The Certified Financial Planner is an appellation that is provided to financial planners by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. In order to receive the certification, the applicants have to fulfill certain educational requirements and also have to appear and clear certain examinations.
Explanation of Certified Financial Planner
A Certified Financial Planner is basically a designation that is provided to a financial planner by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards in the United States. In order to obtain the permission to use the said designation, the applicants are required to satisfy a few educational, examination, experience and ethical criteria.
The applicants are also supposed to pay a certain amount of money as certification fee when they are in the process of receiving the certification.
Educational Criteria of Certified Financial Planner
As per the regulations that were in operation till the month of March 2007, the applicants who wish to obtain a Certified Financial Planner certification are required to have completed a degree program at the undergraduate level from an accredited college or a university in the United States of America.
They are also supposed to be tutored on the following subjects that are related to financial planning:
General Principles of Finance and Financial Planning
Estate Tax, Gift Tax, and Transfer Tax Planning
Insurance Planning
Asset Protection Planning
Employee Benefits Planning
Retirement Planning
Investment and Securities Planning
Estate Planning
State and Federal Income Tax Planning
Examination of Certified Financial Planner
In order to become a Certified Financial Planner, the aspirants have to undergo an examination. The examination is known as the CFP Certification Examination. The duration of the examination is ten hours. The examination is split up into a session spanning four hours and two sessions of three hours each.
The four hour examination session takes place on a Friday afternoon and the three hour examination sessions are held on Saturdays. In case the applicants hold a degree that has already been approved by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, they are eligible to appear in the examination without having to fulfill the educational requirements.