CFP (Certified Financial Planner)

CFP or Certified Financial Planner is a certification given by the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) to individuals who wish to take up financial planning as a profession. The CFP is recognized internationally and considered the best for financial planning training, education and ethics to practice.

The FPSB defines financial planning as a “process of developing strategies to help people manage their financial affairs to meet life goals.” It includes analyzing the client’s financial status, developing a financial plan for the client and implementing it for the client’s benefit.  

A Certified Financial Planner can find several career opportunities in financial advisory services as well as in the finance sector. A financial planner can offer services in the capacity of a consultant or represent his/her organization for offering financial planning services to individuals and organisations.

To earn the CFP certification, professionals must fulfill certain eligibility criteria and complete the 6-module CFP Certification Education Programme.

CFP Eligibility Criteria

One can earn the CFP certification under two modes – Regular Pathway and Challenge Status Pathway. Given below is the CFP eligibility criteria of both the modes.

Regular Pathway Eligibility:

The candidate must have passed class 12^th and should have cleared the five exam covering all six modules of the certification programme to be certified as a CFP by the FPSB.

Challenge Status Pathway Eligibility:

Candidate who have cleared CA/Intermediate level, CFA, ICWA, CAIIB, CS, LLB, PhD, MPhil, PG, Licentiate/Associate/ Fellowship of Life Insurance, Actuary, FFSI & FLMI from LOMA, Civil Service Examinations by UPSC can apply through Challenge Status Pathway. In this mode, the candidates are required to clear only the fifth exam (Advanced Financial Planning) to earn the certification.

CFP Exams

The CFP certification programme includes five exams for six modules. There is no separate exam for the first module. Its weightage is added to the rest five modules (20% each). The six modules are listed below:

Module 1	Introduction To Financial Planning
Module 2	Risk Analysis & Insurance Planning
Module 3	Retirement Planning & Employee Benefits
Module 4	Investment Planning
Module 5	Tax Planning & Estate Planning
Module 6	Advanced Financial Planning

CFP Fees

CFP fee structure is different for Regular Pathway and Challenge Status Pathway. Take a look at registration, exam and certification fees of both:

Fee Structure: Regular Pathway

Description	Fees
Student Registration Fees with FPSB India	Rs 16, 385 (valid for one year)
Exam Fees (Paper 1-4)	Rs 4,130 per exam per attempt
Exam Fees (Paper 5)	Rs 8,260 per attempt
CFPCM Certification Fees	Rs 7,080 (renewed annually)

Fee Details: Challenge Status Pathway

Mede of enrollment	Fees	Description
FPSB India (Direct)	Rs 29,955	Registration fees (valid for one year), certification fees and administration & processing fees.
Through Charter Members of FPSB India	Rs 15,795	Registration fees (valid for one year), initial CFP certification fees, administration and processing fees.

CFP syllabus and topics

The syllabus of FPSB’s financial planning programme includes eight topics which cover all the aspects, right from fundamentals of the programme to application of skills in the real world. Take a look at the CFP syllabus below:

CFP certification programme components	Details
1.Financial Planning Principles, Process and Skills	Financial planning process
	Financial planning practice and ethics
	Professional Skills
	Regulatory, economic and political environments that affect personal financial planning
	Law and compliance
	Time value of money
	Client characteristics
	Client risk profile
	Client engagement and communications
	Critical thinking
2. Financial Management	Principles of financial management
	Personal and small business balance sheet (net worth statement)
	Use and non-use assets
	Cash flow statement
	Budget preparation and management
	Savings analysis and strategy
	Emergency fund
	Credit and debt management
	Financial ratio analysis
	Specific purpose planning
3. Tax Principles and Optimization	Taxation principles
	Tax planning objectives
	Tax planning principles
	Tax planning law and policy
	Tax analysis and calculations
	Tax planning strategies
	Tax planning for asset location
4. Investment Planning / Asset Management	Investment principles
	Investment objectives, constraints, capacity and suitability
	Investment time horizon
	Behavioral finance
	Asset classes
	Investment theory
	Performance measurement
	Asset allocation and performance
	Investment products – evaluation, selection and monitoring
5. Risk Management and Insurance Planning	Risk management principles
	Insurance planning objectives
	Analysis and evaluation of risk exposures
	Risk strategies
	Risk management products
	Insurance law and claims process
	Product, company and adviser selection and due diligence
6. Retirement Planning	Retirement principles
	Retirement objectives
	Retirement needs analysis and forecasts
	Potential sources of retirement income
	Retirement income and withdrawal projections and strategies
	Retirement planning and funding products
7. Estate Planning and Wealth transfer	Estate planning principles
	Estate planning objectives
	Legal related issues
	Asset ownership and its implications
	Estate planning documents
	Succession planning
	Special family situation
	Projected financial situation at death
	Estate planning strategies
	Philanthropy and charitable giving
	Management in the event of incapacity (i.e., living estate planning)
8. Integrated Financial Planning	Client engagement, communication, and financial planning process
	Collection and data
	Attitudes, goals and objectives
	Issues and problems
	Analysis
	Strategies
	Synthesis and recommendations
	Implementation
	Periodic review

CFP Job Role

The job role of a Certified Financial Planner includes essentially four tasks.

1. Identifying the client:  Interviewing individuals or companies to understand their financial goals, purpose of investment and related concerns.

2. Assessing the client’s financial status:  Analyzing the client’s area of income, flow of income, assets, debts and problem areas. Foreseeing the future to the basis of historical and present status.

3. Making a financial plan for the client: After analyzing the status of the client’s financial goals and status, the CFP makes an investment plan for the client.

4. Implementing the plan and reviewing it periodically: If the plan is approved by the client, the CFP implements the plan and reviews it periodically to ensure that the client receives maximum benefit.

CFP Salary

The average salary of a certified financial planner Rs 3.5 lakh per year in India. There is a lot of scope for CFP’s to earn over and above the fixed salary in the form of bonus (Rs 50,000 in average), profit sharing (Rs 22,000 in average) or commission (Rs 75,000 in average).

*Salary data has been obtained from Payscale.com

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Following are the most popular CFP (Certified Financial Planner) Specializations . You can explore the top Colleges offering these Specializations by clicking the links below.