CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professionals are required to complete 30 hours of continuing education (CE) each reporting period: A 2-hour pre-approved CFP Board Ethics course and 28 hours of general CE covering 1 or more of CFP Board’s Principal Topics.The CE requirement is effective immediately upon initial certification, or 12 months after successful completion of the CFP® examination if the Experience and/or Degree requirements have not been met. The CFP Board Ethics course is not required prior to certification.
CFP Board recommends that CFP® professionals take registered CE Programs to satisfy their CE requirement. CE credit may be granted for instructing or authoring CE programs as well.
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More on General CE Policies
The requirement is a pre-approved 2-hour CFP Board Ethics program that is specific to CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct. Ethics programs that have not been approved may count for general CE credit if they meet CFP Board’s CE standards – however, non-approved ethics programs will not satisfy the CFP Board Ethics CE requirement.
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Ethics CE Policies in Detail
CFP® professionals may access up-to-date information on CE hours that have been reported to their account by logging into their My Certification dashboard.
Registered CE Sponsors are required to report CE attendance records to CFP Board within 2 weeks of program completion. CFP Board sends email confirmation to CFP® professionals when any CE credit is applied to their accounts.
Programs not registered with CFP Board may be reported online by the CFP® professional for consideration. A $60 non-refundable reporting fee is required for each non-registered course that a CFP® professional submits for review. Non-registered CE course reviews will be completed within 3-5 business days of submissions.
More on Reporting CE Credits
Candidates who do not finish the CFP® certification process within 12 months of passing the CFP® examination begin to accrue a continuing education requirement at a rate of 15 CE credit hours per year (prorated at 1.25 CE credit hours per month). This accrual begins 13 months after passing the exam and continues until the Experience and Degree requirements have been met. CE accrual stops after the second of these two requirements is met, and must be completed within 6 months for the candidate to be eligible for certification. After CE completion, the candidate has access to the Ethics application and payment steps of the process.
More on Pre-Certification CE Requirements
Continuing education (CE) is the planned and systematic attempt to introduce or review the competencies and knowledge that advances the performance of CFP® professionals.
CE implies some form of learning that advances from previously established levels of educational and work experience accomplishments to extend and amplify knowledge and skills.
CE Hours are awarded for the purpose of documenting attendance at a CFP Board accepted course of instruction.
CFP® professionals are required to complete 30 hours of continuing education (CE) each reporting period: A 2-hour pre-approved CFP Board Ethics course and 28 hours of general CE covering one or more of CFP Board’s Principal Knowledge Topics.
The CFP Board Continuing Education requirement is designed to:
No. CE hours must be earned in the current reporting period. Any hours completed in excess of the 30 hours required for the reporting period will not be carried over to subsequent reporting periods. CE hours earned for any one program may not be split between two reporting periods. CFP® professionals cannot earn CE credit for completing the same program multiple times within the same reporting period.
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For renewal cycles beginning during or after Q1 2027: Yes, up to 10 hours of CE can roll over to the next two-year cycle.
For renewal cycles beginning prior to Q1 2027: CE hours must be completed within each two-year cycle and do not carry over.
For more information, please read CFP Board’s Renewal Policies and updates to the Competency Standards.
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You can quickly find CFP Board-approved CE programs using the “Find a CE Program” tool on CFP.net.
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If your CE credit is not automatically reported by the CE sponsor, you can self-report CE in your CFP Board account. Follow these steps
To maintain CFP® certification, all CFP® professionals must complete 30 hours of continuing education (CE), which must include completion of a 2-hour, pre-approved CFP Board ethics CE course. However, recent updates to the Competency Standards are changing the requirements beginning in April of 2027.
For renewal cycles beginning after Q1 2027: To maintain CFP® certification, all CFP® professionals must complete 40 hours of continuing education (CE) credit every two years. These new standards require 2 hours of Ethics CE and 38 hours of General CE, effective in renewal cycles starting during or after Q1 2027.
