Big Firms Boost Their CFP Numbers
Edward Jones, Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Northwestern Mutual led the way with new certified financial planners.
Four firms added 200 certified financial planners or more in 2023, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards announced Thursday.
Some 6,089 new CFP marks were earned in the United States in 2023, the Board reported in January.
The strong growth in CFP representation at big firms was led by Edward Jones, which became the first firm to register 1,000 new CFPs in a year. This was a 62% increase over the firm’s 2022 registration results.
Fidelity Investments added some 313 new CFPs, a 30% year-over-year increase, while Charles Schwab’s count of CFPs grew by 308, which is a 111% increase. Next in line was Northwestern Mutual with 258 new CFPs, a 44% year-over-year increase.
In a statement about the strong registration results for 2023, CFP Board CEO Kevin Keller cited American consumers’ trust in the CFP certification as an important factor, and he celebrated the fact that the 2023 class of CFP professionals was the most diverse in the organization’s history.
The cohort trended younger, with 56% of new CFP certificants younger than 35, and the number of new female CFP professionals grew by 11.5% from 2022. There were 12.6% more racially and ethnically diverse CFPs in the group than in the 2022 cohort.
Overall, more than 10,000 U.S. firms employ CFP professionals.
“American consumers trust CFP certification as the mark of quality financial advice,” Keller said. “As firms look to meet this demand and deliver more value to their clients, they are increasingly turning to CFP professionals.”
A separate report and infographic issued Thursday by the Financial Planning Standards Board shows the ranks of CFP professionals worldwide grew by 5.1% during 2023. The FPSB and its global network of organizations increased the number of global CFP professionals by 10,768 during the year to an all-time high of 223,770.
Growth in certified professionals was particularly strong in China, the United States, Japan and Brazil, with CFP or CFP-equivalent mark-holders now represented in more than two dozen countries.
Pictured: Kevin Keller