CFP Board, RIA Team Up to Offer Scholarship

The scholarship is intended to encourage students from underrepresented populations to enter the profession.

By Rethinking65

Have an employee working toward their CFP license? They might qualify for a new scholarship aimed at creating diversity in the profession.

The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning and Abacus Wealth Partners, a registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Santa Monica, Calif., with approximately $3 billion in assets under management, launched the scholarship, The Abacus Wealth Partners Scholarship for Increased Diversity in Financial Planning.

The program will provide up to four awards a year of up to $5,000 each. Students must be pursuing CFP certification and identify as Asian, Black or African American, Hawaiian Native or Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaskan Native, or two or more of these ethnicities.

“We are pleased to be partnering with the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning to offer this scholarship in an effort to further improve the industry’s talent pipeline and to create a profession that includes a truly diverse range of perspectives, lived experiences and backgrounds,” said Abacus Co-CEO Mary Beth Storjohann in a statement.

The scholarship is open to people who are taking a certificate-level program in financial planning, whether they are employees at advisory firms or students enrolled in a full-time undergraduate financial planning programs, said Eddy Demirovic, director of talent pipeline for the CFP Center for Financial Planning.

The scholarship is intended to encourage students from underrepresented populations to enter the profession and address diversity and workforce development challenges in the financial planning industry.

The deadline to apply for a scholarship award is April 2, 2023. Interested students can find more information about the Abacus Wealth Partners Scholarship for Increased Diversity in Financial Planning and the application process on CFP Board’s website at CFP.net/Scholarships.

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