How many non-binary advisors? CFP Board now counting

The CFP Board has introduced its anticipated non-binary gender option for current certificants and future applicants, according to the membership organization, in a step toward being more inclusive of individuals who don’t identify as male or female.

The update, on which the organization said it was working in January, will allow advisors to “indicate non-binary gender and/or Mx. prefix in their CFP Board records,” says the board. It will also begin including this data in its annual demographic report, according to the organization.

“[The] CFP Board will be collecting this data and releasing it in its annual milestone numbers announcement,” the organization said in a statement.

Introducing an additional gender option is a matter of debate far beyond the financial services industry. The U.S. Census Bureau, which limits its gender selection to male and female, has been accused of not counting the transgender and non-binary community. The Bureau added a same-sex relationship option for the 2020 census.

Approximately 1.4 million Americans identify as transgender, according to 2016 data from The Williams Institute at UCLA, one of the only organizations to publish research on the matter.

As the wealth management industry’s largest certification provider, the CFP board has come under fire in recent years for not having a non-binary gender option on its applications. The organization’s CEO, Kevin Keller, said this update was underway in January.

There is still demographic data the CFP Board hasn’t yet released, including the number of Asian and Pacific Islander financial advisors with the certification. Keller told Financial Planning earlier this year that it does intend to add other ethnic and racial data for its members, “something that could happen this year.”

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“Our numbers, I will tell you, for Asians and other ethnic and racial groups are not as abysmal,” Keller said, explaining why the CFP Board had started with its release of Black and Hispanic data first.

While publishing this data "remains top-of-mind," a CFP Board spokesman declined to give an update on when it would become publicly available.

Last month the CFP Board added financial planning psychology as a new topic for study and continuing education.