The CFP® Mark
What the
Certification mark means?
Consumers are currently facing many
challenges managing their personal finances.
Responsibility for retirement planning is shifting from
the government and employers to the individual. Job
security is no longer guaranteed, the variety and
complexity of financial products is increasing, and the
Asian crisis combined with volatile global stock markets
have left many consumers feeling confused. The need for
professional advice in such an atmosphere is great, but
greater still is consumers' need for assurance that the
professionals they choose for financial advice are
qualified and competent.
As consumer demand for qualified advice grows, the field
of financial planning, in which poor performance on the
part of the practitioner can lead to significant harm to
the consumer, must embrace professional certification if
it is to be taken seriously as a profession.
Professional certification connotes competency,
occupational experience, and adherence to standards of
practice.
For consumers to accept financial planning practitioners
as qualified, trustworthy professionals, they must be
provided with an easily-identifiable, objective means of
measuring the practitioners' experience, education,
professional competence and ethical standards. The
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM certification process
serves that purpose by defining what a financial
planning professional is, establishing standards of
professional practice and creating a "mark of quality"
that consumers can recognise and to which practitioners
can aspire.
FPAS will therefore seek to provide the certification
framework for the financial planning industry in
Singapore. FPAS will oversee the administration of the
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM and Associate Financial
Planner certification process, and grant to qualified
individuals the right to use the CFP® and AFPTM
marks.
The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM or
CFP® certification will be gained by certain
individuals who have demonstrated technical competency,
combined significant practical experience, enabling them
to write (to international standards) a comprehensive
and detailed financial plan for an individual.
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The CFP®
Certification Requirements
In order to be certified, a CFP®
candidate must meet all four requirements of the
certification process described below, while an AFPCM
candidate must meet the education, examination and the
ethics requirements:
Education
Before applying for the
Certification Examination(s), a candidate must
complete academic coverage of the financial planning
curricula including: foundations in financial
planning (AFPCM course), risk management and
insurance planning, tax planning and estate
planning, investment planning, retirement planning,
and financial plan construction and professional
responsibilities. Completion of the academic
requirement is available through three educational
paths, namely self-study or distance learning,
part-time course, or full-time course.
Examination
Upon successful completion of the
academic requirement, the candidate is eligible to
apply for the Certification Examination(s). The
Certification Examination is designed to assess the
candidate's ability to apply his/her financial
planning education to financial planning situations
in an integrated format, thereby protecting the
public by assuring that he/she is at the appropriate
level of competency required for practice.
Experience
This centers on work which
involves personal financial planning-related
experience. It is designed to provide the public
with the assurance that the candidate understands
the counseling nature of personal financial
planning. The requirement is three years, performed
before or after the successful completion of the
Certification Examination.
Experience requirement is defined as the
supervision1, direct support2, teaching3, or the
personal delivery of all or part of the personal
financial planning process to a client4. Qualifying
experience must be able to be categorized into the
six primary elements of the personal financial
planning process summarised below:
- Establishing the cleint-planner relationship.
- Gathering client data.
- Determining the client's financial status.
- Developing and presenting a client-specific
financial plan tailored to meet the goals and
objectives of the client.
- Implementing the financial plan.
- Monitoring the financial plan.
This experience may be gained in the following
areas:
FPAS reserve the right to conduct interview(s) to
determine the suitability of experience disclosed. Decision made thereafter by
FPAS is final.
*If you perform some or all of the functions listed, you are considered to
perform the primary element.
-
All levels of supervision are acceptable if the chain of
supervision eventually leads back to the planner.
-
Must be directly responsible for information that is
provided to the planner/client and have reasonable liability for the client.
-
Credit for teaching is limited to the instruction of the
CFP® educational curriculum in a FPAS Registered Program. Teaching
finance-related classes (for college credit) full-time at any non-FPAS
Registered Program university is given two years worth of experience credit,
but the third year of experience must be personal-financial planning
experience or teaching the CFP® educational curriculum courses full-time at
a FPAS Registered Program.
-
"Client" denotes a person who engages a practitioner and
for whom professional services are rendered. Pro-bono experience is accepted
as long as (1) there is a client and (2) you are acting as a financial
planning professional who is capable and qualified to offer objective,
integrated, and comprehensive financial advice to or for the benefit of
individuals to help them achieve their financial objectives using the
financial planning process.
Timeliness of Experience
Qualifying work experience can be earned prior to, concurrent with, or
subsequent to your education and examination requirements. Experience earned
more than 5 years prior to the certification examination, however, will not be
accepted. When the experience is earned subsequent to the examination, you must
complete the requirement within five years of the date of the successful
completion of the examination. (Note: candidates who qualify through the
challenge status must have three years experience earned prior to writing the
Certification Examination ie Module 6 of the CFP® Programme).
Ethics
Once the education, examination, and work experience
requirements are satisfied, the CFP® candidate will receive a Declaration
Packet, which includes an ethics statement form and his/her licence
application with a bill for the initial licence fee. The AFPCM candidate
will also receive a Declaration Packet on completion of the education and
examination requirements. Prior to certification, the CFP® or AFPCM
candidate will be required to disclose past or pending litigation or agency
proceedings and to acknowledge the right of FPAS to enforce its Professional
Standards and Code of Ethics through due process described.
Once certified, CFP® licensees must fulfill a biennial continuing education
requirement of 30 hours to stay up-to-date on planning strategies and
financial trends affecting their clients. In addition, the FPAS monitors
compliance with its Professional Standards and
Code of Ethics by requiring an annual disclosure statement and by
investigating consumer complaints and licensees' periodic disclosures of
investigations or legal proceedings. AFPCM licensees will also have a
continuing education requirement, although it is less onerous.
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Cross-Border Marks Use Policy
If an individual who is certified by an FPSB Affiliate moves to another territory that also has an FPSB Affiliate (in this case Singapore), he or she is permitted only incidental use of the CFP® marks in that new territory (Singapore) unless he or she also becomes certified by the FPSB Affiliate (FPAS) in the new territory. Incidental use is defined as use in articles, brochures, etc. for purposes other than seeking financial business in the new territory.
He or she cannot use the CFP® marks on his or her business card in Singapore, which is not considered incidental; he or she can include the biographical statement “Certified to advise on (country where he or she was originally certified) financial planning matters by the (name of the original FPSB Affiliate), an Affiliate of Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd.” The only way he or she can use the CFP® marks in Singapore is to become certified by FPAS.
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The ASSOCIATE FINANCIAL PLANNER or AFPCM
The ASSOCIATE FINANCIAL PLANNERCM or AFPCM will be competent to recommend general financial planning strategies and to advise on the appropriate selection and use of various financial products for individuals, e.g. insurance, unit trusts, and a broad range of securities and banking products.
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The AFP Certification Requirements
In order to be certified, an AFPCM candidate must meet the education, examination and the ethics requirements.
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are certification marks owned outside the U.S. by
Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. Financial
Planning Association of Singapore is the marks licensing
authority for the CFP marks in Singapore, through
agreement with FPSB.