I am a newly credentialed CFP®
After the arduous process of completing all the required study, experience and ethics requirements. I FINALLY did it. I earned the right to use the marks. And now an brave new world awaits me. Energized by the successful culmination of my efforts, I embarked on my search in earnest. I joined FPA, thought carefully about my goals and scoured the web for a firm to associate myself with next. A complicated and thrilling search.
You see now I work for a large institution that does not have the capacity to engage in complex financial planning, so I see that while the corporation has been good to me it is time for a new home for my skills. No more crushing volumes of phone calls; instead I seek face to face complex financial planning.
As I searched the metroplex and sought out my fellow CFP colleagues, I noticed a pattern. ALL of them are male. No female CFPs anywhere. The exception to the female representation is for support staff. Alternately a very few female CFPs started their own firms. If these females did... all the employees are all female. Exclusively. No males anywhere.
Lord of the Flies Vs Little Women.
Where is the happy medium? We are better, stronger together. A well diversified portfolio weathers any storm better than a concentrated position.We understand that when selecting an investment portfolio for our clients. Why won't we do that for ourselves?
When I talk to my fellow CFP®s I can see in their eyes disbelief. I privately wonder: Did I become a Unicorn instead of a CFP®?
So I wonder, is my community ready for female CFPs or do I need to stay under the protective hedge of an Institution until the culture gradually adjusts. How long will that be, anyway?
Is anyone else seeing the same situation?