October is National Financial Planning Month — Watch CFP Board Chair Liz Miller on GMA & Download the Toolkit
The Experience Requirement
The Paths to Experience
There are 2 pathways for candidates to fulfill the experience requirement for CFP® certification: the 6,000-Hour Standard Pathway or the 4,000-Hour Apprenticeship Pathway. Report experience activities and responsibilities that reflect your financial planning knowledge and competencies in your account today!
What Qualifies As Experience?
Qualifying experience includes activities involving the delivery of financial planning services to individual clients. Whether your work experience involves directly working in personal financial planning, directly engaging with personal financial planners, or conducting tasks in support of the personal financial planning process, there are many ways to complete the experience requirement.
Activities that do not relate to the personal financial planning process for clients (such as time spent in corporate finance, training, practice management, marketing, software development or administrative duties) cannot be included in your reported number of experience hours.
What Pathway Makes Sense for My Experience?
6,000-Hour Standard Pathway
On our Standard Pathway, qualifying activities or responsibilities must satisfy a two-part requirement.
Part 1: Your experience must fall within one or more of the 7 primary elements of the personal financial planning process:
- Understanding the Client’s Personal and Financial Circumstances
- Identifying and Selecting Goals
- Analyzing the Client’s Current Course of Action and Potential Alternative Course(s) of Action
- Developing the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Presenting the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Implementing the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Monitoring Progress and Updating
Part 2: Your experience can be satisfied through one or more of the following 5 ways:
- Personally engaging with individual clients.
- Supporting the financial planner and/or financial planning process (directly or indirectly).
- Supervising financial planners and/or the financial planning process (and may also have direct client interaction.
- Completing an internship or the Financial Planning Association (FPA) residency program.
- Teaching college-level courses in financial planning concepts.
4,000-Hour Apprenticeship Pathway
On our Apprenticeship Pathway, qualifying activities and responsibilities must satisfy a 3-part requirement.
Part 1: Your job activities must include experience in all 7 primary elements of the personal financial planning process:
- Understanding the Client’s Personal and Financial Circumstances
- Identifying and Selecting Goals
- Analyzing the Client’s Current Course of Action and Potential Alternative Course(s) of Action
- Developing the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Presenting the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Implementing the Financial Planning Recommendation(s)
- Monitoring Progress and Updating
Part 2: Your experience must be delivered by primarily engaging with individual clients for financial planning purposes.
Part 3: Your experience must be completed under the direct supervision of a CFP® professional, with verification and attestation from the supervising CFP® professional conducted by CFP Board. If your experience entry meets all requirements for the Apprenticeship Pathway, you will be prompted to enter your supervisor’s CFP® ID number for confirmation.
If you believe you have entered your experience entry incorrectly, please contact us for more details and assistance
What Is My Timeline to Complete Experience?
Experience must be completed within 10 years before and/or 5 years after successful completion of the CFP® exam. If a start date for an experience entry falls outside of the 10-year or 5-year windows, you will need to add additional experience within the appropriate timeline.
If you do not complete the experience and/or bachelor’s degree certification requirements within five years of passing the exam, you will be required to retake the current CFP® exam to continue your candidacy for certification.
However, you can request a one-time, three-year extension, granted on a case-by-case basis. Your Policy Exception must be received at least 60 days in advance of your 5-year deadline, and you must enter all qualifying experience earned to date in your online Experience Profile. You should allow 10 business days for a response to your request.
Download the Policy Exception Form
Working on Experience 1 Year After Passing the Exam
If your experience requirement is not completed within 12 months of successful completion of the CFP® exam, you will be required to complete continuing education (CE) before certification.
In these cases, CE will accrue at a rate of 1.25 hours per month until both your experience and degree requirements are completed. Any accrued CE must be completed before becoming certified.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I combine hours on the Standard and Apprenticeship Pathway?
Toggle Open
No. All qualifying work experience falls under the Standard Pathway. If your work experience qualifies for the Apprenticeship Pathway, the entry will count towards both hour requirements at the same time. Standard Pathway hours will only count towards the Standard Pathway. You will complete the CFP® Experience requirement when you surpass either the 4,000-hour apprenticeship or 6,000-hour standard threshold, depending on whichever you reach first.
Can my experience as an intern qualify towards the Apprenticeship Pathway?
Toggle Open
The only experience type that qualifies towards the Apprenticeship Pathway is primarily engaging with individual clients for financial planning purposes. If your internship did involve primarily engaging with individual clients for financial planning purposes, working under the direct supervision of a CFP® professional, and involved all 7 primary elements of the personal financial planning process then it would qualify for the Apprenticeship Pathway.
When do I report my experience to CFP Board?
Toggle Open
Experience can be entered at any time through your Experience Reporting Profile available in your online CFP Board account by clicking on the Experience section of the CFP® Certification Tracker. You can continue adding experience until you have reached the required number of hours to satisfy the Standard or Apprenticeship pathway.
How are experience hours credited toward the requirement?
Toggle Open
Hours are calculated at a one-to-one ratio based on the qualifying number of hours worked per week. 40 hours per week is the maximum allowed, and any additional credit for full-time employment will not be granted for hours that exceed 40 hours per week. Qualifying portions of a job may be credited towards this requirement on an hourly basis, but any experience hours that do not qualify cannot be included.
What does my Experience Status mean?
Toggle Open
- Accepted: The experience entry has been reviewed and verified by CFP Board.
- Provisionally Accepted: Accepted work experience that is pending the successful completion of the CFP® exam and the official exam results.
- Needs More Information: A review has been conducted of your entry and additional details confirming that the entry meets our standard have been requested.
