Certified Financial Planner (CFP): A Comprehensive Report

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Certified Financial Planners
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Who is the CFP? What does he do?
A certified financial planner CFP deals with personal financial planning for individuals
and businesses. It provides guidance on how to make expenditure budgets,
investments and savings decisions for various personal and professional matters. A
CFP needs to have good communication skills as he faces these clients directly
(Mitchell and Smetters, 2013). The primary duties of CFP include interviewing clients to
know their needs, analyzing the financial information that the client provides and
research on that, provides recommendations regarding financial plans. He needs to
have very strong analytical skills and interpersonal skills so that he can quickly
understand client requirements and comfortably talk to them.
A financial planner can complete the CFP Board-registered education program to
become a certified financial planner. He can also provide better advice regarding cash
and debt management to companies, insurance investments to individuals and other
personal finance related recommendations.
History:
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. (CFP Board) was established in
1985. It is a non-profit organization which is categorized as 501© (3) and it works in the
interest of the public. It promotes good financial practices, professionalism and ethical
financial planning. It provides all this using the CFP certification (Lachance and Tang,
2012). There are more than 94000 CFP certified people as of today across the world
which shows how important this board is.
Qualification required becoming a CFP:

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The education needed to become a certified financial planner has consisted of two
parts:
 An individual has to complete the education of college or university level studies
by the help of a registered program with the CFP board. Then that person will
address the bigger self financial planning areas which are identified or pointed
out by the board of CFP who releases most of the current job of a person who
analyzes studies of the various universities.
 After completing studies an individual should verify their degree which will show
that a particular person is a bachelor or bigger in the qualification from the
accredited college or any university. Accreditation should be understood by the
department of U.S. of education or studies every time the degree is given or
awarded by the university-affiliated to this department of education (Getie Mihret,
et. al., 2012).
 The requirement of the course should be fulfilled or completed before a person is
about to take CFP examination of certification. The degree of bachelor is needed
might be completed after a person clears the examination.
Skills needed to become a successful CFP:
A CFP is a person who is recognized globally in the field of financial planning. It helps a
person to stand different from another person who provides financial advice.
The skills which are required to be a successful certified financial planner are as follows:
- Number of head: - The finance of a person includes numbers, a CFP must be a
helping hand of that type of person who is ready to perform various types of

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calculations which is highly inextricable in nature. A person should have skills of
working out in a different method of permutation and combinations.
- Good grasping power: - To become a certified financial planner a person should
a great grasping power because the syllabus of this course is really very big and
vast which makes it highly complicated to understand and it needs so much of
practice to create a good grasping power. A great grasping power will help a
person to clear the exam more efficiently and effectively (Getie Mihret, et. al.,
2012).
- Quantitative ability: - A person must have a good knowledge of financial
calculations if that person wants to become a certified financial planner. It shows
the importance of a person to have a good understanding of quantitative skills.
Quantitative ability is really important to perform the calculations while planning
of the finance or money of the client.
Why somebody will go to CFP:
The main reason why a person will choose CFP as a career is that it will automatically
increase the authentication of that person's knowledge and value of the degree held by
that individual. This certification course will enhance the value of the financial planning
career of an individual and give an extra edge to the plans which are created by an
individual for the financial purpose. It will go to develop a different society of the person
who performs the job as a financial planner (Tang and Lachance, 2012). The name
certified financial planner itself is the very prestigious tag for a person because the
requirement of a financial planner is increasing day by day.

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References:
Getie Mihret, D., James, K., & Mula, J. M. (2012). Accounting professionalization amidst
alternating state ideology in Ethiopia. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability
Journal, 25(7), 1206-1233.
Lachance, M. E., & Tang, N. (2012). Financial advice and trust. Financial Services
Review, 21(3).
Mitchell, O. S., & Smetters, K. (Eds.). (2013). The market for retirement financial advice.
OUP Oxford.
Tang, N., & Lachance, M. E. (2012). FINANCIAL ADVICE: WHAT ABOUT
LOWINCOME CONSUMERS?. Journal of Personal Finance, 11(2).