CFP Board Launches New Women’s Initiative to Accelerate Growth and Leadership of Women CFP® Professionals

March 20, 2025 at 10:00 AM EDT

CFP Board today announced the launch of Accelerate & WIN, a comprehensive program designed to accelerate the growth, influence and leadership of women CFP^® professionals.

Women remain significantly underrepresented in the financial planning profession, making up only 24% of all CFP^® professionals. This disparity persists despite a growing need for more women in the field — both because consumers want diverse perspectives and because firms must attract and retain women to stay competitive.

While CFP Board has long focused on addressing this challenge and made progress, it has not been enough. To drive meaningful change faster, Accelerate & WIN is advancing a multiyear strategy grounded in research, thought leadership and strategic partnerships. Careers in financial planning align with what women seek in a profession: meaningful work, flexibility and strong growth potential. CFP Board’s approach will strengthen the entire talent pipeline, engaging college-bound high school students, college students, recent graduates and career changers to build a more diverse and competitive profession for the future.

“Women's moment in financial planning isn't coming — it's now,” said CFP Board Chair Liz Miller, CFP^®, CFA^®. “Accelerate & WIN won’t just open doors; it can reshape our profession.”

In 2025, key highlights of the program include two research initiatives: the Building Wealth: Insights on Women’s Aspirations & Growing Financial Power report (published in February) and a fall research report studying how financial services firms successfully attract and retain women financial planners, which will be released at the 2025 Connections Conference in Chicago (Oct. 6-8).

CFP Board will also host several women’s initiative webinars and a career-changers studio. The first webinar, “Serving Women Clients: Addressing Unique Financial Challenges,” will be held on April 16 and will explore insights from recent CFP Board research and strategies for addressing the specific needs of women clients at every stage, whether they’re building wealth, managing life changes or navigating retirement. A second webinar, “Women in Financial Planning,” will be held on October 25 and will feature interviews with successful women CFP^® professionals who will share their journeys into the industry, as well as key data points from recent CFP Board research. Held in the fall, the CFP^® Pro Career Studio will be a live, three-part virtual event for women that aims to deepen potential career changers’ understanding of what financial planners do, answer questions through guidance from career changers and help them take their first steps to making a career change.

Additionally, the invite-only Power Women Design Summit on May 20 in New York City will bring together CFP^® professionals, financial planning leaders and organizations that empower women and girls and other thought leaders to explore effective strategies for attracting women to the profession and keeping them on the path to CFP^® certification. Insights from the summit will inform CFP Board’s action plan. A second invite-only meeting in the fall will be announced soon.

“Accelerating the growth of women in financial planning is about giving consumers the choice they deserve,” said CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller, CAE. “It equips the profession to meet the evolving needs of today’s clients.”

Accelerate & WIN will be led by Lisa Davis, JD, Chief Program Officer and Jillien Meier, Managing Director, Program Development. Success will be measured by the growth of women CFP^® professionals, increased enrollment of women in financial planning degree programs, research demonstrating the business case for firms to increase numbers of women advisors, proven best practices and strategic partnerships that advance the profession.

For more information, visit Accelerate & WIN.

ABOUT CFP BOARD

CFP Board is the professional body for personal financial planners in the U.S. CFP Board consists of two affiliated organizations focused on advancing the financial planning profession for the public’s benefit. CFP Board of Standards sets and upholds standards for financial planning and administers the prestigious CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^® certification — widely recognized by the public, advisors and firms as the standard for financial planners — so that the public has access to the benefits of competent and ethical financial planning. CFP^® certification is held by more than 100,000 people in the U.S. CFP Board Center for Financial Planning addresses diversity and workforce development challenges and conducts and publishes research that adds to the financial planning profession's body of knowledge.