FINANCIAL
PLANNER
RE-ENTRY
INITIATIVE:
CAREER PATH FOR
PROFESSIONAL
WOMEN INTO
FINANCIAL
PLANNING
2
Th
e CFP Board Center for Financial Planning would like to thank the firms that participated in the
Center’s initial FPRI pilot in 2017-2018: Edelman Financial Engines and United Capital, both of
which are sponsored by TD Ameritrade Institutional; Luma Wealth and Yeske Buie, sponsored by
Schwab Advisor Services through the Schwab Foundation; and Fidelity Investments.
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CONTENTS
4 INTRODUCTION
5 FORWARD
6 NEEDS STATEMENT
7 FPRI MODEL AND KEY COMPONENTS
8 About the FPRI Pilot Cohort
9 FINDINGS FROM THE FPRI PILOT
9 Experienced Professionals within the Financial Planning Profession
10 Profiles of FPRI Talent
12 Re-Entry Intern Educational Backgrounds and Previous Fields of Work
12 The Value of Re-Entry Internship Programs
21 ADDENDUM
21 About CFP Board
21 About the Center for Financial Planning
21 The Center’s Vision and Mission
22 About iRelaunch
23 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
4
INTRODUCTION
Launched in the spring of 2017, the Financial Planner Re-Entry Initiative (FPRI)
is an innovative program of the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning
(Center) conducted in partnership with nationally recognized career re-entry
consultant iRelaunch. The FPRI supports financial services firms in establishing
re-entry programs for experienced professionals seeking to return to the
workforce in financial planning positions. These professionals are mostly
women who have taken a career break, generally to raise their families. The
FPRI enables firms to tap into a high-caliber, female talent pool of mid- to
senior-level professionals.
The FPRI is modeled after programs that have proven successful in attracting
more experienced, educated and qualified talent to address today’s hiring
demands for firms in other areas of financial services, as well as in the
engineering and technology sectors.
THE FPRI MISSION IS TO:
• Increase the pipeline of female financial planner talent by
including women who are returning from a career break.
• Create structural change in the financial planning profession by
introducing the re-entry internship as a vehicle for attracting mid-
level professional women into financial planning careers.
The initial pilot involved five firms: Edelman Financial Engines and United
Capital, sponsored by TD Ameritrade Institutional; Luma Wealth and Yeske
Buie, sponsored by Schwab Advisor Services through the Schwab Foundation;
and Fidelity Investments. Pilot firms established paid return-to-work re-
entry internships through FPRI that provided a pathway to employment for
participating professionals.
This white paper details the value of this innovative re-entry initiative as well as
the initial outcomes from the FPRI participation. To date, a total of 11 internships
have concluded, with 10 interns converted to full-time positions, resulting in
a strong 91 percent conversion rate. Based up on our initial results, we are
issuing a call to action for more firms to join the movement. We invite firms to
establish re-entry internship programs for experienced professionals seeking to
return to the workforce as a pathway into the financial planning profession and
CFP® certification.
The Center is grateful for the partnership of Carol Fishman Cohen, Chair of
iRelaunch, and the iRelaunch team, for their significant expertise in the area of
professional re-entry internships. The Center also recognizes the contributions
to this pilot program of Eleanor Blayney, former Special Advisor on Gender
Diversity to the Center, and Dee Dee Mendez, Workforce Development Subject
Matter Expert to the Center, who worked with the iRelaunch team to present
the 12-month webinar series and support the FPRI pilot firms.
The Center also recognizes Dee Dee Mendez for authoring this white paper
based on input, gathered through interviews and surveys, from program
managers, direct managers and re-entry interns. The Center is particularly
grateful for contributions from Jigi Dahagam, Allison Boyd, Kompay Om and
Leslie Painter of Edelman Financial Engines; Lauren Mireles, Yusuf Abugideiri,
CFP®, and Karen Simons of Yeske Buie; and Rachel Book, Ryan Schoendorf, Liz
Morgan, Colleen Peterson and Tina MacMillan of Fidelity Investments.
.
Marilyn Mohrman-Gillis
Executive Director,
CFP Board Center for
Financial Planning
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FORWARD
In 2017, iRelaunch and the Center entered into a partnership to create the
FPRI, the first re-entry internship program within the personal financial
planning profession.
Re-Entry internships are an eective workforce development strategy
for reintegrating professionals — mostly women who have taken a career
break to raise families — back into the workforce. The concept has been
successfully implemented within financial services firms in sectors other
than financial advice and financial planning; in the engineering, technology
and legal sectors; and we are beginning to see programs in healthcare,
consumer products and advertising, among others. The FPRI seeks to apply
this workforce development strategy to increase the number of women in
personal financial planning careers.
Re-Entry internship programs create a formal pathway to employment for
returning professionals. They give the employer the opportunity to connect
with high-caliber returning professionals at a moment when their childcare,
eldercare or other career break responsibilities are reduced or over, and the
candidate is ready to fully re-engage in the workforce. Re-Entry internship
programs enable employers to increase the number of mid- to senior-level
women in their ranks.
In the same way that entry-level university internship programs provide a
“testing out” period to evaluate a potential employee, mid-career internships
lower any perceived risk of hiring returning professionals and provide the
opportunity to evaluate potential employees based on a meaningful work
sample. There is no obligation to hire the re-entry intern at the end of the
work period. For employers interested in the pool of talent returning from
career breaks, but cautious in their approach to hiring them, the short-term,
non-binding nature of the re-entry internship is an eective vehicle for
engagement and evaluation.
