The roots of financial planning are in insurance agents and stockbrokers who sought out a way to deliver better advice and guidance to their clients. Similarly, the roots of financial planning education have long been in “adult education” certificate programs that took experienced and active advisors back to school to gain the educational knowledge they needed to sit for the CFP exam and earn their CFP certification.
Over the past decade, though, we have witnessed the emerging rise of the “financial planning academic” – pioneering students who went through the first Ph.D. program from Texas Tech (supported in large part by an early $2,000,000 grant from the CFP Board with the specific vision of supporting a growing population of financial planning academics), earned their doctoral degrees, and are now beginning to go forth and establish undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. programs at other universities across the country.
As the trend continues and the Texas Tech/CFP Board vision is fulfilled, the number of university-based financial planning programs continues to grow, and financial planning is well positioned to gain more academic credibility.
And as the financial planning academic community continues to grow, so too are the resources serving them. From the Academy of Financial Services, to the recently (re-)introduced academic track at the FPA annual conference, to the CFP Board’s latest round of recently announced academic initiatives, including a new “think tank” financial planning research center and also a new academic Journal, financial planning is well positioned to continue its drive forward towards increasing academic rigor and recognition… including not only a rising volume of college-educated financial planners but perhaps spawning some research that will slay a few financial planning sacred cows and help to advance not only the financial planning body of knowledge but how it is applied by practitioners as well!
The full version of this article can be read on Michael Kitce’s blog, Nerd’s Eye View.
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