Effective 1 April 2019, the CFP certification program in India is directly administered by U.S.-based Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd.(FPSB Ltd.), owner of the international CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^CM certification program outside the United States. FPSB Ltd. is the sole entity in India with authority to:

• Authorize education providers to offer CFP education courses;
• Authorize a CFP certification exam administrator in India; and
• Award CFP certification to those who successfully complete CFP education, CFP exam and other CFP certification requirements.

How can I apply for CFP certification?

You can access your account via the MyFPSBLearning, the Learning Management System (LMS) portal, to access continuing professional development (CPD). Points are tracked within MyFPSBLearning.  If you have questions about CPD points please contact us at [email protected].

FPSB Ltd. is pleased to present the Journal of Financial Planning in India! In the last edition, CFP professionals will find a collection of insightful articles authored by industry experts and academics within FPSB Ltd.’s global network. We understand that continuing professional development (CPD) is of great importance to you as you seek to enhance your skills and retain your CFP certification. The Journal is available in online version on our website india.fpsb.org and can be downloaded. We are currently working on the next edition and it shall be made available very soon on our website!!

We hope this journal and future editions will become a staple in furthering your professional development and connecting you to the global financial planning profession.

Yes. When a CFP professional wants to practice financial planning using the CFP marks in more than one territory, the CFP professional must become certified to use the CFP marks in each territory where the CFP professional intends to practice. If a practitioner becomes certified in more than one territory, he or she must abide by the certification renewal requirements of the FPSB affiliate organization in each territory, and will also be subject to oversight by the FPSB affiliate organization in each territory.

For more information on requirements in a specific territory, please refer to that territory’s specific website. For a list of FPSB affiliate organizations, please see https://www.fpsb.org/about/member-organizations/.

FPSB^® Integrated Financial Planning course is an education pathway to the CFP^® exam, much in the same way as each Specialist course lists down the curriculum to be completed and education-certified to be eligible for that Specialist exam.

This required a candidate to construct a financial plan on a case study issued in an Assessment Cycle and submit the plan for assessment. On successful completion of the plan assessment, a candidate is advanced to appear in final CFP Exam.

FPSB^® Integrated Financial Planning course has three modules – Financial Planning Principles, Process and Skills; Engaging Clients in the Financial Planning Process; and Developing Effective Financial Plans. Sample financial plans and guidance on creating a financial plan are also provided as a supporting material.

Candidates of the new program who have passed all the three Specialist certification exams (FPSB^® Investment Planning, FPSB^® Risk and Estate Planning, and FPSB^® Retirement and Tax Planning), and have completed the Ethics course and have also taken all the three Specialist certifications are eligible to register for the FPSB^® Integrated Financial Planning course.

Candidates who have transitioned from the legacy program and have all three Specialist certifications of the new program active, can register for the Integrated Financial Planning course.

There are two modes available to a candidate – (a) Instructor-led Learning (through Authorized Education Providers, also referred as AEPs), and (b) Self-paced learning.

There is Challenge Pathway eligible for Professionals having a relevant work experience and specified higher qualifications/certifications to attempt directly FPSB Integrated Financial Planning course through either Education Provider mode or Self Study mode.

Attestation is not required from AEPs in the MyFPSBlearning toward a candidate completing FPSB^® Integrated Financial Planning course. Similarly, there is no mock test/ practice test built in the course material to signal a self-paced candidate’s readiness to appear in the CFP^® exam.

However, a candidate may be asked the source of his/her learning as well the time spent, the tools used in constructing financial plan and the extent of reliance on such tools.

Candidates pursuing the FPSB^® Integrated Financial Planning course have the option to be guided by Mentors, who are CFP ^CM professionals approved under the FPSB Mentorship Program. It is an informal structure with no obligation to either party. Candidates can take advantage of the mentor’s experience, knowledge and practice skills to develop their learning on financial plan construction. The Mentor shall work with the candidate in a defined number of interactions wherein the candidate will be provided practical insights on his/her approach to the preparation of a financial plan.