We at iRelaunch have worked successfully with major Wall Street firms, top
engineering and technology companies, and companies in a range of other
sectors to guide them in piloting, implementing and expanding re-entry
internship programs. The impressive and consistent conversion rates of
re-entry interns to full-time employees achieved by these programs is why
they are proliferating, and gives us confidence for continued similar results
through the FPRI. We are not surprised, as the typical re-entry candidate is
educated, has great work experience, a mature perspective, and an energy
and enthusiasm about being back in the workforce – all excellent qualities for
a prospective employee.
iRelaunch was pleased to partner with the Center for Financial Planning in
the inaugural year of the FPRI and looks forward to focusing on our dual
goals of increased scale and impact.
Carol Fishman Cohen
Chair and Co-Founder,
iRelaunch
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NEEDS STATEMENT:
TO CHANGE THE MAKEUP
OF THE FINANCIAL
PLANNING WORKFORCE
TO INCLUDE MORE WOMEN
The percentage of women who are CFP® professionals has remained at a low 23 percent for more than
a decade. To address this problem, CFP Board launched its Women’s Initiative (WIN) to research the
causes of this gender gap in the financial planning profession and to develop solutions to address it.
The FPRI initiative addresses the now widely
recognized need for more women in the
profession.
• Over the next decade, the need for
financial advice is expected to grow
significantly. Women in particular
are gaining more economic power
and seeking financial advice.
• To meet this growing demand, the
financial planning profession must attract
more women, more people of color
and more young people to serve the
increasingly diverse client of the future.
• Research findings show that firms
with a significant percentage of
female leaders outperform firms
with low numbers of women.
• Having diversity on teams results in
more creativity and innovation.
According to women CFP® professionals and
students in financial planning programs, a
financial planning career oers:
• Satisfaction of making a
dierence in people’s lives
• Earning potential comparable to
other distinguished professions
• Opportunity for creative problem solving:
the work is never boring or routine
• Work-life balance
• Knowledge and skills that are
relevant to their own lives
• Professional arena that fosters characteristic
skills and strengths of women
• Emphasis on ethical responsibility
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FPRI MODEL AND
KEY COMPONENTS
The FPRI is modeled after a similar pilot program in the field of engineering and technology. iRelaunch
originated and co-leads the STEM Re-Entry Task Force with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE),
in which global engineering-based companies, including some of the world’s largest, are piloting re-
entry internship programs. Task Force firms include IBM, GM, United Technologies, Northrop Grumman,
Cummins, Ford, Raytheon, Boeing, Dell, Caterpillar and Johnson & Johnson. The STEM Re-Entry Task
Force will complete its third cohort in 2018 and has involved a total of 20 companies since 2016. Over
the course of the program, participating firms have oered well over 300 internships with a weighted
average conversion rate from internship to full-time positions in 2016 and 2017 of 87%. A STEM Re-
Entry Task Force landing page on the website of SWE provides the hub for Task Force companies to
actively promote re-entry internships and is the go-to site for re-entry internships in engineering and
technology.
KEY COMPONENTS OF THE
FPRI PILOT INCLUDED:
1) Webinar Series Featuring Career
Re-Entry Best Practices
A series of 12 webinars/collaboration
sessions provided FPRI pilot firms with
access to best practices from iRelaunch
in determining all program parameters,
and recruiting, onboarding, training,
managing and supporting professional
re-entry interns. Pilot firms have access to
examples of landing pages, job descriptions,
training strategies, and much more, in
addition to a cohort of peer Program
Managers who are all developing their re-
entry programs in the same time frame.
2) CFP® Certification as Onboarding Method
Participating firms agreed to promote
CFP® certification as the preferred
training and professional development
method for those they convert to full-
time positions within the firm.
Hearing everyone else’s experiences
was valuable. We were seeing other
people in the same boat and sharing
experiences struggling to find talent.
It was good to hear the Center and
iRelaunch expertise and ideas about
LinkedIn and other sources. It helped us
to feel confident in our knowledge.
Lauren Mireles
Organization and Methods Manager
Yeske Buie
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3) One-On-One Consulting and
In-Person Meeting
Firms received one-on-one consulting
related to firm-specific questions, as
needed, to troubleshoot and get advice
at pivotal points in the development of
their pilot. Pilot firms also participated
in one in-person meeting that built
peer program manager and leadership
relationships across pilot firms.
4) Marketing and Sourcing Support
Pilot firms received marketing and sourcing
support from CFP Board, the Center, and
iRelaunch. Internships were posted on
the FPRI landing page on the CFP Board
Career Center. The CFP Board marketing
and communications teams developed
and implemented marketing plans utilizing
CFP Board’s access to over 82,000 CFP®
professionals and almost 200 colleges
and universities. iRelaunch supported
marketing eorts with communications to
its network of over 60,000 re-launchers.
5) Collaboration
Pilot firms benefited from the close
collaboration between and among the
Center, iRelaunch and each participating firm.
Firm project managers shared experiences
and learnings as their re-entry internship
programs were launched and implemented.
Pilot firms were kept on track to deliver
pilots within the same overall timeframe.
6) Shared Project Site
Webinar content and cohort progress was
posted on a proprietary shared project site
including the materials from each monthly
webinar, program landing pages, videos,
job descriptions, relevant articles and any
other resources that were discussed at
monthly meetings or in between meetings.
Being able to hear what other firms
were doing and the challenges
others were facing was valuable.
Jigi Dagasham
Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition
Edelman Financial Services
7) Thought Leadership
Pilot firms were promoted by the
Center, highlighted in press articles
and recognized in industry meetings
for their participation in this innovating
workforce development initiative.
