By Suzanne Patrick-Lawrence
Did you know that Black and Latinx professionals make up only 3.8% of all professionals with the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation, (1) despite the fact that this diverse workforce makes up nearly 32% of the national population? (2) If your goal is to hire a multicultural staff for your firm, we understand the challenge. Thankfully, we have a solution for connecting diverse next gen planners! Our team has partnered with the BLatinX (BLX) Internship Program to play a part in helping motivated college students and career changers of color match with fee-only financial planning firms across the U.S. for summer internships.
What Is the BLX Internship Program?
The BLX Internship Program is an initiative that provides opportunities for aspiring Black and Latinx financial planners to learn what financial planning is all about. This program was created by four fee-only financial planners who had a vision to change the complexion of the financial planning profession. BLX has partnered with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and our firm, Advisor Business Solutions, Inc., with the goal of placing at least 100 aspiring Black and Latinx financial planners in meaningful paid internships for the summer of 2022.
Why Support the BLX Internship Program?
The BLX Internship Program offers a wealth of talent and diversity through an engaging process that provides talent assessments and matches your firm with prequalified intern candidates. Through your participation, you get to not only empower future financial planners of color, but you will make diversity and inclusion a part of your growing firm. The BLX Firm eligibility to participate with matchmaking intern candidates are for fee-only financial planning firms, however, all wealth management companies may support this 501c3 nonprofit organization initiative as well.
We believe that in order to move the financial planning profession forward, we must be more representative of the population of our country, and this is your chance to join us in this worthy endeavor.
This past summer, the BLX program successfully placed 40 interns across the U.S., many of whom were later offered full-time or part-time positions. Here’s what one of last year’s advisors had to say about their experience:
BLX provided us with a talented pool of candidates to select from that matched Wescott’s core values and passion for financial planning. Both Wescott and BLX share the same vision to bring greater diversity to the profession. Not only are we grateful to be a part of this innovative program, we are very proud that we were able to make our intern a full-time member of our Wescott family!
— Chris Cortese, CFP | Wescott Financial Advisory Group Philadelphia, PA
Apply Today!
If you’re a fee-only firm looking to make financial planning more accessible to minority communities or would like to support the program’s diversity initiatives, click here for the BLX Internship Program today. Applications for the Summer 2022 program are open from November 1st-December 20th. If you have more questions, reach out to Advisor Business Solutions by emailing [email protected] or calling 562-439-4804. We look forward to hearing from you!
About Suzanne
Suzanne Patrick-Lawrence is the CEO of Advisor Business Solutions. She is a business planning and communications specialist with over 20 years of experience developing business and marketing strategies for financial services, global corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and small businesses. She is passionate about working with financial advisor practices seeking guidance, support, and structure to position their firms for a successful transition. To learn more about Suzanne, connect with her on LinkedIn.
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(2) https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219