The Assessment Cycle begins on the 15th of every odd month, being January, March, May, July, September and November with the uploading of a Case Study in the MyFPSBlearning account of eligible candidates. Such eligibility is determined as those candidates who have enrolled in and having purchased the material for the Integrated Financial Planning course on or before a cut-off-date, usually a couple of days prior to 15th of these specified months. The opting candidates submit a financial plan on the issued case study within the next 30 days, usually middle of February, April, June, August, October and December. The plans are assessed and the results are declared by the end of the subsequent month being March, May, July, September, November and January. Thus, six Assessment Cycles are conducted in a year, these being during Jan-Mar, Mar-May, May-July, July-Sep, Sep-Nov and Nov-Jan.  

Candidates prepare a financial plan and pay US$77 toward Financial Plan Assessment fee to be eligible for submission of financial plan.

FPSB appointed assessors, who are evolved CFP practitioners, are vested with the role of assessing and grading the submitted financial plans.

The submitted financial plan will be assessed in a specified time frame. The result will be either ‘standard met’ or ‘standard not met’.

In case a candidate passes, he/she advances to CFP^® Exam in the following months.

If a candidate does not pass, he/she has the option to submit a fresh plan in the subsequent assessment cycles on new Case Studies issued.

It is only after a successful assessment of the submitted financial plan (‘standard met’) that a candidate is advanced to write the CFP^® exam. The number of attempts at the CFP^® exam are not capped.

CFP^® exam is a 3-hour test consisting of two sections:

Section 1: 25 standalone MCQs on Financial Planning Principles and Regulatory environment of financial planning; each question is of 1 mark each.

Section 2: 25 MCQs based on a case study, such questions testing capability on each of the core financial planning component; each question is of 3 marks each.

Thus, there shall be a total of 50 questions for 100 marks to be solved in 3 hours.

Test Software embedded worksheets will be additionally provided for calculations, though candidates can utilize their own financial calculators approved by FPSB for examination.

The cost of the CFP® exam is $144 per attempt. The CFP exam is available six times during a year, presently being even months February, April, June, August, October and December and between dates 19th and 24th, both inclusive. The dates are published in the Exam Calendar for a 3-month forward period. 

The course material of the FPSB^® Integrated Financial Planning course can be purchased by a candidate through his/her online learning portal MyFPSBlearning for US $ 140. The course material is in digital format.

Candidates of the new program who have passed all the three Specialist certification exams (FPSB^® Investment Planning, FPSB^® Risk and Estate Planning, and FPSB^® Retirement and Tax Planning), completed the Ethics course, and have taken all the three Specialist certifications are ONLY eligible to register for the FPSB® Integrated Financial Planning course.

FPSB Ltd. will continue to administer the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER certification. The education and exam topics for CFP certification have been reconfigured from the former program’s five-exam structure into a new four-exam structure. FPSB Ltd. will provide learning materials, including sample questions, Powerpoints and textbooks to support the study process. Various components of Financial Planning are grouped in the following four exams to test the competency of candidates.

• FPSB Investment Planning Specialist Exam : includes Personal financial management; investment planning and asset management; regulatory environment, law and compliance.
• FPSB Retirement and Tax Planning Specialist Exam : includes retirement solutions and tax optimization concepts and strategies
• FPSB Risk and estate planning Specialist Exam : includes concepts and strategies on insurance, risk management and succession planning
• CFP Exam :It is the final step of FPSB Integrated Financial Planning course which can be attempted after successful completion of the fist step which is financial plan assessment.

FPSB Ltd. no longer offers AFP certification in India. Instead, FPSB Ltd. offers the opportunity for voluntary certifications on the learning path to CFP certification, aligned with the education topics. Information on each certification is below.

• FPSB® Investment Planning Specialist certification
• FPSB® Retirement and Tax Planning Specialist certification
• FPSB® Risk and Estate Planning Specialist certification
• CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^CM certification

Students can enroll at https://india.fpsb.org/students/.

