Advisory industry in push to boost female ranks

The CFP Board is embarking on a new project to figure out why there are so few female financial advisers and, if possible, help boost their numbers. The group is assembling a panel of nine women to conduct research this summer into the challenges that female financial planners face, said Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis, managing director of public policy and communications for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. About 23% of the group's 67,000 CFPs are women. The Bureau of Labor Statistics last year estimated that female personal financial advisers made up 31.2% of the industry. “Essentially, it's been a flat line for more than a decade, and we think there should be more women,” Ms. Mohrman-Gillis said. “Our goal is to try to develop a plan for bringing more women into the practice of financial planning.” She expects that the women on the panel will bring their own stories of what they have experienced or witnessed about female advisers. Because the group is still forming, Ms. Mohrman-Gillis declined to name the individuals on the panel. The board wants to bring more attention to the issue and better understand any barriers or challenges that keep women out of the financial advisory business, she said. The first meeting of the CFP Board Women's Initiative is set for mid-May in Washington.