ABOUT THE FPRI
PILOT COHORT
Four FPRI pilot firms collectively created 15
re-entry internship positions, 12 of which were
filled. By October 2018, 11 re-entry internships
had concluded. Of the 11 internships that were
concluded, 10 interns converted to full-time
employment positions, resulting in a strong 91
percent conversion rate. It is worth noting here
that the one re-entry intern who did not convert
realized she was not ready to return to the
workforce full-time. The re-entry intern remains
in contact with the firm and will be considered
for future opportunities.
Also of note, one pilot firm suspended their
program due to a tight labor market in a
particular geography. Another pilot firm created
re-entry internship positions but decided not
to proceed with filling the positions, because it
lacked bandwidth and resources to support the
program.
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FINDINGS FROM
THE FPRI PILOT
The talent pool of mid-to senior-level re-entry interns brings a level of experience to the financial
planning profession that entry-level or campus pools of talent do not. A re-entry intern brings to the job
valuable professional experiences from their previous careers. They also bring a range of personal life
experiences that naturally come with age and maturity. These experiences bring a set of skills and a level
of maturity that can be very helpful in building trust and relationships with clients. With the support they
receive within their programs, re-entry interns can ramp up in four to six months. This provides firms
with a low-risk mechanism for evaluating potential employees based on meaningful samples of their
work prior to making a decision whether to convert the intern into a full-time employee.
EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS
WITHIN THE FINANCIAL
PLANNING PROFESSION
Among the FPRI’s pilot firms, re-entry interns’
years of professional work experience prior to
their career breaks ranged from seven to 27
years. The length of their career breaks also
varied, from two years to more than 20 years.
These women took career breaks to raise
children, care for ailing family members and
manage their estates and, in some cases, ran
their own businesses at the same time. Some
did significant volunteer work while on career
break. When they were ready to come back to
work, they brought with them the skills they had
developed before their break as well as those
they learned from their personal life experiences
during their time away from the workforce.
According to Rachel Book, Director of Diversity
Recruiting for Fidelity Investments who
spearheaded the implementation of Fidelity’s
Resume Program, “Each of our Resumers has
their own unique reason and motivation for
returning to work – they are all excited about
the opportunity and extremely motivated to
reactivate their skills and experience. Most of our
Resumers had extensive volunteer community
involvement during their career breaks and are
eager to continue their commitment of service
with Fidelity’s customers.”
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10
PROFILES OF FPRI TALENT
Colleen Peterson, Fidelity Investments
A mother of three, Colleen Peterson had previous experience as a financial advisor
and in retail banking. She has also run her own business and had to get back to
studying and preparing for exams as a Fidelity Resumer. “I am still in the infant
stage of my actual job but I feel like my listening skills and ability to relate to our
clients is what I do best. I have worked in the financial industry before, so I know
the importance of what we provide, but it is my experience as a mother of three
that helps me truly understand why saving for college is so important. I’ve run my
own business and know that sometimes there aren’t enough hours in the day to
keep track of everything and your own personal finances sometimes come last.
It has been a long time since I needed to study, so I am proud that I was able to
take and pass all of my exams. In fact, I got better scores on every exam this time
around. It also felt good that in the few client interactions that I’ve had, I’ve already
had people that have requested to just work with me.” At the conclusion of her
six-month program at Fidelity, Colleen converted to a full-time Associate Financial
Consultant in 2018.
Karen Simons, Yeske Buie
Karen Simons started with Yeske Buie, a registered investment advisory firm with
oces in Northern Virginia and San Francisco, in February 2018 as a Financial
Planning Intern. She was oered the full-time position of Apprentice Financial
Planner in July 2018. Having previously worked in operations, Simons was strategic
by nature and is good at reading clients. “When I talk to clients, I tell them I am
a re-intern. My background matters when I can oer my lens of long-term care.
I can relate personally with kids in college and military families. My son is going
into the military and my father was in the military.” The skills Simons uses most
are her perception, problem-solving and analytical skills. She also brings a unique
perspective to her job given her engineering background and project management
and business experience, as well as her MBA. Her broad professional and personal
experiences are appreciated by the client. Simons’ colleague at Yeske Buie, Yusuf
Abugideiri, CFP®, Senior Financial Planner, says that clients enjoy and can relate
to her. “Karen has put her kids through college as have the clients. My son is eight
months old and Karen adds another perspective in client meetings, making the
experience much more rich.” In the fall of 2018, Simons started the educational
requirements for the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification.
Kompay Om, Edelman Financial Services
Kompay Om, mother of three, joined Edelman Financial Engines as the Client
Services ReLaunch Intern in October 2017 and transitioned to a full-time, permanent
position with the firm in December 2017. “I was out for a little over six years, but
I always knew that I wanted to come back because I enjoyed working, especially
in client services. When my youngest child reached school age, I knew it was time
to return.” Om previously worked for an investment consulting company for four
and a half years. “I was working in Client Services there as well, so there are a lot of
similarities to what I did before and what I’m doing now. There’s a lot of paperwork
that requires accuracy and attention to detail, which is something I’ve brought to
this experience from my previous role.”
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MID- TO SENIOR-LEVEL TALENT READY
TO RE-ENTER THE WORKFORCE
Professional women who have taken a career
break and are ready to re-enter the workforce
are a relatively untapped gem of the workforce
talent pool. As a group, re-entry interns are
highly motivated and oer a more mature
perspective. Fidelity Investments has seen “many
situations where Resumers were able to relate
to the needs of our customers on a higher level
because of their professional maturity and life
experience,” according to Book. “We also benefit
from the fresh perspective that our Resumers
oer after having been away from the world of
work for a while.”
