Certified Financial Planner
Posted on October 14th, 2009 in Finance |
People seem to imagine that certified financial planner are people who specialize in helping with business strategy and managing finances in big firms like huge multinationals. This is hardly the case in reality. For any money problems in normal, everyday life, a certified financial planner would be the best person who might be able to assist you. Retirement planning and maybe even general financial problems are things for which you could use the assistance of a certified financial planner.
So what is the difference between a certified financial planner and any normal financial planner? There is indeed a big difference. Anyone can make the claim that he/she is a financial planner. But only a person certified by the Certified Planner Board of Standards can be considered to be a certified financial planner.
The first step towards becoming a certified financial planner is getting a minimum of a bachelor s degree from a reputed college in the country. Many people might not know that you have to study and master integrated financial planning; you actually have to study 100 topics on this. So obviously the path is not all flowery and easy. The exam that you need to pass in order to qualify as a certified financial planner is a tough ride too. It has 10 hours worth of multiple choice questions. The case problems in the exam will test on your ability and talent to use your knowledge in a situation that calls for use of financial planning. So to get through the exam and become a certified financial planner you should have both the necessary academic knowledge and also practical skills.
Every certified financial planner has extensive knowledge on how to tackle a client’s needs no matter how small or big they are. A certified financial planner in short should be a real expert on the subject of finance in general.
With the recession and the inability of financial planners to predict the crisis and take steps to avoid it people seem to have somewhat lost faith in financial planners in general. Therefore, you may want to re-think pursuing this career right now. So maybe there ought to be more foresight and transparency in financial functions and as experts on this area certified financial planner cfp should be very much involved in this attempt to produce a greater, more sound financial system.