Becoming a Certified Financial Planner

To become certified, you are required to meet the following initial certification requirements (known as the four "E's"):

• Education
• Examination
• Experience
• Ethics

Education
The CFP® Certification Examination requires knowledge in all of the areas covered by the financial planning topic list of the CFP® Board. The UNL Family Financial Planning program is a CFP Board-Registered Program and provides a curriculum based upon the CFP® Board topic list.

Examination
When the education requirement is met, you will be eligible to apply for the CFP® Certification Examination. The CFP® Certification Examination assesses your ability to apply your financial planning knowledge, based on the CFP® Board topic list, in an integrated format, to financial planning situations.

Experience
Three years of full-time relevant personal financial planning experience are required. Because CFP® certification indicates to the public your ability to provide financial planning without supervision, CFP board requires you to have experience in the financial planning processes.

Ethics
CFP® certification requires you to agree to adhere to CFP Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Financial Planning Practice Standards, and acknowledge CFP Board's right to enforce them through its Disciplinary Rules and Procedures. The Certification Application also asks for disclosure as to whether you have been a party (or involved) in any criminal, civil, governmental, or self-regulatory agency proceeding or inquiry.

Candidate Fitness Standards
Additionally, applicants for CFP® certification need to pass CFP Board's Candidate Fitness Standards, which describe conduct that will always bar an individual from becoming certified and conduct that is presumed to be unacceptable and will bar an individual from becoming certified unless the individual successfully petitions CFP Board's Disciplinary and Ethics Commission for reconsideration.