Re-Entry interns’ energy and enthusiasm about
returning to work were high at all of the pilot
firms. Edelman Financial Engines’ Director of
Client Services, Allison Boyd, reported that her
re-entry intern shined as early as the interview
process. “She was anxious to get back into
the work pool, was motivated to get back
into the work force full-time, even though she
didn’t have the exact skills set,” Boyd said. “Her
overall attitude and emotional intelligence and
willingness to learn stood out.”
Ryan Schoendorf, Assistant Branch Manager at
Cary Investor Center for Fidelity Investments,
describes the motivation level of the re-entry
talent pool as excited and cautious. “While
speaking with candidates, I saw that they are
excited at the opportunity to get back to their
prior careers, but cautious to confirm that the
support and flexibility were there to ensure a
fruitful transition. Our industry is highly regulated,
which requires training and licensing in order to
meet the requirements of the role. The support
Fidelity oers on training, development and
flexibility to assimilate into the workforce, eased
that hesitation to re-enter into the environment,
and created enthusiasm to join the firm.”
The maturity level of the mid- to senior-level
talent pool cannot be taught and reading
books cannot replace experience. Unlike
young professionals fresh out of college, Yeske
Buie’s re-entry intern was described as “highly
motivated” and as a “pro’s pro” by Abugideiri. “In
the way Karen shows up, it shows she’s worked in
high-profile jobs. Her work is easy to understand
and she is very thoughtful in her questions. She’s
been able to bring her professional experience
and hit the ground adding value, even as a
person in transition.”
Fidelity Investments’ Assistant Branch Manager
in the Dallas Investor Center, Liz Morgan,
described her Resumer as being extremely
motivated. “She has already completed all of her
licensing and is now working with clients. She has
a true passion for helping people which is why
she has acclimated to our culture so quickly.”
Our industry is highly regulated, which
requires training and licensing in order
to meet the requirements of the role.
The support Fidelity oers on training,
development and flexibility to assimilate
into the workforce, eased that cautious
feeling to re-enter into the environment,
and created enthusiasm to join the firm.
Ryan Schoendorf
Assistant Branch Manager, Cary
Investor Center, Fidelity Investments
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RE-ENTRY INTERN EDUCATIONAL
AND PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUNDS
FIELDS OF STUDY
• Finance
• Paralegal Studies
• Marketing
• Business
• Management
• Mechanical Engineering
• Organization Development &
Knowledge Management
PRIOR WORK EXPERIENCE
• Financial Services
• Investment Consultant
• Tax Professional
• Tax Specialist
• Product Development
• Client Service Representative
• Advisory Services
• Marketing Analyst
• Small Business Owner
• IT Analyst
• Management Consulting
• Engineering
• Operations
• Project Management
THE VALUE OF RE-ENTRY INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS
iRelaunch has identified many benefits to the employer and to re-entry interns in corporate re-entry
internship programs:
BENEFITS TO EMPLOYERS BENEFITS TO RE-ENTRY INTERNS
• Low-risk mechanism for assessing
potential employee
• Evaluate intern based on meaningful work sample
• No obligation to hire at end of work period
• Broadens candidate pipeline to
include returning professionals
• Opportunity to produce a legitimate work sample
• Opportunity to gain resumé-worthy experience
• Evaluate fit of the work environment
• Get a “foot in the door” at a firm
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FPRI pilot firms and their re-entry interns
reported experiencing similar benefits. Program
managers valued the attributes brought to
the workplace by returning professionals and
re-entry interns appreciated the opportunity
to return to the workforce with support and,
in many cases, flexibility. The FPRI pilot firm
employers also benefited from implementing an
initiative addressing their gender diversity goals.
As a manager, Allison Boyd expressed that
her re-entry intern, Kompay Om, was the right
culture fit for Edelman Financial Engines.
Edelman’s goal was to bring more women into
the workforce, so they were willing to explore
this underused talent pool. “Kompay was my
first experience interviewing anyone who had
been out of the workforce for a while,” Boyd said.
“Technology has changed so much and the way
we do things; what stands out is her willingness
to roll up her sleeves and to figure things out. She
could handle learning and has the right outlook.
It could not have been a better experience
working with Kompay. She was thrilled when she
was oered the full-time position.”
Here’s what Om had to say about participating
in the pilot FPRI program: “I’d like to say thank
you to Edelman Financial, the CFP Board and
iRelaunch for this opportunity! I really appreciate
it. I hope the firm and other organizations
continue to expand this program and bring
on even more interns because there are a lot
of really smart, talented people out there who
simply decided to take a break and shouldn’t be
penalized for that. We’re experienced, dedicated
and eager. All we need is an opportunity, like this
one, to get our foot back in the door.”
Another re-entry intern, Tina MacMillan, had
not worked in the financial services industry for
over 21 years. She was motivated to learn more
about Fidelity Investments’ Resume program
because of the flexibility the role provided.
“The culmination of not only the opportunity of
coming back as a financial adviser (and having
the time to re-license within the program), but
being able to have the work-life integration for
my family that I so desperately need was a huge
win.”
One participating pilot firm did not plan to
convert a re-entry intern into a direct hire
position. Yeske Buie’s goal was to bring someone
back into the workforce after a career break,
train them in a six-month internship, provide
them with some work experience in the financial
planning profession, and then help them join
another firm or even start a firm of their own.
