Financial Planning Profession Faces Talent Shortage

As demand for financial planners who offer holistic financial advice booms, planners who can fulfill that demand are in short supply — and that problem is just getting worse as the potential client base grows. By 2034, wealth management firms could be about 100,000 financial advisors short of the number needed to fulfill customer demand, a recent study by McKinsey & Co. found.

Retirement and retainment are two headwinds that are exacerbating the supply of advisors to meet demand. Over the next decade, 105,887 advisors plan to retire, according to a report by research firm Cerulli Associates, and of those advisors, 26% were unsure of their succession plans. Retaining those new to the financial advice ecosystem is a major challenge: Another Cerulli report found that the rookie failure rate hovers around 72%.

Firms looking to bolster their teams can benefit from financial advisors who hold, or are pursuing, CFP® certification. Meeting the requirements to earn CFP® certification equip financial advisors with the skills needed to provide holistic financial advice. Furthermore, CFP® professionals report high career satisfaction, according to CFP Board research. Their commitment to the profession is strong: In fact, 89% of CFP® professionals plan to stay with their current company for the next two years, and of those considering leaving, 67% intend to remain in the financial planning profession.

To fill the need for planners who offer holistic financial advice, CFP Board partners with firms to help increase the number of CFP® professionals in the financial planning profession. CFP Board’s Corporate Growth department works with firms of all sizes to boost the number of CFP® professionals, enhance diversity recruiting and build collaborative opportunities with the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning.

“Our team strives to be a resource for firms as they navigate recruiting and retainment challenges,” said Kathryn Berkenpas, CFP®, CFP Board’s Managing Director of Corporate Growth. “Through research, growth campaigns, career events, scholarships and other opportunities for collaboration, our team works together with firms to attract talent and grow the number of CFP® professionals to help meet the need for advisors who offer holistic financial advice.”

The Corporate Growth team can help connect firms with the numerous opportunities CFP Board offers to assist firms with talent acquisition. Among the opportunities firms may find helpful: 

• CFP Board Career Center: Ninety percent of job seekers engaged with the CFP Board Career Center are CFP® professionals or working toward certification. Job posting packages offer a variety of options to reach job candidates at all different levels of experience. Posting packages start at $490 for 30 days.
• CFP Board Career Fair: This virtual event helps connect top employers with highly qualified job candidates, with the Spring 2025 Virtual Career Fair recently held in April. The two career fairs in 2024 attracted more than 650 attendees. Employers who exhibit at the Career Fair can interact with job seekers, conduct video meetings, and post jobs and receive applications. Find out more about employer pricing for the Career Fair here.
• Scholarships: Partnering with CFP Board to establish a named scholarship helps advance the sustainability and diversity of the financial planning profession. Funders can create a name and description for the named scholarship that will be used in marketing materials, including the scholarship’s webpage and promotions to applicants.
• CFP® Pro Career Studio: This live, three-part virtual event explores the intricacies of the financial planning profession and is geared to career changers. Partnering with CFP Board for this event provides access to a crop of mid-career employees.
• CFP Board Connections Conference 2025: The second annual Connections Conference, which will be held October 6-8 in Chicago, will convene stakeholders from across the financial advice ecosystem. Over three days, the conference will provide a platform for networking, collaboration and knowledge sharing, and it offers many opportunities for firms to participate.

Our Team Is a Resource

Beyond talent acquisition opportunities, CFP Board’s Corporate Growth team offers many avenues of support for firms and helps facilitate collaboration between CFP Board and firms.

The team offers consumer and advisor research based on aggregated data that highlights the positive impact of CFP® certification. Some of CFP Board’s recent research focuses on next-gen talent and CFP® professional compensation.

Other publications can help both those who are new to the profession and those who are currently serving clients. For example, “Financial Planning Career Paths: Building More Sustainable and Successful Businesses” examines five rungs of the financial planner career ladder based on input from 30 firms, while “The Psychology of Financial Planning: Practitioner Resource Guide” helps advisors to better understand the financial decision-making process and to strengthen advisor-client relationships.

The Corporate Growth team can also help firms and their advisors stay current on industry trends and topics. The team regularly provides presentations in person or virtually to firms of all sizes. Common topics include the value of holistic financial advice and the value of certification to next-gen advisors. Some presentations qualify for continuing education credits: CFP Board presentations on the psychology of financial planning and on ethics are CE eligible. Firms can partner with CFP Board to become a Continuing Education Sponsor themselves.

These are just a few of the many ways in which CFP Board’s Corporate Growth team can help firms increase the number of CFP® professionals on staff. In turn, the knowledge and expertise that CFP® professionals bring can help meet the public’s demand for holistic financial advice. Firms can contact the Corporate Growth team at CFP Board.