How Hard Can It Be? - by Adam Werner
At the Haas Financial Group, one of our 6 Core Values is Education. This includes both educating our clients on their potential options and strategies prior to making important decisions, and also educating ourselves to make sure we deliver on our promise of providing comprehensive planning. Now, Ben and I are required to complete continuing education requirements every 2 years for our securities and insurance licenses and we also attend educational conferences regularly, but those pale in comparison to the rigorous education requirements needed to become a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™.
Ben has been a CFP® since January of 2013 and as of this past November, I’ve officially started the process in an attempt to earn my own CFP® designation. The designation allows you to help individuals and families “pull all their finances together, solve financial problems, and make a plan to achieve their financial goals,” according to the CFP Board1. And as of the end of February 2019, there are only 83,233 CFP® Certificants in the United States1. So, it’s an elite group to be a part of.
I say this completely tongue in cheek and with as much sarcasm as I can muster (for those that know me, know that’s a lot), but how hard can it be for me to become a CFP® Professional?!? I mean, the general consensus in the industry is that it should take about 2 years’ worth of classes and studying, and then pass a 7-hour test (don’t worry they give you a whole 40-minute break in the middle, phew!) that has a 64% historical pass rate according to the CFP Board. Oh, and I’m going to try to get this all done in 15 months, piece of cake…
The bad news is that I’m 12 years removed from my last “classroom” experience in college. However, the good news is that I’ve been working in a financial planning capacity for the last 11+ years. And with technological advancements since the last time I was in school, I can now “attend” class anytime and anywhere as long as I have an internet connection. So, I may be out of practice when it comes to studying, but I have WAY more practical knowledge than I did then, which will hopefully make the process a little bit easier.
So, stay tuned, I’ll share updates as I go through this wonderfully fun and SUPER easy process 😀
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