Yet something changed about half-way through
the internship when Karen Simons, Yeske Buie’s
Financial Planning Intern, started a conversation
with Lauren Mireles, Organization and Methods
Manager, about what might be next for her. “We
didn’t want to let her go. She’s too good,” said
Mireles about a realization she had afterwards
with Elissa Buie, CFP®, Yeske Buie’s CEO. They
discussed what Simons wanted to do in terms of
the rest of her career and the hours she wanted
to work. “It just worked out to convert her and
we created a whole new position for her.” In fact,
they created a whole new layer in the Yeske Buie
career path: Apprentice Financial Planner, which
is between a Financial Planning Intern and an
Assistant Financial Planner.
Bringing Simons in as a re-entry intern gave the
Yeske Buie team the opportunity to assess and
evaluate her work product and to observe her
client interactions. Simons’ strong on-the-job
performance prompted Yeske Buie to switch
from trainer to employer. “There’s a lot you can
train and there is a lot you can’t. Innate skills can’t
be taught,” explained Mireles.
Open to men and women, Fidelity Investment’s
Resume internships are aligned with their gender
diversity initiatives and benefit them as an
employer, in addition to benefitting the re-entry
interns and their clients. Book explains: “As a
customer-obsessed company, our workforce
and the solutions and experiences we oer
must reflect an understanding of that diversity.
At Fidelity, we are making changes to how we
recruit so that the power of our dierences
reaches every part of our business. Our Resume
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internship oers a unique opportunity for people
to accelerate their career path despite time away
from the workforce. Fidelity is one of the only
companies oering a program of this kind that
provides a path towards licensing in the financial
advisor space. Only five percent of companies
in the U.S. have a woman leading the company.
Fidelity is part of that five percent. Fidelity
strongly believes that women are a critical part
of the future of financial services. We want more
women to consider our industry and Fidelity,
and we will continue to do everything we can to
ensure that they have a work environment that
will allow them to build successful and rewarding
careers. In addition, diversity is essential because
today’s consumers, suppliers and businesses
represent diverse backgrounds, experiences
and values and our workforce must reflect an
understanding of that diversity.”
INITIAL OUTCOMES FROM FPRI
PILOT PARTICIPATION
The FPRI pilot firms are beginning to measure
the outcomes of engaging the mid- to senior-
level talent pool of women who are returning to
the workforce after a career break. The firms and
their clients have been impressed by the caliber
and enthusiasm of the candidates. The steps
these firms have taken to increase the pipeline of
female financial planners are critical to address
the lack of gender diversity within the financial
planning profession.
While the sample is small, the program’s initial
conversion rate is impressive. By October 2018,
11 of the 15 re-entry internships created through
the FPRI concluded. Of those, 10 internships
converted to full-time employment positions.
(The eleventh intern was oered a position; they
were not ready to return to work but remain in
contact with the firm.) The Center will continue
to track progress of the re-entry professionals
converted to full-time employment positions on
their pursuit of CFP® certification and retention.
Fidelity Investments had the largest number of
re-entry interns in the FPRI pilot and, in many
cases, worked with them the longest. According
to Book, feedback from the clients about
working with their Resumers has been extremely
positive. “Anecdotally, clients have appreciated
the fact that the person has deep financial
knowledge and shared life experiences.”
Colleen is a wonderful listener, which
is why clients enjoy working with her
so much. Just the other day we talked
about how to position colleagues when
necessary because clients wanted
to work exclusively with her. We are
so happy to have her in Dallas!
Liz Morgan
Assistant Branch Manager
Fidelity Investments
Schoendorf adds that, “Our clients have had
interactions with our Resumer, and could not
have more positive praise on how it went. Our
Resumer has a lot of prior experience in the
financial industry as well as other industries.
That experience and knowledge culminates
into great relationships with our clients, as both
experiences bring a lot of value to our customers,
especially in our area. She is positive, upbeat and
always puts our clients first in every interaction.
The firm, our clients, and our oce could not be
happier having her as a part of the team.”
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After taking a break of over 20 years
from the professional world, I was ready
to re-enter the workforce, but just wasn’t
sure how to re-engage or what area to
focus on. The FPRI program enabled me
to start a new career in financial planning,
leveraging my prior work experience and
my MBA in finance and strategic planning.
Karen Simons
Financial Planning Re-Entry
Intern, converted to Apprentice
Financial Planner, Yeske Buie
[My interviewer was] really interested
in all my experiences, even those that
on the surface may not have seemed
relevant to this particular position. I know
how important personal relationships
are to creating loyalty. That is what
I look forward to most in this job, is
creating those lasting relationships.
Colleen Peterson
Resumer, converted to Associate
Financial Consultant, Fidelity Investments
The Relaunch Your Career Internship
at Edelman Financial Services gave me
time to reacclimate myself with the
working environment and ease back
into the working mindset, which set
me up for success in my current job.
Kompay Om
Client Services Re-Entry Intern,
converted to Client Service Administrative
Assistant, Edelman Financial Engines
The skills I most utilize in my job are
time management, discipline, and my
own personal financial background and
empathy for clients’ personal situations
which drives me to want to help them. I
hope to align with clients here in the area
though my active family life out in the
community through my children’s activities.
Tina MacMillan
Resumer, converted to Associate Financial
Consultant, Fidelity Investments
Across firms, the re-entry interns were grateful
for the opportunity and support from their firms.
15
16
BEST PRACTICES FOR MANAGING
A RE-ENTRY PROGRAM
Cross-firm collaboration, access to subject-
matter expertise in career re-entry programming,
sourcing boosts from tapping the Center and
iRelaunch networks, and a model in which
each firm sets up its own unique program are
at the core of the success of the FPRI model.
