Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Designation is Not a Very High Bar

Last year, I took an official Certified Financial Planner (CFP) course, which satisfies the “Education” requirement of becoming an official Certified Financial Planner (CFP). Mine was online and self-paced at the University of Georgia with a net cost of around $3,000. I did not take the official CFP Exam ($925), nor did I satisfy the “Experience” requirement of 6,000 hours of “professional experience related to the financial planning process”. I don’t want the actual certification ($925 exam + $250 to apply + $575 every year + continuing education costs) – this is just an example of the strange things you can do with “financial independence”. 😜

In the end, I did learn more about several financial topics outside my personal bubble like using a financial calculator, handling estate issues for small business clients, and specific insurance topics. I would be glad that a prospective financial advisor at least had this basic core level of financial knowledge, but a lot of it was “studying for the test” and memorizing specific formulas and facts. It’s basically the equivalent of passing a semester or two of a single college class. I bought the physical textbooks, but passed the tests without opening them at all (just used the class slides). I’m still glad I tried it, otherwise I would still be curious.

The final requirement of a CFP is “Ethics”, which means passing their Candidate Fitness and Standards Background Check. Allan Roth is an experienced fee-only financial advisor whose opinion I respect, and he recently wrote a detailed article about How the CFP Board Sold Out the Public & the Profession. It’s certainly a disappointing read. Basically, the article outlines how the CFP Board is failing in its promise to only certify ethical financial planners. Many CFP holders with regulatory issues get to keep their CFP as long as they keeping paying the dues. “Nearly 1,000 CFPs have some form of criminal disclosure.”

Overall, my impression is that the CFP Board now mainly serves as a business selling the CFP designation to whoever is willing to pay the annual fees and continuing education fees as a signifier to the average person that they are a “educated and vetted financial planner”. They make millions on annual dues, exam prep classes, and continuing eduction tuition. The CFP took advantage of a vacuum, and unfortunately there really isn’t anything better. This means that all financial planners (good or bad) feel pressured to keep their CFP designation, even if they know it doesn’t mean much.

The takeaway is that a CFP designation is a bar, but not a very high bar. Yes, they took some coursework and passed a knowledge exam, although that exam is not nearly as hard as other financial tests like the CFA or CPA exams. Unfortunately, the CFP does not appear to aggressively weed out unethical advisors. The best advisors in the world still probably have a CFP, but many sketchy advisors with past complaints are also flashing their CFP. Be careful out there. Use BrokerCheck at a minimum, even if the CFP doesn’t.