Career advancement

Earning the designation is a grueling process that can seriously benefit an advisor’s trajectory, but it’s also not a panacea for an ailing career.

“It’s incredibly important to have diversity. Period,” says Kara Murphy.

After planner Bob White helped a client on one of her darkest days, she turned to him on one of her brightest ones, too.

Growing up in a house full of doctors, Mihir Patel was expected to follow in his family’s footsteps. He didn’t.

Nicole Christians joined Merrill Lynch as an intern and never looked back.

“If you’re not given an avenue to prove yourself, then effort and skill set will only go so far,” Shannon Saccocia says.

At least 14 executives have accepted posts this year leading wealth management and related investment services groups at several financial institutions, including HSBC, PNC Bank and Wilmington Trust. Find out who they are and what their new roles entail.

Aside from filling an obvious gender gap, new evidence is emerging about the reasons why firms should promote diversity.

Gender discrimination and sexual harassment still occurs in a profession whose history includes scandals such as Smith Barney's boom-boom room.

Whatever planners learned when they were trained for the job decades ago is most likely outdated.