The internal approaches FPRI pilot firms took
when implementing their re-entry internships
also played a large part in the success of their
programs. These included best practices for
managing a re-entry program.
entry internship program. The program
managers worked with the firm and hiring
managers to identify the number and
location of the interns and supported the
line managers in each step of the process.
They worked with their leadership teams
and direct managers to leverage existing
job descriptions and onboarding programs
and adapt them for re-entry interns, with
input from the Center and iRelaunch. The
program managers either screened and
interviewed re-entry intern candidates or
oversaw this work by line managers. In most
cases, the firms launched initial re-entry
internships in the geographic location of
the program manager so that the program
manager could develop the program locally
before expanding it to other locations.
Willingness to Experiment
The pipeline of talent into the profession
is deficient and there is a need to tap
into multiple talent pools, including re-
entry interns, to meet the future needs
of financial planning. The FPRI pilot
firms positioned themselves as leaders
in experimenting with an innovative
workforce development initiative designed
to attract and retain mid-level professional
women into financial planning.
Gender Diversity Goals
FPRI firms link participating in the FPRI
pilot to their gender diversity goals and
metrics. All participants in the FPRI pilot
viewed the program as a vehicle to advance
their goals of attracting more women
into the financial planning profession and
into their firms. While men may also be
re-entry interns, it is mostly women who
take career breaks to raise children and to
tend to ailing family members, the primary
reasons for lengthy career breaks.
Leadership Support
Without support from leadership, initiatives
like the FPRI would struggle to get
traction. The leadership of the FPRI pilot
firms supported the resources necessary
to participate in the program and to
experiment with re-entry programs.
Willingness to Collaborate
Re-Entry programs are still new and this
one was the first of its kind in the financial
planning profession. Working in a cohort of
firms, with what are competitors in some
cases, requires an openness to collaborating,
and it is this collaboration that enables
firms to realize one of the key benefits from
participating in the group initiative: the
ability to troubleshoot and discuss program
development in real time with a group of like-
minded peers and subject matter experts.
Program Manager
Each firm designated a strong program
manager to participate in monthly
webinars provided by iRelaunch and the
Center. The program managers translated
learnings from the webinars to the teams
within their respective firms who were
responsible for implementing the re-
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Re-Entry Intern Onboarding and Training
for Others
The firms leveraged existing onboarding
programs for their employees that did not
take career breaks and modified them,
based on best practices for onboarding
re-entry interns. With career break lengths
ranging from two to 27 years, some re-
entry interns were in need of specialized
training in technology to update skills that
may have become stale while out of the
workforce, if they had not done updating
on their own during their career break. Re-
Entry onboarding programs may include
a higher level of technology training than
typical college internship programs to help
participants close this technology gap. Also
significant was the focus on preparing hiring
managers and their teams to think of the
re-entry interns as any other experienced
hire who would need to be trained on
firm processes and systems. At Fidelity
Investments, firm managers were provided
with specialized interview training and
encouraged to view personal life experiences
and volunteer work as transferrable
into the workforce, which would add
value to the firms and their clients.
Firms’ Support of CFP® Certification
Participating firms recognized the value
of CFP® certification as an onboarding
and professional development tool for
their interns and encouraged them to
pursue CFP® certification. Attaining CFP®
certification can be a great way to update
skills and gain confidence after a career
break, thereby easing the onboarding
process into the financial planning
profession. CFP® certification also plays
a key part in the retention of interns.
Research conducted by the Center as
part of its Women’s Initiative shows that
72 percent of women CFP® professionals
reported that they were satisfied with their
careers, compared to only 46 percent
of women without the certification.
Early Client Engagement and Employee
Meetings
Early engagement of re-entry interns with
clients and in employee meetings allows
for re-entry interns to demonstrate the
unique value they can bring to the firm
and to clients. Their interpersonal skills and
life experiences made them relatable to
clients. Given their previous professional
experiences, the re-entry interns oered
fresh perspectives in employee meetings
and in firms’ strategic planning sessions. In
multi-generational work settings, the re-
entry interns acted as mentors to younger
employees. Clients and colleagues have
embraced the addition of the mid- to senior-
level talent pool returning to the workforce.
It can seem overwhelming to feel like
you are going through this on your
own. Although our Resumers are based
in dierent investor centers, they stay
connected through weekly calls and email
threads to support each other through
various stages of the program. They
also formed mentoring connections with
Resumers who joined Fidelity in other
locations and areas of our business.
Rachel Book
Director, Diversity Recruiting,
Fidelity Investments
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FACING AND OVERCOMING HURDLES
Creating and implementing a re-entry internship program is not without hurdles along the way, even
for the most seasoned of firms and teams. While not every firm faced them all, the FPRI pilot firms
encountered a variety of challenges, including those related to sourcing talent, determining length and
timing of the program, providing support for re-entry interns and ensuring program continuity. With
guidance from iRelaunch and the Center, as well as the help of cohort of firms, pilot firms were generally
able to overcome those hurdles. Some of these issues, their results and solutions are highlighted below.
