The youngest advisor to ever be elected as chair-elect of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards said that even though it will be more than a year before he becomes chair, he sees a lot of work ahead.
And among the most important of those chores, advisor Matthew Boersen said, is ensuring that there's a new and diverse generation of people entering the planning field at a time when Americans need financial advice more than ever.
“I feel a strong sense of responsibility and opportunity to get the message out to the younger generations, especially underrepresented individuals, about a degree and career in financial planning,” he said in an email. “We need to create a robust and more diverse pipeline of future financial planners today and into the future.”
Boersen, 34, is the youngest person to fill the chair-elect role, having been elected to the position in July by the CFP board of directors
Current chair-elect Daniel Moisand will serve as chair of the board in 2023 and Boersen will become chair in 2024.
He is the managing partner at Straight Path Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor in the Grand Rapids suburb of Jenison, Mich. He leads a team of advisors who provide financial planning, investment advisory services, and integrated tax advice to individuals. He also heads Straight Path Tax and Accounting Solutions, an accounting and tax practice that provides small-business consulting services.
In an email, Boersen discussed his new leadership position with the CFP Board, and how he would use it as a platform for change.
“In the leadup to my term as chair in 2024, I want to engage CFP professionals and get them excited about some of CFP Board’s new initiatives and what those initiatives will mean for them, their firms, and the general public,” he said. “It’s one of my priorities to make sure we get that message out. We are working on a lot of important initiatives, and we will need help and engagement from the financial planning community as we partner together to move this profession forward.”
Asked what he believed the CFP Board had accomplished this year, and what still remained to be done in the coming years under his leadership, Boersen cited three priorities he and his colleagues had approved under “Strategic Refresh,” a five-year plan: standards and certification, access and awareness.
“We added two new priorities: workforce development and engagement,” he said. “I’m really excited as we’ve begun the research on these new priorities and have begun to narrow in on where CFP Board can make the greatest impact and provide the most value to CFP professionals. We still have some research remaining, but we are starting to develop a clear picture of what must be done.”
Boersen said that the CFP Board is working on educating young people, especially from underrepresented populations, about the opportunities that a career as a financial planner offers. He said that earlier this year, the CFP Board conducted several focus groups and a quantitative survey in which participants age 13 and older enrolled in schools nationwide were asked what they thought about a financial planning degree and the profession. What the CFP Board found was widespread public misconceptions about both.
“Awareness or lack thereof was the number one barrier,” Boersen said. “They didn’t know about the degree or profession, but once we educated them about the fact that the career provides a good salary, offers work-life balance and flexibility, and serves others, we found they were interested and receptive to learning more.”
Boersen said the CFP Board also had plans to reach out to older adults who also may never have thought of becoming a financial advisor.
“I recently added a planner to my team after he spent three-plus decades in M&A work at a publicly traded company here in Grand Rapids,” he said. “The knowledge, experience, and different way of thinking that he brings to my team is invaluable.”
Boersen said that the key to changing public perception was to make young and old alike understand that financial planning is not just about investment management, but a shared partnership with the clients who came to them for professional help managing all aspects of their financial lives.
“This career has been incredibly fulfilling,” Boersen said. “Every day, I get to wake up and help people make better financial decisions. Sometimes these are happy moments, as people successfully retire or accomplish some other goal they worked hard to achieve. Other times, these are incredibly sad moments that we walk through with clients, like an unexpected death of a spouse. I think the most rewarding moment of my career was when a client who unexpectedly lost her husband told me, with tears in her eyes, that she had no idea how she would have made it through the death of her husband without us.”
Boersen said that the need has never been greater for trained and caring professionals to help as many people as possible.
“We know we will have a shortage of financial planners in the coming years, and we already have a dramatic shortage of diverse planners in the profession, so the CFP Board is ready to play our part to help close that gap,” he said.
Boersen has served on several nonprofit boards, including that of a private school. He currently serves on the board of directors and is treasurer for Christian Mission Aid, an NGO that provides healthcare, community development services and ministry training in Kenya and South Sudan.
Boersen began his career in financial planning by interning at an independent firm during his sophomore year at Grand Valley State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in finance. In 2011, he founded Straight Path Wealth Management from the home he and his wife had just purchased, converting the business to an RIA in 2013, the board said. In 2014, he started an accounting and tax practice, further expanding his business, which now includes a team of 11 financial services professionals.
Boersen joined CFP Board as a director in 2020 and currently serves as chair of the Finance and Investments Committee, as well as a member of the CEO Oversight and Compensation Committee.