About Financial Planning

Personal financial planning is the process of meeting your life goals through the proper management of your finances . Life goals are often dream driven or need oriented . Life goals can include buying a holiday home or a home, saving for your child’s education or planning for retirement.

The six steps simplify the personal financial planning process. It includes a holistic approach to assess your current financial status. Using these steps, you can work out where you are now, what you may need in the future and what you must do to reach your goals.

The Financial Planning Process

CFP^CM Certification:

The marks CFP^CM and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER is accepted nationally as well as internationally, as being Financial Planning’s highest standard. This certification is truly global as it is practiced in 20 countries.

The standards set for Financial Planning Standards Board’s certification are designed to assure the public that those individuals who have been authorized to use the CFP^CM certification marks in India have met rigorous professional standards and also agreed to adhere to the principles of integrity, objectivity, competence, fairness, confidentiality, professionalism and diligence while dealing with clients. Their ethics and professional practice standards help the client to reach the comprehensive personal financial planning with financial solutions.

Eligibility

The student is required to register with the education provider GSFP Pvt. Ltd. and as a student member of the FPSB India.

The candidate must be a 10+2, but CFP^CM certification is only awarded on completion of graduation from a recognized college/university (in any discipline). Work Experience is not mandatory to register as a student member.

For a candidate to become a CFP^CM certificant, he/she needs to complete the education program in maximum seven years. To become certified, a student member has to meet the following four initial certification requirements (known as 4 E's).

	Education
	Examination
	Experience
	Ethics

Education

A candidate must complete academic coverage of financial planning curricula. The curriculum consists of 6 modules namely:

1. Introduction to Financial Planning

2. Risk Management and Insurance Planning

3. Retirement Planning &Employee Benefits.

4. Investment Planning

5. Tax & Estate Planning

6. Advanced Financial Planning

Examination

Candidates for CFP^CM certification must pass a comprehensive CFP^CM Certification Examination that tests their ability to apply integrated financial planning knowledge to real world client situations.

The examination will be centrally administered by the NCFM, National Stock Exchange of India, at centers and timings which will be notified by the National Stock Exchange through the hall tickets to be sent to all registered candidates. The examinations shall be conducted on-line for Module 1-4.

The CFP^CM Examinations are conducted six times a year. The examinations are held online. Each exam is of 2 hour duration, (except for module 6 which is off-line examination for 4 hour duration), at designated centers only. . The scoring system assigns pre-specified marks to each correct answer. Wrong answers will attract a negative marking of 20% of the marks assigned to the question .

The students are required to study all 6 modules, but have to sit only for 5 examinations. While no independent examination is held for the 'Introduction to Financial Planning' module, 20% weightage is given to it in the examinations of subsequent 4 modules.

The candidate can appear for two fresh modules simultaneously; however there is no restriction on the number when they are appearing for re-examination.

The education requirements for certification program can be completed in minimum of 7 months and maximum 7 years.

	Experience
	The experience requirement centers on work that involves Personal Financial Planning. Candidates under the Regular Pathway may complete the experience criteria pre or post appearing Exam 5 however candidates under Challenge Status pathway need to have attained relevant experience before appearing Exam 5. The Experience criterion is designed to provide the public with the assurance that the candidate understands the counseling nature of personal Financial Planning. The following chart shows the various experience criteria mandated by FPSB India

	Relevant Work Experience
	Qualifying work experience in Financial Sector is based on a 35-hour workweek and is defined as full-time (or equivalent part-time) personal Financial Planning services/ related employment or self-employment. In the performance of their job, candidates must have actively used the knowledge, skills and abilities required for the CFP Examination (for a listing of topics, please refer to the Syllabus) and the experience gained should help the candidate in the application of the personal Financial Planning process to meet client needs. This Experience can be gained in the following areas provided it meets the conditions listed above.
	Accounting Banking Consulting Estate Planning Financial Planning/Advisory Stock broking/Investment advisory Taxation Journalism in Personal Finance Law Insurance Retirement/Pension Planning/Employee Benefit Portfolio/Investment Management Teaching at a post-secondary level Wealth Managment
	Corporate candidates are Candidates who are employed with Banks, AMC, Insurance, Financial Services, Broking Firm, Equity Research, Credit Rating, Taxation, Financial Consultancy etc. Self Employed candidates are Candidates who are working as insurance agent, stock broker, financial consultant, mutual fund distributor, income tax consultant etc. Verification of Work Experience All work experience related documents and certificates should be duly attested by Head HRD or a Gazetted Officer. FPSB India shall scrutinize all the documents and vet the same before awarding the CFP Certification or allowing a candidate to appear for through Challenge Status pathway. If the work experience certificates are not found to be authentic and information provided is false, FPSB India reserves the right to reject the respective application and cancel his / her candidature. FPSB India reserves the right of determining acceptable work experience and may call candidates (at their own expense) for an interview. The decision made thereafter by FPSB India is final. When the experience is earned subsequent to the Certification Examination, you must complete the requirement within five years of the date of the successful completion of the certification examination.
	Ethics

To get CFP^CM Certification, candidates must agree to abide by FPSB India Code of Ethics and Rules of Professional Conduct.

The seven principles of FPSB India’s Code of Ethics are:

1. Integrity – A CFP^CM professional will always act with integrity.
2. Objectivity – A CFP^CM professional will be objective in providing personal financial planning to clients.
3. Competence – A CFP^CM professional will provide services to clients competently and maintain the necessary knowledge and skill to continue to do so in those areas in which the CFP^CM professional is engaged.
4. Fairness - A CFP^CM professional will perform personal financial planning in a manner that is fair and reasonable to clients, principals, partners, and employers and will disclose conflicts of interest in providing such services.
5. Confidentiality – A CFP^CM professional will maintain confidentiality of all client information.
6. Professionalism – A CFP^CM professional's conduct in all matters will reflect credit upon the profession.
7. Diligence – A CFP^CM professional will provide services to clients in a prompt and thorough manner
8. Compliance – Members must maintain knowledge of and comply with the constitution of the FPSB India, it’s code of Ethics and Rules of Professional conduct and all applicable Laws, rules and regulations of government and such orgn.