The CFP Board will add a non-binary gender option to its applications this year, following requests from financial advisors on social media to do so.
It’s another step the Board is taking as part of its effort to promote inclusivity in wealth management and a more diverse workforce.
While the addition is underway, the CFP Board expects its systems to be updated by the end of April.
“I just got a note from the IT department that we've completed a [timing] estimate on the work for updating our gender options in our database,” Kevin Keller, CEO of the CFP Board, said in an interview Jan. 26, although he noted that the organization would still need to test it.
When asked what that option would look like, Keller said it hadn’t been determined. However, “we will have a choice other than male or female when you register with the Board,” he says.
Adding the option will include making updates to the underlying computer systems for data collection and reporting, according to a CFP Board spokeswoman.
The CFP Board’s decision was welcomed by individuals who have pushed wealth management companies in recent months to be more inclusive of individuals who do not identify as men or women.
It shows that “they're willing to acknowledge that gender is a spectrum and isn't binary,” says Cait Howerton, a lead planner at Facet Wealth in Atlanta.
Howerton had asked TD Ameritrade and the CFP Board to update their gender selections via Twitter in
Howerton had also voiced her opinions last year on the CFP Board’s Women Initiative Council, where she had served as a member. The group was seeking to address how the industry could become more aware of struggles and barriers that women and non-binary or gender-non-conforming advisors face in wealth management.
“It's about all people in all genders having equity within our field,” Howerton says.
This week, Danika Waddell, a CFP who opened up her own practice six months ago, also pressed the CFP Board, as well as CRM company Wealthbox, to update their gender options.
A Wealthbox spokeswoman said in a statement it had been “working on this much-needed enhancement for a couple of weeks” and expected to release it next month.
Kevin Keller responded directly to Waddell’s tweet, noting that the CFP Board was moving forward with an additional gender option.
“It was clearly on the radar already, but [Twitter] has proven to be an effective way to get attention from people,” says Waddell, whose firm, Xena Financial Planning in Seattle, seeks to serve underrepresented wealth management clients, including women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community.
Waddell says she was motivated to say something publicly after a member of the XY Planning Network said in their chat group that it was “dehumanizing” to find the organization only listed a male or female option.
“Forcing people when they're filling out a form to pick one of those pronouns — it just immediately is setting the stage for them to feel alienated and misunderstood,” Waddell says, noting that awareness of pronoun usage and gender identity was a good first step for financial companies to take.
Even as the numbers improve, Black and Hispanic advisors are still vastly underrepresented within the industry.
The addition of gender options is one way for companies to acknowledge and be more inclusive of individuals who, research shows, already experience discrimination from colleagues and clients.
Approximately 50% of LGBTQ employees say they have to disclose their sexual orientation and/or gender identity at least once a week at work, according to 2020 McKinsey
There’s a lot of work to do, according to Howerton, who estimates that upwards of 90% of financial services forms she comes across exclude non-binary gender options. She credits this to insurance requirements, but also awareness.
“If you're straight and you are cisgender, this isn't something that you're having to think about,” Howerton says.
The CFP Board has a ways to go, Howerton says, but adding more gender options: “that’s wonderful.”
