With so many people now looking for advise about financial planning, one area of the accounting industry where there are plenty of opportunities for employment is that of certified financial planner. In this job you will be highly sought after and you need to distinguish yourself from a financial advisor, as the two jobs are completely different. With certification, you can work in a large firm or set up your own office and work independently.
The first requirement for becoming a certified financial planner is to have a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university. You do not necessarily need to have a degree in accounting or business to meet the education requirement. In addition, you don’t need to have the degree before you take the certification exam, but you must provide proof through a copy of your university transcript in order to receive your certificate. You have five years from the time you pass the examination to complete your degree program.
You also need to have work experience in the area of financial planning to become a certified financial planner. The regulatory agency for certification classifies this experience as working directly with clients, teaching courses in financial planning or working in a supervisory capacity in charge of financial planners. When evaluating your evidence of work experience the CFB board looks for six key areas:
- Establishing relationships with clients
- Data gathering to meet the client’s needs and goals
- Analyzing the financial status of the client
- Making recommendations
- Implementing these recommendations
- Continued monitoring of the financial plan
Another important component of the process of becoming a certified financial planner is to demonstrate that you comply with the ethics standards of this profession. There are character and fitness standards set down for those working at this type of accounting job. You must undergo a complete background check to ensure that you a re a person of high moral standards with no records of fraud or criminal activity of any kind. This is essential because you will be handling the finances of many people and often may be in control of large amounts of money. Your own financial status will be scrutinized in this process as well. For example, if you have declared bankruptcy in the ten years before you apply for certification, you will not be approved.
The exam you must take to become a certified financial planner consists of multiple-choice questions testing your ability to apply what you learned in your course work to real life scenarios. You will read scenarios and then answer the questions related to them. Another section of the exam tests your analytical and problem-solving skills. There are only certain locations and dates when these exams are administered, so you should pay careful attention to these details so that you don’t inadvertently miss the exam and have to wait for the next date.
