Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Review
Written by Andrea Coombes
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Fact-checked by Dayana Yochim
Our take: If you decide to work with a Certified Financial Planner, or CFP, you’ll be sitting across from someone who has spent at least a year studying a wide array of personal finance topics, passed a rigorous exam (about 60% of test-takers pass the exam), has at least two years of experience in the financial services industry, and has sworn to act as a fiduciary with clients. On top of all that, this designation, offered by the nonprofit CFP Board, is independently accredited. That means a third-party organization has run this certification through its paces and signed off on it — that’s a rarity among financial advisor certifications. The CFP designation is up there with the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) as being among the top financial advisor certifications.
Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
Offered by: The CFP Board
Website: https://www.cfp.net/
Overall summary
Here’s a summary of how the CFP designation stacks up on our criteria.
| Feature |
 Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
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| Overall |
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| Nonprofit |
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| Independent accreditation |
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| Exam required |
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| Number of questions |
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| Continuing Education requirement |
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| Background check |
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| Ethics requirement |
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| Fiduciary requirement |
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| Consumer complaint forum |
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| Check credential status |
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Compare financial advisor certifications
Check out how advisor certifications stack up against each other.
| Feature |
 Accredited Financial Analyst (AFA)
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 Accredited Wealth Management Advisor (AWMA)
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Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
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 Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
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 Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC)
|
 Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP)
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| Continuing Education requirement |
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| Check credential status |
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Methodology
To generate star ratings for financial advisor certifications, investor.com ranks the certification on each of 10 criteria. Below are the questions we sought to answer for each certification. We then applied a weighted score for each response, leading to an overall star rating for each certification.
- Is the organization that offers the certification nonprofit or for-profit?
- Is the certification accredited by an independent, third-party organization?
- Is an exam required to earn the certification?
- How many questions are on the exam?
- Is a background check required of certificants?
- Is continuing education required to maintain the certification?
- Is there any type of ethics requirement, e.g. certificants must sign a code of ethics?
- Is the certificant required to agree to an explicit fiduciary duty in interactions with clients?
- Can consumers easily submit a complaint against a certificant?
- Can consumers easily check advisors’ certification status online?
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About the Editorial Team
Andrea Coombes has 20+ years of experience helping people reach their financial goals. Her personal finance articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes, and other publications, and she's shared her expertise on CBS, NPR, "Marketplace," and more. She's been a financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor, and is working on becoming a Certified Financial Planner. She knows that owning pets isn't necessarily the best financial decision; her dog and two cats would argue this point.
Carolyn Kimball is a former managing editor for Reink Media Group and investor.com. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.
Dayana Yochim has been writing (articles, books, podcasts, stirring speeches) about personal finance and investing for more than two decades, focusing on bringing clarity and the occasional comedic aside to what is often a murky, humorless topic. She’s written for NerdWallet, The Motley Fool, HerMoney.com, Woman’s Day, Forbes, Newsweek and others, and been a guest expert on "Today," "Good Morning America," CNN, NPR and wherever they’ll hand her a mic.