Data rankings compiled through Financial Planning's annual IBD Elite study show that the share of women financial planners remains around 25 percent.
The two firms with the most female advisors are women-owned: Fort Worth, Texas-based Bley Investment Group, and Conway, Arkansas-based Trutoro.
The study also references Nina O'Neal, who created the Female Advisor Network to build a community of women to try to begin to solve some of the industry's gender inequality and to share common ground. The network now consists of more than 12o women from across the industry with a range of experience and assets under management.
Furthermore, according to the study, the industry faces an uphill battle to achieve the same representation of women as the U.S. population. Many firms need to take the first step of disclosing their demographics, which 25 out of 47 participants in this year's IBD Elite declined to do, according to FinancialPlanning.com. The firms that declined to participate include some of the largest firms in the industry, like LPL Financial, Cetera Financial Group, and Ameriprise. Without knowing the share of female advisors at those and other large firms, it will not be possible to tell whether the industry's pledge to boost diversity will result in actual change.
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