP professionals reached $195,000 in 2025, a 15% increase and the third straight year that compensation growth outpaced inflation.
Tellingly, Externship participants hunting for first jobs often said employers were reluctant to give credit for skills they built outside traditional financial services. Looking at their job wish list beyond pay, career changers said they also wanted more remote roles and hiring processes that weigh their prior experience.
"The profession has an incredible opportunity," Moore said. "If we can give more people meaningful exposure to financial planning, help them develop the skills firms actually need and create better pathways from learning to employment, we can build a stronger and more representative profession for the future."
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