For more information, please read CFP Board’s Renewal Policies and updates to the Competency Standards.
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If you don’t complete or report your CE courses by your renewal date, you certification will expire and your marks will be relinquished.
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Candidates for CFP® certification that do not complete the certification process within 12 months of passing the CFP® Certification Examination, begin to accrue a continuing education requirement at a rate of 15 CE credit hours per year (prorated at 1.25 CE credit hours per month). This accrual begins 13 months after passing the exam and continues until the Experience and bachelor’s degree requirements have been fulfilled.
Candidates are NOT required to complete a CFP Board Ethics course. With the Ethics requirement as the exception, pre-certification CE requirements follow the same CE policy as CFP® professionals. Click here to review those requirements.
You must meet the CE requirement every two years by the end of your reporting cycle, usually the same month as your CFP® certification renewal. You can check when your renewal is due or how many CE hours you have earned by logging into your CFP Board account.
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CE sponsors are required to report credit to CFP Board within 14 days of the course completion.
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Candidates for CFP® certification can receive CE credit for completing continuing education programs, completing college level courses, authoring publications or teaching. CE programs registered with CFP Board can be found using the Find a CE Program search tool. CFP Board's database of CE programs can be searched by a keyword or topic, sponsor name, delivery format (Live or Self-Study), level of complexity, or by the number of CE credit hours offered.
In order to be eligible for CE credit, programs must:
Programs that meet CFP Board's CE requirements are eligible for CE credit. CFP Board does not consider whether or not activities satisfy other designations' or licenses' CE requirements when determining if a program is eligible for CE credit. A program accepted towards another designation or license could be eligible for CE credit as long as it met CFP Board's CE requirements.
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The pre-certification CE requirement is cumulative, not specific by year. CE credit hours do not need to be completed within the year they have been accrued. CE credit hours may be completed at any time during the candidacy period, which begins upon candidates passing the CFP® Certification Examination and ends upon certification.
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A CE credit hour is equivalent to 50 minutes of completion time.
CE credit for Live Programs is based in an initial unit of at least one CE credit hour (minimum of 50 minutes constituting one CE credit hour), with half-hour increments accepted after the initial CE credit hour has been satisfied. The total credit hours are rounded down to the last full half hour.
CE credit for Self-Study Programs is determined, in part, by the number of assessment questions. The program must contain 5 questions per CE credit hour requested. For example, a 3.00 credit hour Self-Study Program must take at least 150 minutes to complete and have a minimum of 15 exam questions.
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Lists of pre-accepted CE programs can be generated using CFP Board's Find a CE Program search tool. Results can be filtered by keyword, sponsor, delivery format, and level of complexity.
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CE sponsors are required to report pre-accepted CE programs to CFP Board for credit. When CE hours are reported by a sponsor, an email notification from CFP Board is sent to the individuals that receive credit.
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Yes and we encourage candidates to do so. Candidates can review up-to-date information regarding the CE credit hours that have been reported to their accounts by taking the following steps:
Certification will not take place until you have fulfilled and reported your entire CE requirement. If you do not complete the CE requirement within six months from the date you fulfill the experience and degree requirements, in order to obtain CFP® certification you will be required to retake and pass the CFP® Certification Examination and meet the certification requirements in place at the time you submit a new CFP® Certification Examination application. Exceptions, due to extenuating circumstances, will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
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Documentation for CE hours should be kept on file for at least four years following program completion. Consult Section 8 of the Continuing Education Policy for direction on what documentation to collect and retain.
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CFP Board actively seeks feedback about CE programs. We encourage you to submit a CE Program Evaluation Form any time you have comments about a program you have completed that you would like to share.
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At CFP Board Connections Conference, Oct. 5-7 in Las Vegas, you’ll gain actionable ideas, build valuable connections across the financial advice ecosystem and earn up to 15 CE credits while exploring the trends shaping the future of financial planning.
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