- Denied: A review has been conducted of your entry, and the entry does not meet qualifying standards for the Experience requirement.
- Denied – Failed Verification: The listed supervisor/attester did not complete the experience verification request that verifies the entry is both accurate and true.
- Duplicate: Multiple entries have been created with the same information.
- Cancelled/Withdrawn: The experience entry has been disqualified at the candidate’s request.
- Expired: The experience entry falls outside of the 10-year lookback window.
What if I do not have any relevant experience? Can I still sit for the CFP® Exam?
Toggle Open
Yes. Candidates can sit for the CFP® exam before meeting the experience requirement. Candidates have up to five years after successful completion of the exam to complete the Experience requirement.
What if I don’t meet the Experience requirement within five years of successfully completing the CFP® exam?
Toggle Open
If you do not complete the experience and/or bachelor’s degree certification requirements within five years of passing the exam, you will be required to retake the current CFP® exam to continue your candidacy for certification. However, you can request a one-time, three-year extension, granted on a case-by-case basis, by emailing the Experience department.
What is a Client?
Toggle Open
Denotes an individual person who engages a practitioner and for whom professional financial services are rendered. Compensated and 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 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. Clients may not be immediate family members, as defined by FINRA Rule 3240.
Immediate family includes parents, grandparents, mother-in-law or father-in-law, husband or wife, brother or sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law, son-in-law or daughter-in-law, children, grandchildren, cousin, aunt or uncle, or niece or nephew, and any other person whom the registered person supports, directly or indirectly, to a material extent.
Why is my experience entry under the Standard Pathway when I meet the qualifications for the Apprenticeship Pathway?
Toggle Open
The pathway your experience falls under is determined automatically by the system based on the information that you input. Common errors include the wrong experience type selected, missing primary elements of the personal financial planning process, or the CFP® ID number for the attester was not entered.
How is part-time employment credited toward the requirement?
Toggle Open
Hours are calculated at a one-to-one ratio based on the qualifying number of hours worked per week.
If I work full-time in a financial planning related position and also work part-time, can I accelerate the completion of the Experience requirement?
Toggle Open
No. Concurrent part- and full-time financial planning employment will not accelerate completion of the requirement, as credit is not granted in excess of 40 hours per week. An exception to this is the completion of the FPA Residency Program, which upon verification, will add 500 hours to your experience total.
If I work more than 40 hours per week, can I accelerate the completion of the Experience requirement?
Toggle Open
No. Additional credit for full-time employment will not be granted for hours in excess of 40 hours per week. An exception to this is the completion of the FPA Residency Program, which upon verification, will add 500 hours to your experience total.
How is a portion of a job credited towards the Experience requirement?
Toggle Open
Portions of a job may be credited towards this requirement on an hourly basis just like part-time employment. As an example, the majority of your job (30 hours per week) is spent working as a home office representative processing paperwork. However, ten hours a week are spent consulting with individual clients. The ten hours a week can be accrued and credited towards the Experience requirement.
What if I do not have any relevant experience? Can I still sit for the CFP® Exam?
Toggle Open
Yes. Candidates can sit for the CFP® exam before meeting the experience requirement. Candidates have up to five years after successful completion of the exam to complete the Experience requirement.
If I am making a career change, how do I go about obtaining appropriate experience?
Toggle Open
Qualifying experience may be gained through many different types of practices and firms. Candidates for CFP® certification often choose to establish a private practice, either by themselves or in conjunction with other planners. Some planners work for banks, credit unions, insurance companies, accounting or law firms, credit counseling organizations and brokerage firms. Other individuals earn experience through part-time positions, while they continue their current career and/or perform volunteer work. Or they may choose a career in academia, teaching personal financial planning in a university setting. Some individuals acquire experience through a combination of these types of activities.
Does international experience qualify for the Experience requirement?
Toggle Open
Yes. If the Experience Standards are met, international experience can qualify.
Does working with corporate clients count toward my Experience requirement?
Toggle Open
No. Work with corporate clients is not qualifying experience. CFP Board defines a "client" as an individual or person who engages a practitioner and for whom professional financial services are rendered.
Does working with family members count toward my Experience requirement?
Toggle Open
No. Clients may not be immediate family members, as defined by FINRA Rule 3240.
If I am self-employed or provide personal financial planning advice pro-bono to clients who are not immediate family members, can this experience be applied toward the Experience requirement?
Toggle Open
Yes. If Experience Standards are met, this experience can qualify. The name and contact information of a “Qualified Attester” will be added to your experience submission in lieu of a supervisor. To be a “Qualified Attester” the individual must hold one of the following certifications or licenses:
- Certified Financial Planner (CFP®)
- Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC)
- Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU)
- Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®)
- Ph.D. in business or economics*
- Licensed attorney – (inactive license acceptable)
- Licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) – (inactive license acceptable)
*Degree must be from an accredited U.S. college or university.
What types of activities are typically classified as Indirect Support?
Toggle Open
Activities and responsibilities reflecting personal financial planning knowledge and competencies that indirectly support the financial planner and/or the financial planning process may count as experience credit for “Indirect Support.” Indirect Support includes those positions that are firmly rooted in the financial planning process.
Are You Ready To Report Your Experience?
We encourage you to report your experience and monitor your status. Log in to your CFP Board account and use the experience reporting feature.
Start Your Journey to CFP® Certification
- Track your progress with the CFP® Certification Tracker
- Post your resume at the Career Center
- Connect with a mentor who can guide you
- Register and prepare for the exam
- Find career and financial support
- Connect with other candidates at our online forum