If you’re a financial planner, you’ve probably heard of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. The Certified Financial Planner Board is the institute of certified financial planners that you’ll need to be a member of if you’d like to become a credible financial planning market force. The Board, established in 1969, grants a ‘CFP certification’, and, according to its web site, “uphold[s] it as the recognized standard of excellence for personal financial planning.” Getting certified with the Certified Financial Planner Board is easy if you have the skills necessary to be a financial planner. First of all, you will need to prove to the Certified Financial Planner Board that you have the necessary education to become a certified financial planner. This can be achieved through the completion of a college course or another CFP-certified program. Secondly, you’ll need to pass a certification exam run by the Board, sort of like the bar exam is run for potential lawyers.
Thirdly, you will need to prove to the Board that you have at least three years of qualifying full time work experience in practicing or teaching financial planning process. Finally, background checks will have to be passed and a fee paid. Once this process is complete, you will receive a certification from the Certified Financial Planner Board, as well as possible authorization to use some of the Board’s registered trade marks! As mentioned, when you have completed the certification program run by the Board, you’ll be able to use some of the Board’s registered trade marks, including the ‘CFP’ logo. However, you must not use the trade marks before you are authorized, as this may not be legal. In addition, premature use of the Board’s trade marks may result in you not being able to use the trade marks… ever! Passing the Certified Financial Planner certification exam should be easy if you have completed the required qualifications, although if you need to do some pre-exam revision, it would be a good idea to visit the Board’s web site (http://www.cfp.net) and downloading the topic lists used for past exams. This will help you to predict what will be on your edition of the exam. Of course there are tons of financial planner firms out there and it’s going to be tough to find the best one for you. What most people do is to find someone in their area such as tampa financial planners who they can meet face to face to discuss their finances.