SOURCING
Issues Results Solutions
• Very specific job
requirements
• Remote locations
• Low number of
applications overall
• Low number of
employee referrals
• More flexible job requirements
• In-house onboarding and training
• Avoiding remote locations for pilot
LENGTH AND TIMING OF PROGRAM LAUNCH
Issues Results Solutions
• Program too short
• Program too long
• Diculty attracting
applicants in summer
• Not enough time to
evaluate re-entry interns
• Not enough time for re-
entry interns to adjust to
returning to the workforce
• Company decides before
program is over which
re-entry interns to hire
• Adjust program length after
pilot considerations
• Launch re-entry internship
program in fall, winter or spring
SUPPORT FOR RE-ENTRY INTERNS
Issues Results Solutions
• Not enough support
for re-entry interns
• Some re-entry interns
may feel alone
• Connect re-entry interns with
existing firm programs
• Create cohort of re-entry
interns for connectedness
• Schedule regular meetings with re-entry
interns, including video conferencing
if re-entry interns are not co-located
• Provide technical support
• Provide go-to person
• Establish a mentorship program and/
or a buddy system for re-entry interns
• Connect re-entry interns with any
career relaunchers within firm who
returned to the workforce before
there was a formal re-entry program
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PROGRAM CONTINUITY
Issues Results Solutions
• Responsibility is
shared by a team
• Program manager leaves
company or role
• No buy-in from senior
management
• No one “owns” the program
• Lack of clarity
• Lack of success
• Program continuity at risk
• Designate a specific program manager
• Clearly outline responsibilities
of program manager
• Responsibility needs to be
carried over to other person
• Ensure senior management buy-in as
early as possible or after first pilot
• Ensure visibility to senior management
FPRI COHORT #2
1. Ayco, A Goldman Sachs Company
2. Carson Wealth, sponsored by
TD Ameritrade Institutional
3. The Colony Group
4. Moisand, Fitzgerald & Tamayo, LLC
5. Northwestern Mutual
6. Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney
7. TD Ameritrade
8. Vanguard
This second cohort of firms will benefit from
the initial pilot firms’ experience. Learnings
from the initial cohort have been integrated into
the curriculum and into the sourcing support
provided by the Center and iRelaunch. We will
monitor their successes and challenges and
continue to share them with firms to encourage
adoption of the FPRI model.
FPRI PROGRAM EXPANSION
This first cohort of pilot firms has shown
promising initial outcomes but they are just
beginning to measure the success of this
workforce development initiative. We look
forward to following these firms over the months
and years as their re-entry interns develop as full-
time direct hires and as the firms expand their
programs with more re-entry interns. Fidelity
Investments has already expanded the number of
their re-entry internship positions and locations;
the program started in the New York City
metropolitan area, and then expanded to Dallas,
TX and Cary, NC. Edelman Financial Engines
created several re-entry internship positions in
two oce locations. Yeske Buie is considering
opening another re-entry internship position in
their San Francisco oce.
While the sample is small and the findings
are mainly qualitative, they strongly support
our belief that re-entry internships are a very
promising workforce development onramp for
mid-level professional women into financial
planning careers.
Additionally, we are thrilled to report that more
firms have expressed an interest in piloting FPRI
internships. In November 2018, the Center and
iRelaunch are launching a second FPRI cohort
that will run through November 2019.
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EARLY CONCLUSION AND LESSONS LEARNED
The early conclusion is that re-entry internships
can be an eective way of transitioning mid-
to senior-career, mostly female professionals,
back into the workforce in the financial planning
profession after a multi-year career break.
Lessons learned and progress made by the
inaugural cohort can be replicated and built
upon in the next FPRI cohort, and eventually on a
profession-wide scale.
There is also the opportunity to learn from
the challenges that some members of the first
cohort experienced. These include clarifying
the dierences between a re-entry mid-career
internship and an entry level, university internship
program; clarifying the dierence between
client facing and non-client facing roles; and
better defining professional and educational
backgrounds that are suited to the financial
planning profession to strategically target
potential talent.
For firms considering the re-entry talent pool,
there is no need to start from scratch with
recruiting and onboarding eorts. Existing
processes and programs can be leveraged
and modified for this experienced talent pool.
Learning where to source the talent and how to
screen prospective interns is just as critical as
determining how to onboard them and defining
what their potential career path(s) might be
within your firm.
A CALL TO ACTION
This is the beginning of a movement to create
financial planner re-entry programs in firms
of all sizes and business models across the
country. Over time, the vision is for these re-
entry programs to be as ubiquitous in firms as
campus internship programs, and to be sought
after, competitive, respected and attractive to
mid- to senior-level professionals from a variety
of backgrounds.
The responsibility lies first with the firms to
create the opportunities for future re-interns and
for us all to create awareness about the attributes
of the financial planning profession. Targeting
this experienced and untapped talent pool and
providing supportive environments for them to
re-enter the workforce is a mutually beneficial
solution for both future financial planners and
firms.
Firms interested in establishing a re-entry
internship program leading to full-time positions
in financial planning should contact Eddy
Demirovic, Manager of Programs and Operations
at the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning,
at edemirovic@cfpboard.org.
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THE CENTER’S PRIORITIES
DIVERSITY
Under its Diversity priority, the Center seeks to
address the lack of gender and racial diversity
in the financial planner workforce so that the
workforce can better meet the growing and
increasingly diverse needs of the American
public.
The Center’s diversity programs have been
underpinned by comprehensive research into the
causes of underrepresentation of women and
people of color in the profession. In 2014, the
Center released Making More Room for Women
in the Financial Planning Profession, a white
paper outlining its gender diversity research
and research-based recommendations to attract
more women into financial planning. To advance
racial diversity, in October 2018 the Center
released Racial Diversity in Financial Planning:
Where We Are and Where We Must Go, a
thought leadership paper that outlines actionable
solutions to create a more racially inclusive
workforce, based on findings from the Center’s
comprehensive study on the underrepresentation
of blacks and Latinos in financial planning.
