Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC) has made changes to its continuing education (CE) program guidelines for CFP professionals and FPSC registered candidates.
While financial planning CE activities that map back to the CFP Professional Competency Profile remain the cornerstone for providing advice, FPSC has expanded the CE program to include three new categories: practice management, product knowledge, and giving back to the profession.
“A CFP professional needs to be more than just technically competent to effectively serve his or her client – it’s about being a well-rounded professional with a vast array of knowledge, skills and abilities. The addition of three new CE categories reflects the complete skillset that will help CFP professionals serve their clients as effectively as possible,” says Cary List, president & CEO, FPSC.
Effective January 2014, FPSC has also adjusted the number of credits required in order to accommodate the expanded categories. The annual CE requirement will be 25 credits, consisting of a minimum of 10 credits linked directly to the Competency Profile and a maximum of five credits in each of the new categories. The non-verifiable CE requirement will be removed.
In 2012 alone, the community of CFP professionals donated more than 6,000 hours to the financial planning profession. The new giving back to the profession category acknowledges the important work of all CFP professionals who volunteer their time to give back to the profession.
Qualifying CE for this category includes the knowledge and skills that come from engaging with the community, with industry associations, or in other ways that “give back” to the financial planning profession (e.g. publishing research, pro-bono teaching, participating in the Financial Planning Week Community Challenge, etc.).
Qualifying CE for practice management includes the knowledge and skills used in building professional relationships and growing a professional practice (e.g. prospecting, networking, business planning, etc.).
Qualifying CE for product knowledge includes the product knowledge that you would use – if appropriately licensed – to advise on and sell products or comment on products held by your clients.
More about the categories and new FPSC CE guidelines can be found here.