A
certified financial planner (popularly referred to as CFP) is a professional
certification conferred to qualified individuals by the Certified Financial
Planner Board of Standards in the U.S. and in affiliates around the world. This
is awarded to those who successfully complete the Frisco CFP Board’s initial and
ongoing certification requirements.
Getting
the authorization and being able to use the designation, one needs to meet the
requirements of education, experience and ethics requirements, including the
ongoing certification fee. A Frisco CFP professional have taken extensive exams in the
areas of financial planning, taxes, insurance, estate planning and retirement.
Qualifications
Candidates
need to meet the requirements for CFP in four categories – education, CFP
exams, work experience and ethics. The education requirements have two
components: first, the candidate must have a bachelor’s degree (or higher) and
secondly, the candidate must complete a list of specific coursework in
financial planning.
All
the candidates need to pass the CFP exams, a commuter-based exam taken by the
candidates over a three-day period.
Exams
The
topics in the exams change regularly. However, it include many areas like
professional conduct and regulations, financial planning principles, education
planning, risk management, insurance, investments, tax planning, retirement
planning and estate planning.
The
candidate is tested for his knowledge in these areas. Likewise, the candidate is
also tested in his ability to establish client-planner relationships and in
other functions. These include the gathering information, communicating, analysis,
and developing, implementing and monitoring all the gathered recommendations.
Experience
As
for professional experience, candidates must prove that they have at least
three years of full-time professional experience in the industry, or two years
of apprenticeship in the industry, which is subject to further individualized
requirements.
Lastly,
the ethics requirements, candidates and CFP holders must adhere to the CFP
Board's standards of professional conduct and regularly disclose information
about their involvement in a variety of areas, such as criminal activity,
government agency inquiries, bankruptcies, customer complaints or terminations
by employers.
Also,
the CFP Board conducts extensive background checks on all candidates. Earning
the CFP exam depends on all the above requirements.
The work
A
certified financial planner is one of the world’s most widely respected
financial planning designations, adding to the fact that there are only around
200,000 in their profession around the world. These are the people who can use
their designation letters “CFP”.
The
bulk of their work is mainly in providing advice with regards your finances. A
CFP will study your total income, your taxes and its history, your past and
present investments, all of your debts and all the other elements related to
your finances.
Armed
with these consolidated information, your planner will map out how you can
achieve your goals. Your CFP will be with you all the way. They will help in
identifying your goals, find out and evaluate your financial strategies as
well.
With
these, your certified financial planner will then formulate a plan for you.
After these, your CFP will then check on you regularly so you stay on track (of
your plans) all the time.
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