The CFP Board says it has a lot to celebrate and officials wasted no time ticking off the metrics at its inaugural Connections conference earlier this week in Washington, D.C.

The advisor organization said that it grew to 101,795 U.S. CFP professionals as of Sept. 29. Worldwide, they said, the number of CFP certificate holders increased by 10,768, to a total of 223,770, as of December 2023.

“Think of what that means. We now have more than 100,000 CFPs here who can sit across from investors to make sure they get competent financial planning advice," said CFP Board Chairman Matt Boersen, who helms Straight Path Wealth Managers in Jenison, Mich. "That’s one in every three advisors who have the certification. And we’re just beginning.” 

On average, CFP professionals earn 10% more than other financial planners, with median 2023 total compensation clocking in at $192,000, according to the group’s latest compensation study.

The board also noted that some of the nation’s largest wirehouses and hybrid broker-dealers have in recent years begun pushing their professionals to obtain CFP credentials.

Edward Jones began amping up the CFP designation in 2019 and now anticipates having between 4,000 and 4,500 CFP professionals by the end of 2024. The firm’s managing partner, Penny Pennington, has said she wants Edward Jones to have the most CFPs of any firm in the country.

Merrill Lynch has more than 4,000 CFPs, Commonwealth Financial Network has 1,160 and Buckingham Strategic Wealth has 1,020 CFPs, according to the board.

In explaining the push for CFPs, one executive cited research from JD Power in 2019 that found between 70% to 80% of investors weren’t getting the financial planning they wanted when working with an advisor and only 14% were getting holistic advice.

“That was a real wake-up call for us,” Diane Wittig, principal of firm change at Edward Jones, said at the conference. “We said, ‘We got to get after it.’”

Advisor Michael Kitces, founder of the XY Planning Network, said that as competition heats up for high-net-worth households—the sweet spot for many advisors—the 350,000 advisors in the U.S. should do everything they can to differentiate themselves. Once you reduce the number of wealthy households to those who are actually delegators willing to pay for advisory services, there are only about 30 per advisor, Kitces said.

To make sure investors know they can turn to CFPs for fiduciary advice, the CFP Board just launched an "Its Gotta Be A CFP" public awareness campaign across social media.

“Many members of the general public are unaware of the correct questions to ask advisors they meet with and it’s their assumption that they’re fiduciaries," Boersen said. "It’s a lot for the general public to have to figure out the different business models and exclusions. Now the public just has to know one thing to ask: ‘Is the person I’m sitting across from a CFP fiduciary?’”

Boersen said he’s also concerned about the dearth of qualified fiduciary advisors, but has helped the CFP Board jumpstart a multiyear initiative to expand the pipeline of future CFPs. “Two weeks ago, we launched the ‘Quite Possibly The Perfect Job” campaign,’ directed at high school and college students, which we hope will broaden job awareness and address the mismatch between supply and demand for advisors,” he said.

To that end, the CFP Board is also working to expand registered programs at colleges and universities. The board said a diverse group of 130 students attended the conference.

The industry stands to lose 106,264 or 36.8% of advisors to retirement and an estimated $11.9 trillion or 38.9% of assets from those leaving the practices of retiring advisor, Cerulli says.

Meanwhile, the firm found that advisor headcount grew by just 2,579 last year, barely offsetting retirements and trainee failures, as firms struggle with high wash-out rates. With a rookie advisor failure rate of more than 72%, Cerulli said broker-dealers and registered investment advisors must explore new ways for connecting with potential candidates and spreading awareness about the profession.

“One of the things I am most passionate about is growing the pipeline and workforce of qualified advisors to fix the supply-demand imbalance. It’s an area where the CFP Board is uniquely positioned to make an impact,” Boersen added.