The Certified Financial Planner Exam

  The Certified Financial Planner certification is the designation awarded to those individuals who were able to complete the formal CFP course program and most of all successfully passed the Certified Financial Planner Certification Exam.

The CFP exam is known as an assessment test that will gauge your learning in all aspect of financial services. Aside from that this exam will also gauge your knowledge and skills on how you will apply what you have learned once you are placed in a real life financial situation. This is the reason why the Certified Financial Planner Exam is said to be the most challenging exam in the financial services industry.

The Certified Financial Planner exam is administered by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards and it covers almost a hundred if topics that cover financial planning field as well as all aspects of financial services. This includes the investment planning, insurance planning, income tax planning, estate planning, retirement planning and many more.

This is a 10 hours exam that is divided in two days. During the first day you will take the exam for 4 hours then on the second day it will be divided into 2 three hours session. There will be about 285 test questions that will cover all areas of financial planning as well as financial services field. The total number of questions that is related to case studies usually varies from one exam to another. But approximately 20% of the exam is consists of case study questions. The reference for the passing score is that the performance is being measured according to a set level of required competency rather than the scores of the other examiners who took the same exam. This is done in order to prevent any advantages or disadvantages that might occur when past exams were of lower or higher difficulty.

For you to take the Certified Financial Planner Exam there are various requirements that is set by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards that you must complete. You have to earn a Bachelor’s degree or higher from any form of discipline as long as it is from an accredited college or university. Aside from that you also have to complete the CFP course program wherein you have to take special course topics such as Fundamentals of Financial Planning, Estate Planning, Employee Benefits Planning, Insurance Planning, Income Tax Planning, Investment Planning, Retirement Planning, Case Study in Financial Planning and Capstone course in Financial Planning. Taking these special courses is your key in passing the CFP exam.

Another requirement is that you must have a three years full time working experience as a financial planner, assistant financial planner or any career related in the financial services industry. And lastly, you have to agree and submit for a background check in order to see if you have any legal issues and most of all you have to adhere to the Code of Ethics set by the CPF Boards.

Know more about the  Certified FinancialPlanner Exam and what the exam is all about. Find out more about the Certified Financial Planner Exam by visiting and learn more aboutthe CFP profession.