Advisers Give Back Book a time to talk

Paused · looking for sponsors

Help open the door to careers in financial planning.

Our Mentorship Program paired people starting out in financial planning with experienced advisers: a way in for them, and a hiring pipeline for the firms that sponsor it. It’s paused while we find sponsors to bring it back.

Talk to us about sponsoring
  • Our first cohort was funded by the Charles Schwab Foundation.
  • A nonprofit program.

A profession as varied as the families it serves.

Many firms want to hire advisers from diverse backgrounds, and many struggle to find them. The talent is out there: first-generation professionals, career changers, women, people of color, people with disabilities and people who trained abroad. What’s missing is a way in, someone in the field to ask and someone to open a door. Mentorship builds that path.

  • 23.8%of CFP® professionals are women
  • 4.9%are Black, Hispanic or Latino

Source: CFP Board, CFP® Professional Demographics, updated October 1, 2026.

Good for the profession. Good for your hiring.

Firms compete for good advisers, and many that want teams as varied as their clients can’t find the candidates. Sponsoring puts your advisers beside people from the backgrounds you’re trying to reach, months before they’re on the job market.

  • An early look. Each of your advisers mentors one person for six months. You see their drive and judgment long before a résumé reaches your desk.

  • Screened before they’re matched. We’ll interview every mentee first: their goals, their readiness, the time they can give and whether they can work in the U.S.

  • Your advisers grow, too. Mentoring builds the coaching and leadership you want in your next senior advisers.

Our first cohort: 10 mentors and 10 mentees.

Advisers from RIA and wealth management firms each guided one person for six months. The mentees were recent graduates, career changers, students in financial planning programs and professionals from outside the U.S.

  1. Get to know each other

    Goals, how you’ll stay in touch and what to expect.

  2. Agree on goals

    A written partnership agreement, with goals you can measure.

  3. Grow

    Skills, sitting in on client meetings, résumés and the job search.

  4. Plan what’s next

    Look back at what you achieved, and set your next steps.

Pairs met every two to four weeks.

What came of it

  • Doors openedMentors made introductions inside their firms and across their networks.

  • Help with the examMentors helped with study plans and resources for the CFP® professional exam, and kept mentees going through setbacks.

  • A path to a jobOne mentor told us his firm would hire his mentee, if not for her U.S. work status.

4.9 of 5how mentees rated their mentors
11meetings, on average, for each pair that stayed active

From our end-of-program survey, which 3 of the 10 pairs answered.

What a sponsor makes possible.

The first cohort showed us what works. The next one is built to grow.

15–20mentor pairs at a time, up from 10 in the first cohort

  • A program manager for every pair

    Three one-on-one check-ins, at the start, middle and end, so no pair stalls.

  • Start when you’re matched

    Mentees begin as soon as they have a mentor, not when a cohort opens.

  • Tools in the app our advisers already use

    A week-by-week playbook for mentors, and a shared workspace for each pair.

  • Results you can see

    We’ll track jobs and exam results when each pair finishes, and again 90 days later.

Talk to us about sponsoring