Feb 14

About the CFP

by David Harper, CFA, FRM, CIPM

Exams |

The CFP Board administers the Certified Financial Planner (CFP ?) program and its exam. To become a CFP certificant, you must:

  1. First satisfy an educational requirement (I.e., before you . As of March 1, 2007, certification will require an undergraduate bachelor's degree from an accredited college. Alternatively, you can take study under a CFP board-registered program.
  2. Pass the CFP? Certification exam: a 10-hour test that takes 1.5 days (four hours on Friday and six hours on Saturday), conducted three times during the year (typically on the third Friday and Saturday of March, July and November).
  3. Acquire three years of qualifying full-time work experience (or equivalent). Qualifying work experience is defined by the CFP board as "the supervision, direct support, teaching or personal delivery of all or part of the personal financial planning process to a client."
  4. Agree and adhere to the Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility

The exam topics are developed based on the Board's recent analysis of actual job duties, so the exam is oriented toward actual practitioners. There are almost one hundred topic areas but the following are broad categories:

  • General Principles of Financial Planning (11%)
  • Insurance Planning & Risk Management (14%)
  • Employee Benefits Planning (8%)
  • Investment Planning (19%)
  • Income Tax Planning (14%)
  • Retirement Planning (19%)
  • Estate Planning (15%)

Comments

  1. jcvesey@sbcglobal.net 14 Feb 2007

    In the for what it is worth catagory, I am taking the CFP exam on March 16th and 17th. Thanks to your various analytical presentations for the FRM, I am well prepared for the investment planning part of this test. Thank you

  2. David Harper 16 Feb 2007

    Thanks John for your support over the years. I would love to hear about your experience with the CFP. Specifically, how does the difficulty compare to CFA/FRM and to what degree is there overlay?

  3. jcvesey@sbcglobal.net 26 Aug 2007

    David,
    How fortuitous that I accessed this. There is no comparison between the CFP and CFA/FRM exams. The CFP covers a large area of disciplines, but it is not highly specific on any particular subject. The analytical and investment portfolios part of the test cover the 1st phase of CFA and don’t address the disciplines of FRM. CFP is a great start on an enormous subject, but the exam is more subjective than objective. John

  4. jojo 07 Nov 2007

    Im beginning to think the the CFP is highly useless..the public generally does not know about the credential nor does it care..and securities law is not clear enough to inform them of the benefits of RIA,brokers,advisors,etc...so CFP, I think ill just keep my THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS and let my personal referrals speak for me..

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