Meet the 3 women who won FPA's 2023 Diversity Scholarship

Three women have been honored with the Financial Planning Association's Diversity Scholarship, a small step reflecting the industry's bigger push to bring more women into its fold. 

FPA's Diversity Scholarship honors individuals who have worked to improve diversity in financial planning and bring financial planning to underserved communities. The winners this year are Charlotte Fox, a wealth advisor with Heritage Wealth Advisors in Richmond, Virginia; Jenneffer Vazquez Moran, an executive assistant paraplanner with Dynasty Family Office who is based in Santa Ana, California; and Tarin Washington, a certified financial planner based in North Carolina, according to a press release. 

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"These remarkable individuals are working to make financial planning more accessible and improve our profession," Patrick D. Mahoney, the CEO of FPA, said in the press release. "We look forward to honoring their achievements."

The news comes as several studies show the industry failing to keep up with the rising wealth of women as a population. Women are increasingly closing the pay gap with men, and in the U.S. they controlled around $12 trillion of household investable assets, according to a 2022 McKinsey report. Yet not even a quarter of all CFP's are women, and just over a third of all personal financial advisors are female, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The FPA Diversity Scholarship program was established at an FPA Diversity Summit in 2008 as a merit-based vehicle to encourage people from underrepresented groups to become financial planners. This year each winner receives a one-year FPA membership, as well as coverage of their registration and travel expenses for the FPA Annual Conference 2023, which will take place in Phoenix from Sept. 27 to Sept. 29. Registration costs for the whole conference range from $899 to $1,349, depending on when someone registers and if they have FPA membership (which costs anywhere from $50 to over $375 annually). Groups may qualify for discounts. The cost of the entire three days is also discounted at $399 for students; otherwise, attendance for single dates ranges from $299 to $549, according to the conference website. 

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Jenne Vazquez Photography

For Vazquez Moran, an immigrant and single mom who originally pursued medicine but realized she could have a happier career as a financial planner, joining the field has given her a powerful way to help women who have not had the opportunity to gain financial literacy skills. As a board member of the National Hispanic Business Women Association, she helps her hometown mayor organize scholarship giveaways for young women in the community who want to pursue college or graduate degrees. She will also teach personal finance skills, like managing a checking account, to girls at a local forum. 

"Just because you have a partner does not mean that you can't be a part of financial decision making," she said of women. "We should all know what's going on in our bank accounts because women outlive men. … We need to know what's going on with the money and how to take care of ourselves." Vazquez Moran is studying for her CFP designation and wants to serve "underrepresented communities and specifically women" someday as a planner, as well as do pro bono work with single moms. 

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Michael Simon

Charlotte Fox started out her career in wealth management in an administrative role at Merrill Lynch, but she felt stuck, she said in an interview. "I never really had the confidence or wherewithal ... to do more. And it was another female administrative coworker who encouraged me" to pursue a career as a financial planner. She eventually got the courage to leave for her current role as a wealth advisor at a majority female and woman-owned firm. 

Fox has volunteered over the past decade at nearly a dozen local groups helping underserved people and supports other women professionals in her community, especially through teaching financial literacy at the Junior League of Richmond, a women's community service organization. "It's so impactful for even professional women," she said, adding that even high earners like doctors or lawyers might not come from wealth and need help understanding how to plan for their future and create generational wealth for their families. "They just really love getting the education." 

Tarin Washington

For Tarin Washington, it's critical to the financial planning profession to deepen awareness of what financial planning is to the public — especially underrepresented communities. 

Washington has "worked with corporate, non-profit, and military organizations in various capacities to share the financial planning message and to help people discover a sense of financial wellness," FPA said in the release.