For the past 35 years, the CFP® certification has been recognized as the gold standard in financial planning. Apart from the rigorous educational and experience requirements to obtain and maintain their CFP® certifications, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals have strict fiduciary obligations of loyalty and care to clients.
Why is the CFP® accreditation the gold standard among Financial Advisors?
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals have extensive educational, professional, and ethics requirements to earn and maintain the gold standard certification for financial planning.
Education
CFP® professionals complete comprehensive financial planning studies at a college or university and require 30+ hours of continuing education every two years, including obligatory ethics and professional responsibility courses.
Examination
CFP® candidates must pass a comprehensive 6-hour examination that tests their ability to apply financial planning knowledge in an integrated approach to real-life financial planning situations.
Professional Experience
Before qualifying for CFP® certification, financial planners must complete three years of professional work experience including directly implementing the complete financial planning process for clients.
Ethics
CFP® practitioners must pass an ethics review and abide by a strict code of professional conduct that avoids conflicts of interests and requires the advisor to act as a fiduciary when providing financial advice to clients.
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Who is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional?
A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ is a financial professional accredited by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards as having demonstrated financial planning technical knowledge, experience, and adherence to a client-centered code of ethics. CFP Board’s Standards of Professional Conduct require CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioners to act in their clients’ best interests.
What is the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards?
CFP Board is a non-profit organization that fosters professional standards in personal financial planning through the creation and enforcement of strict requirements for CFP® certification including examination, experience, ethical, and continuing education requirements. The organization is at the forefront of financial planning and has diligently defended the importance of the fiduciary model of financial planning over the often conflict-of-interest-ridden commission model. The mission of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards is “to benefit the public by granting the CFP® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for competent and ethical personal financial planning.”
How is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional different than other advisors?
Among the professional responsibility obligations that CFP® professionals swear an oath to uphold are disclosing and properly managing all conflicts of interest and recommending ideal rather than simply “suitable” financial products. This fiduciary duty to act in a client’s best interest is at the core of what separates CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals from most financial advisors.
Breach of fiduciary duty is a major offense that brings serious legal complications, so you can rest assured that a CFP® professional is working for your best interests. Most investment advisers who are not CFP® certified, including stockbrokers, are regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA permits brokers to accept financial incentives contrary to the client’s best interest as long as the recommendation itself is suitable.
What are the EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS for CFP® practitioners?
CFP® s develop theoretical and practical financial planning knowledge by completing a comprehensive course of study at a college or university offering financial planning curriculum registered with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. To maintain their certification, CFP® s must complete a minimum of 30 hours of financial planning continuing education every two years. Two of these hours must be spent studying the CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility or Financial Planning Practice Standards. CFP®continuing education requirements are among the strictest of all financial planner credentials and help CFP® s better serve clients and stay current with developments in the financial planning profession.
Education Curriculum
The educational curriculum for CFP® practitioners includes 72 Principal Knowledge Topics in the following categories:
Investment Planning
Tax Planning
Retirement Planning
Estate Planning
Insurance Planning
Financial Management
Education Planning
What are the EXAMINATION REQUIREMENTS for CFP® practitioners?
CFP® certificants must pass the comprehensive 6-hour CFP® Certification Examination that tests their ability to apply financial planning knowledge in an integrated approach to real-life financial planning situations. It measures critical thinking and problem-solving ability over factual recall and recognition. The exam is based on a list of financial planning topics that reflect skills needed to perform comprehensive financial planning, as determined by periodic surveys of practicing CFP® s. The exam covers a wide range of financial planning topics including employee benefits planning, investment planning, income tax planning, retirement planning, estate planning, and insurance planning and risk management.
What are the EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS for CFP® practitioners?
Before receiving the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ accreditation, a financial planner must complete three years of professional work experience, thousands of hours, including the supervision, direct support, teaching, or personal delivery of the personal financial planning process to a client. This ensures that CFP® professionals can apply their financial planning knowledge in real-world client situations.
What are the ETHICS REQUIREMENTS for CFP® practitioners?
As a final step to certification, CFP® practitioners must pass an ethics review and agree to abide by CFP Board’s Financial Planning Practice Standards and a strict code of professional conduct, known as CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The Code of Ethics states that CFP® practitioners must act with integrity and offer professional services that are objective and based on client needs. CFP Board routinely performs background checks on CFP® professionals and candidates for CFP® certification, and requires disclosure of various matters including criminal history, bankruptcies and liens, and regulatory or civil proceedings.
Fee-only is a method of compensation that helps align the interests of financial planners and their clients. Rather than receive commissions for steering clients to certain financial products, fee-only advisors are paid by their clients directly and therefore more invested in their long-term success. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ is a rigorous accreditation that helps ensure advisors meet a high standard of care for their clients. Most CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals choose the fee-only method of compensation rather than receiving commissions. All of the advisors at Summit Hill Wealth Management are CFP® practitioners and our firm is dedicated to fee-only compensation because we believe it is the most client-centered service model. We take a small fee on the assets we manage for you, which ensures we are invested in your long term financial success. Fee-only is a method of compensation that helps align the interests of financial planners and their clients. Rather than receive commissions for steering clients to certain financial products, fee-only advisors are paid by their clients directly and therefore more invested in their long-term success. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ is a rigorous accreditation that helps ensure advisors meet a high standard of care for their clients. Most CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals choose the fee-only method of compensation rather than receiving commissions. All of the advisors at Summit Hill Wealth Management are CFP® practitioners and our firm is dedicated to fee-only compensation because we believe it is the most client-centered service model. We take a small fee on the assets we manage for you, which ensures we are invested in your long-term financial success.
A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ is a financial professional accredited by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards as having demonstrated financial planning technical knowledge, experience, and adherence to a client-centered code of ethics. CFP Board’s Standards of Professional Conduct require CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioners to act in their clients’ best interests.
This includes disclosing and properly managing all conflicts of interest and recommending ideal rather than simply “suitable” financial products. This difference is at the core of what separates fee-only certified financial planner professionals from other financial advisors.
Breach of fiduciary duty is a major offense that brings serious legal complications, so you can rest assured that a CFP® professional is working for you and not just to line her own pockets.
Most investment advisers who are not CFP® certified, including stockbrokers, are regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA permits brokers to accept financial incentives contrary to the client’s best interest as long as the recommendation itself is suitable.