Based on this research and input from subject
matter experts on the Center’s Women’s Initiative
Council and Diversity Advisory Group, the Center
has developed programs to advance diversity
and inclusion in the profession. These include
raising awareness of the profession among young
women and people of color through the ‘I am a
CFP® Pro’ campaign; connecting candidates for
CFP® certification with experienced professionals
through the CFP Board Mentor Program;
maintaining a network of WIN Advocate
volunteers nationwide to raise awareness of
financial planning careers to women and girls
in their communities; and hosting Diversity
Summits to engage stakeholders in the
profession and beyond around initiatives to
create a more inclusive profession.
ADDENDUM
ABOUT CFP BOARD
The mission of Certified Financial Planner Board
of Standards, Inc. is to benefit the public by
granting the CFP® certification and upholding
it as the recognized standard of excellence
for competent and ethical personal financial
planning. The Board of Directors, in furthering
CFP Board’s mission, acts on behalf of the public,
CFP® professionals and other stakeholders.
CFP Board owns the certification marks CFP®,
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, CFP® (with plaque
design) and CFP® (with flame design) in the U.S.,
which it awards to individuals who successfully
complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing
certification requirements. CFP Board currently
authorizes more than 82,000 individuals to use
these marks in the U.S.
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR
FINANCIAL PLANNING
The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning
seeks to create a more diverse and sustainable
financial planning profession so that every
American has access to competent and ethical
financial planning advice. The Center brings
together CFP® professionals, firms, educators,
researchers and experts to address profession-
wide challenges in the areas of diversity and
workforce development, and to enhance the
body of knowledge and elevate the rigor of the
academic discipline of financial planning.
THE CENTER’S VISION
AND MISSION
VISION: Every American has access to
competent and ethical financial planning advice.
MISSION: Create a more diverse and sustainable
financial planning profession.
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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Under the Workforce Development priority, the
Center is building a more sustainable workforce
by conducting research and pilot programs
to establish career paths to attract, onboard
and train the next generation of financial
planners who have the knowledge and skills to
competently and ethically serve the public.
To achieve this goal, the Center seeks to
encourage employers to adopt workforce
development policies, practices and strategies
that will encourage more young people
(including women and people of color) to enter
the profession. The Center is conducting research
in this area and plans two publications: a
literature review entitled Workforce Development
in Financial Planning: Challenges, Causes, Best
Practices and Strategies, and a Guide to Financial
Planning Career Paths, both of which will aid
financial services firms with developing fulfilling
career paths, as well as onboarding, training and
development strategies to attract and develop
young talent.
The Center’s workforce development programs
include the FPRI, CFP Board Career Center, the
go-to resource for job seekers and job providers
in financial planning; and scholarship programs
for qualified individuals seeking to complete
education requirements for CFP® certification.
These programs are guided by subject matter
experts on the Center’s Workforce Development
Advisory Group.
ACADEMIC HOME
Under the Academic Home priority, the Center
seeks to elevate the rigor of the academic
discipline of financial planning by supporting
opportunities for research and publication in
financial planning and related disciplines, and by
enhancing the body of knowledge for financial
planning practice. In the long term, the Academic
Home aims to increase the number of financial
planning academic programs in top colleges
and universities, ultimately filling the pipeline
with more students who will enter the financial
planner workforce and attain CFP® certification.
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Programs in this area include the Financial
Planning Review, a double-blind, peer-reviewed
academic journal and the first of its kind in the
financial planning profession; a new Body of
Knowledge website launching in 2019 that will
house the journal and resources to translate
the research into practical application; the
Academic Research Colloquium, an annual
event to showcase cutting-edge research in
financial planning and related disciplines; the
Financial Planning Teaching Program, oered in
partnership with Columbia University, for aspiring
financial planning faculty; and a book series
designed to expand the financial planning body
of knowledge.
ABOUT iRELAUNCH
Established in 2007, iRelaunch is the pioneering
company in the career re-entry space. iRelaunch
runs the iRelaunch Return to Work Conferences
and hundreds of customized career re-entry
programs and events for employers and
individuals returning to work after a career
break. iRelaunch works directly with over 55
blue chip companies to introduce, implement
and expand career re-entry programs to engage
with and hire from the return-to-work talent
pool. iRelaunch has built a global community
of over 65,000 individuals who are in all stages
of relaunching careers. iRelaunch co-leads
employer career re-entry initiatives in the STEM
and financial planning sectors in which nearly 35
new career re-entry programs hiring hundreds
of “relaunchers” have piloted and in many cases,
expanded. The award-winning iRelaunch podcast
3.2.1 iRelaunch has over 50,000 “listens” and has
released over 60 episodes.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to FPRI pilot firm participants for their contributions to this publication.
Charles Schwab Foundation
Leslie Tabor, Managing Director, Business Consulting & Education, Schwab Advisor Services
Edelman Financial Engines
Jigi Dahagam, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition
Allison Boyd, Director of Client Services
Kompay Om, Client Services Intern, converted to Client Service Administrative Assistant
Leslie Painter, Client Services Intern, converted to Client Service Administrative Assistant
Fidelity Investments
Rachel Book, Director, Diversity Recruiting
Liz Morgan, Assistant Branch Manager, Dallas Investor Center
Ryan Schoendorf, Assistant Branch Manager, Cary Investor Center
Tina MacMillan, Resumer, converted to Associate Financial Consultant
Colleen Peterson, Resumer, converted to Associate Financial Consultant
Yeske Buie
Lauren Mireles, Organization and Methods Manager
Yusuf Abugideiri, CFP®, Senior Financial Planner
Karen Simons, Financial Planning Intern, converted to Apprentice Financial Planner
TD Ameritrade Institutional
Kate Healy, Managing Director, Generation Next
The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning would like to thank its
Founding Sponsors for their generous support:
Lead Founding Sponsor
Founding Sponsors
