Elizabeth Compson

Fintech could be the leg up that pro bono financial planning needs, according to new research from the Foundation for Financial Planning.

While a 2021 survey by the Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards found that 60% of CFP holders had done some pro bono planning over the past two years, averaging 28 hours per year, those numbers are virtually unchanged from two years earlier.

Financial planning might be the last thing on someone’s mind after they’re diagnosed with cancer, but it can help with their quality of life — and perhaps even prolong their life.

New research involving patients with aggressive blood cancer found a 53% higher survival rate over 12 months linked with financial planning intervention, as well as help from nurses and pharmacists who helped identify assistance programs.

Alexandra Armstrong, one of the first individuals to obtain a CFP certification, still remembers walking into Ameriprise more than 25 years ago and asking for a $10 million donation.

Armstrong, now 81, and the late financial planning pioneer Don Pitti didn’t have a formal business plan for the seedling non-profit foundation they were launching, and they didn’t yet have any corporate donations as a track record.

Seven years ago, Serenity’s life took a drastic turn. After consulting several doctors about ongoing stomach pain, she was diagnosed with stage one gastroesophageal junction cancer. Following a painful surgery, a year of recovery and her daughter’s birth, Serenity’s cancer recurred — this time in her lungs. In the years that followed, she experienced multiple recurrences throughout her body, with radiation and chemotherapy effectively treating the cancer each time. Despite such challenging circumstances, Serenity pushed forward, maintained her job at a local museum and continued to meet her personal and financial goals. 

The Foundation for Financial Planning’s pro bono financial planning efforts for people in crisis or need increased significantly in 2020 as advisors stepped up to help those most affected by economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, it said Thursday.

FFP saw a 27% increase in the total number of one-on-one advice sessions for at-risk individuals provided by its grantees and partners, growing from 9,200 in 2019 to about 11,700 in 2020, it said.