The Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation is a

professional certification Professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation, often called simply ''certification'' or ''qualification'', is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task. Not all certifications ...

mark for

financial planner A financial planner or personal financial planner is a qualified financial advisor. Practicing in full service personal finance, they advise clients on investments, insurance, tax, retirement and estate planning. As a general rule, a financial ...

s conferred by the

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) is an American 501(c)(3) certifying and standards-setting organization that administers the Certified Financial Planner certification program and oversees more than 89,000 profess ...

(CFP Board) in the United States, and by 25 other organizations affiliated with Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB), the owner of the CFP mark outside of the United States. The certification is generally viewed as the gold standard designation in the financial planning industry. The certification is not a government designation, nor an accredited degree, but is managed by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) which was founded in 1985 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. To receive authorization to use the designation, the candidate must meet education, examination, experience and ethics requirements, and pay an ongoing certification fee. In the United Kingdom, the CFP licence/designation is available to financial planners through membership of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment (CISI).

Requirements for initial certification

For initial certification, an individual must meet four categories of requirements: education, examination, experience, and ethics.

Education requirements

The candidate must have a bachelor's degree (or higher), or its equivalent in any discipline, from an accredited college or university. The bachelor's degree requirement may be completed after passing the CFP exam (within five years) and is not a requirement to be eligible to take the CFP Board Certification Examination. As a first step to the present CFP certification criteria, students must master a curriculum of approximately 100 topics on financial planning. Individuals holding professional designations pre-approved by the CFP Board, which include attorneys,

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...

s (CPAs),

Chartered Certified Accountant Founded in 1904, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the global professional accounting body offering the Chartered Certified Accountant qualification (ACCA). It has 240,952 members and 541,930 future members worldwi ...

s (CCAs), Chartered Accountants (CAs), Chartered Wealth Managers (CWMs), Chartered Life Underwriters (CLUs), Chartered Financial Consultants (ChFCs), and

Chartered Financial Analyst The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program is a postgraduate professional certification offered internationally by the American-based CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and fina ...

s (CFAs) are all entitled to register for and take the exam without having to complete the education requirements, by using the CFP-board's "challenge" status. PhDs in business or

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

are also exempted from the educational requirements. Individuals who seek to challenge the CFP certification exam are required to take a financial planning capstone course before sitting for the exam. Foreign degrees may be substituted for a U.S. degree if they receive equivalency from a third-party organization. The CFP Board began requiring a college education in 2008. In the early years for the first 25,000 CFP members, candidates could take the five courses and achieve certification without a comprehensive exam. In 1991 a comprehensive exam became required for new students. The CFP board and other organizations have communicated with the

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortg ...

to augment accredited degree standards and ranking of professional designations. The CFP Certification Examination is a multiple choice, computer-based exam consisting of 170 questions, broken into two sessions separated by a 40-minute break. Candidates have up to three hours to complete each session. The exam includes two case studies, multiple mini-case problem sets and stand-alone questions designed to assess the student's ability to apply his or her knowledge of the aforementioned areas to financial planning situations. Students and certificants are required to adhere to the CFP Board Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and to the Financial Planning Practice Standards. Registered investment advisors have a fiduciary duty to care for investments. The CFP Board has the right to enforce them through its Disciplinary Rules and Procedures.

Renewal of certification

To maintain certification, in the United States, license holders are required to complete thirty hours of continuing education, of which two hours must be board-approved Ethics CE and the remaining 28 are General CE.

Related designations

There are over 208 designations available for financial-services professionals. These are some of the more common designations. *Life and Annuity Certified Professional (LACP), from the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) *

Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) (pronounced "KAI-ah") is a professional designation offered by the CAIA Association to investment professionals who complete a course of study and pass two examinations. The "alternative investment ...

*Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA),

Investment Management Consultants Association The Investments and Wealth Institute (IWI), previously known as Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA), was founded in 1985 in Colorado to provide investment consulting and wealth management credentials and educational offerings for it ...

(IMCA) *

Certified Management Accountant Certified Management Accountant (CMA) is a professional certification credential in the management accounting and financial management fields. The certification signifies that the person possesses knowledge in the areas of financial planning, an ...

* Chartered Financial Consultant *

Chartered Market Technician The CMT Association is a non-profit, global, professional organization of technical analysts headquartered in New York City, servicing over 9,000 market analysis professionals in around 80 countries. The CMT Association certifies that an individual ...

Certified International Investment Analyst Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA) is a global finance designation offered by the Association of Certified International Investment Analysts (ACIIA) to financial professionals; candidates may be financial analysts, portfolio managers ...

Financial Risk Manager Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) is a not-for-profit organization and a membership association for risk managers. Its services include setting standards, training, education, industry networking, and promoting risk management practi ...

References

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