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A Guide To Professional Designations in the College Planning Industry

By Ken Clark, About.com

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Certified Financal Planner (CFP)

The CFP designation is perhaps the most widely recognized designation in the financial planning industry, and for good reason. To become a Certified Financial Planner, an individual must have a bachelor’s degree, complete 18-24 months of study, and pass a rigorous licensing exam.

Additionally, the CFP Board of Standards actively responds to complaints about licensees. It’s not uncommon for the Board to revoke licenses of those found to be acting below the accepted professional standards.

However, while a CFP has extensive training in the financial planning and investment process, they do not receive exhaustive training in college planning. So it’s best to consider the CFP designation as a minimum standard for a college planning professional. Ideally, if you choose to hire a CFP, he or she will have additional credentials or extensive experience working with college planning.

Lesser-known designations that can be considered fairly equivalent to the CFP designation are the Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and the Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) designations.

A great place to begin looking for a CFP is on the CFP Boards of Standards directory, or by contacting your local Financial Planning Association.

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