The Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation is a certification for financial planners granted by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards in the United States and several other organizations affiliated to Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB), the international owner of the CFP designation outside of the US. The CFP designation helps a person to advance his career as a financial planner.
In order to gain the CFP designation, the candidate must meet certain requirements in the areas of Education, Examination, Experience and Ethics (known as "the four Es").
Education: To complete a set of financial planning courses. Other than completing courses in financial planning, applicants for the CFP certification must also have a bachelor's degree (or higher), or its equivalent, in any discipline, from an accredited college or university in order to obtain CFP certification.
Examination: The CFP exam is held three times a year, and is conducted over a day and half through three sessions having a total duration of 10 hours. The fee for CFP is USD 595 and there is an extra site fee if the exam is conducted outside US.
Experience: There is a three years full time or equivalent part time related experience required for the candidate. The details of experience requirements can be found here.
Ethics: The candidate has to agree to be bound by CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Practice Standards.
Once you have successfully met the requirements and completed the initial certification process, you will need to meet ongoing education and disclosure requirements to maintain the CFP certification.
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