Changes to CFP<sup>®</sup> certification program

Financial Planners Standards Council has officially announced changes to its Certified Financial Planner^® certification program, which will come into effect July 1, 2010.

In June 2008, FPSC released an exposure draft that outlined the proposed changes to the CFP certification program and invited all stakeholders to provide feedback during a three-month commentary period which ended September 23.

"FPSC thanks all those who submitted comments to the exposure draft. The comments were constructive and largely supportive of the direction we proposed. We aim to ensure future candidates to the financial planning profession possess and can demonstrate the competence required to best serve Canadians as their financial planning needs continue to evolve," says Cary List, FPSC president and CEO.

Changes at a glance

Examination
A two-staged examination process ("Professional Competence Exam" - PCE1 and PCE2) will replace the single six-hour CFP exam. FPSC has also incorporated a policy that restricts the maximum number of attempts to four for each examination.

Education
All candidates will be required to successfully complete an FPSC-approved capstone course, in order to be eligible to write the PCE2. The capstone course is required in addition to successful completion of FPSC-approved core curriculum education. The capstone course requires the completion of a financial plan as further demonstration of the candidate's understanding and application of financial planning fundamentals.

Candidates who are qualifying under the approved prior credential policy must still complete both exams and successfully complete the capstone course. (Approved prior credential includes CA, CGA, CMA, CFA, CLU, FCIA, Member of Provincial Law Society, PhD in Finance, Business or Economics.)

Work experience
All candidates will be required to complete three years of qualifying financial planning work experience (an increase from the current requirement of two years.)

Ethics requirement
All candidates will now be required to adhere to a code of ethics established by FPSC and maintain continuous registration with FPSC throughout the path to CFP certification. Currently, only those who have completed the CFP certification process must commit to abide by the code of ethics and practice standards.

For a full list of other changes related to timelines for the various requirements and other details, please visit www.fpsccanada.org.