CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER or CFP certification is the benchmark for global excellence in financial planning. In 27 countries and territories around the world, financial advisers seeking to establish themselves as qualified, competent and ethical financial planners are choosing financial planning’s marks of professional distinction – CFP, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and .

Over 223,700 CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals worldwide have met rigorous competency, ethics and practice standards and CFP certification requirements, qualifying them to develop financial planning strategies that assist clients in achieving their financial and life goals. CFP professionals typically review relevant aspects of a client’s situation across a large breadth of financial planning activities, which may include financial management, asset management, risk management, tax planning, retirement planning and estate planning.

CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals are recognized as trusted advisers who work with clients to review all of their options, so that clients can make informed decisions about their financial situation at every stage in life. By meeting rigorous international competency, ethics and professional practice standards, CFP professionals are qualified to deliver integrated financial solutions that allow clients to take control of their finances and achieve their life goals.

Excellence in Financial Planning

Although financial planning is gaining prominence as a professional practice globally, people who call themselves financial planners often do so with little or no training or oversight. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals, on the other hand, have demonstrated their commitment to excellence in financial planning by meeting initial and ongoing competency, ethics and practice standards and agreeing to abide by professional conduct rules and ongoing competency and practice requirements. The global standards and certification requirements for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER program are based on empirical research of the abilities, professional skills and knowledge needed to practice financial planning. Financial Planning Standards Board has developed a framework of professional competency, ethics and practice standards and rigorous certification requirements that are adapted locally by each FPSB affiliate organization to ensure that a CFP professional is appropriately qualified and assessed to provide financial planning advice in a given territory.

Whether providing comprehensive financial planning or focusing on one area of a client’s financial life, CFP professionals use the financial planning process to put the client’s interests first when developing strategies and solutions. With competency a cornerstone of the CFP certification program, and a requirement that CFP professionals have appropriate experience to advise clients, consumers can have confidence in the ability of CFP professionals to address their financial planning needs.

Meeting a Global Standard

CFP professionals are part of a growing global community of financial services practitioners who place clients’ interests first as part of their commitment to financial planning professionalism, and who embrace FPSB’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Financial Planning Practice Standards. As regulators and consumer protection groups around the world call for appropriate levels of disclosure and transparency with clients, and consumers increasingly seek and rely on competent and ethical professionals to guide their financial decisions, CFP professionals are becoming the advisers of choice for the public’s financial planning needs.

FPSB, and the 27 organizations that administer the CFP certification program with FPSB, are committed to developing, promoting and enforcing world-class standards for financial planning and financial planners. And CFP professionals have committed to excellence in financial planning to benefit consumers and to support the emergence of financial planning as a distinct professional practice – all over the world.

Find out more about FPSB’s Standards for a Profession and CFP Certification Requirements.

Find a CFP certification organization in your territory, visit our Affiliate Organizations