As one of the just 3% of CFP professionals who are Latinx or Hispanic, I find it my duty to help others like myself who want to enter and thrive in the financial planning industry.
My family immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic when I was 11 years old. Growing up in New York City, I never knew what financial planning was — it was not discussed at home and was not taught at school. I learned about the field right after graduating college in 2001, when I began working part time for a financial planner. I fell in love with the work, with how much impact we as advisors can have in our clients' lives.
However, I also saw how so many people were being left behind by the traditional business model. As I attended industry conferences for the first time, I could not help but notice how few Black and Latinx advisors were in attendance, and pretty much missing from panels and speaker lineups.
Fast-forward almost 20 years later to 2020, and nothing much had changed.
BLX pairs Black and Latinx students and career changers with fee-only and fee-based financial planning firms for a paid summer internship. In addition, we provide learning opportunities by offering scholarships and SIE training, and we partner with eMoney to offer interns the eMoney certification. Our brand-new partnership with Charles Schwab, via the Charles Schwab Foundation, will bring educational materials, software, educational webinars and more to the program. But we need more help from the industry — specifically, we need firms to host our summer interns.
Less talk, more action, needed from industry
We consistently hear about the
We're calling on all fee-only and fee-based financial planning-focused firms to get involved and to help bring about change.
Last year, BLX received more than 200 intern applications. This year we are on track to surpass that. But we have nowhere near enough firms getting involved. This contradicts the No. 1 DEI challenge that we hear from firm owners — that they just don't know where to find diverse talent.
Our BLX Internship Program solves that problem handily:
How it works (we make it easy)
Firms interested in working with our program don't have to focus on recruiting efforts — we do all the hard work for them. We have established relationships with more than 50 colleges and universities across the country, including historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions. We also partner with other organizations to recruit career changers.
We work with each firm to determine its needs and who among our intern applicants would be a good fit, then present firms with a short list of vetted candidates to interview for the internship.
To ensure that all candidates presented to firms are highly qualified, we take several steps. We interview each intern candidate and assess their background, skills and interests, and we offer one-on-one résumé reviews, mock interviews and coaching services. Interns who participate in our program also have the opportunity to participate in our summer speaker series, earn certifications (eMoney, Envestnet Institute on Campus) and receive scholarships to conferences.
No matter whether your firm is hiring an intern for the first time or already has an established internship program, we offer resources throughout to ensure a smooth process. Not only do we recruit year-round, but we also maintain relationships with our past interns. That means firms that work with BLX have the opportunity to access our pool of candidates for future hiring.
'Exceptional talent'
Our program, just three years old, already has a track record of success. Take for just one example Jessie Serrano, who was a talented and ambitious financial planning student in summer 2022 when we paired her with the Rochester, Minnesota-based Fyooz Financial Planning, a forward-thinking firm that has embraced the BLX Internship Program.
Today, the former BLX intern has her degree in financial planning and works full time as an associate at Fyooz. For its part, Fyooz Financial Planning now boasts not only a more diverse workforce but also a string of wins attributed to the fresh perspectives and innovative solutions introduced by Serrano. The firm's founding partner, CFP Dan Slagle, told BLX that Serrano "has been an amazing addition to our team and we are really fortunate to have had the introduction through the BLX Program." This story exemplifies the tangible benefits of diversifying talent within the financial planning industry.
Underrepresentation persists in the financial planning industry, and the BLX Internship Program exists to address head-on the profession's long-standing diversity gap. The BLX Internship Program is not just a concept; it's a concrete solution. There is a pressing need for such initiatives, and it is urgent that firms sign on now to disrupt the status quo and foster inclusivity. By hosting interns through the BLX Internship Program, you not only gain access to exceptional talent but also play a pivotal role in fostering diversity within your organization.
By actively participating in our program, financial planning firms have the opportunity to shape the future of the industry. We invite firms to join us on this transformative journey.