For more information please ​view the student user guide or view the following enrollment videos:

• Self Paced Student
• Instructor Led Student
• Recognition of Prior Learning

FPSB Ltd. will have a total of four certification exams in India (assessing the competencies of the three specialist courses and the culminating CFP certification marks), leading to CFP certification in India. Exam registration is open in myFPSBLearning for students who have completed the Investment Planning Specialist and/or Retirement and Tax Planning Specialist course and/or Risk and Estate Planning Specialist course. The exams can be taken either at the Mettle platform or at NSE test centres.

Please note, due to the integrity of our exam on Mettle platform, FPSB must use a Secure Lock Down Browser. In order to use this browser windows is the only compatible operating system and iOS also be allowed. As such, students will not be able to take exams on a Macbook. Also, the secure browser does not allow the student to navigate to other tabs,  Spreadsheet is now available in Scratchpad in the Mettle Exams.  Candidates are responsible for the integrity of the computer used during the exam, misuse could result in a canceled exam or other sanctions. Please refer to our exam procedures and exam prep course work for more information. 

Candidates may choose to appeal the results of an exam by submitting a request at https://india.fpsb.org/product/india-cfp-exam-evaluation/. Once submitted, exam results will be reviewed in detail and the Candidate will receive additional determination information. Any appeal must be received no later than 30 days from receipt of the exam result. The decision after the appeal is completed will be considered final. 

The former program ended on 31 March 2021. Candidates who passed one or more component exams were extended an option to transition up to 31 December 2021 to the new program thereby securing the validity of such passed exams to complete the CFP certification program. Candidates who have passed all the exams of the former program including the final Exam-5/Advanced Financial Planning will have the validity up to a period five years from the date of passing Exam-5 to obtain CFP Certification, provided they complete certification criteria. A failure to obtain CFP Certification within five years of passing Exam-5 opens Challenge Pathway for such candidates to qualify in the FPSB Integrated Financial Planning course to obtain CFP Certification.

FPSB Ltd. has entered into agreements with several Authorized Education Providers to provide financial planning education courses that fulfill the education requirement of FPSB Ltd.’s CFP certification program in India, as well as prepare individuals to sit for CFP exams (administered by NSE Academy in India).

Registration for the Legacy Program is now closed. The last day to enroll for the former program was 31 May 2020. Coursework and all exams for the former program must be completed no later than 31 March 2021. Experience must be completed within five years of successfully passing your first exam.

For any queries related to the Registration process / Form filling / Document submission / Payment issues /modules not visible on NSE portal please contact 9833782677 or email on [email protected].

As mentioned under the caption “When did the former program end?” above, the former program exams passed by a candidate are valid in the new program to complete CFP Certification program only through transition (valid until 31 December 2021). The final exam passed has validity of five years from the date of passing to obtain CFP Certification.

In the New program a Specialist Exam passed by a candidate is valid up to five years from the date of passing. A candidate is eligible to appear in FPSB Integrated Financial Planning Course in case all three Specialist Exams are passed and they remain valid as on the date of applying in the Integrated Financial Planning Course. The final CFP Exam passed has a validity of five years from the date of passing to obtain CFP Certification. A lapse of five years from the date of passing CFP exam requires a candidate to again qualify in FPSB Integrated Financial Planning Course through Challenge Pathway to obtain CFP Certifications.

FPSB Ltd. does not set the pricing or fees for education courses in India. Each Authorized Education Provider establishes its own course cost and pricing.

Until 31 March 2021, the fees for CFP exams (1 – 5) in India will remain the same as they were over the past year.

Until 30 Sept 2020, the basic renewal fee for CFP certification in India will be US $100.

FPSB Ltd. does not offer AFP certification.

In 2019, FPSB Ltd. began issuing new digital credentials to all current CFPCM professionals in India. Consisting of a digital certificate and a digital badge, FSPB Ltd.’s online credentialing system will replace the paper certificates issued to you in the past. However, should you wish to print and frame your certificate from FSPB Ltd., you will have an option to do so.

Your digital credential for CFP certification, which is blockchain-verified to help prevent fraud, will allow people to securely and easily verify your CFP certification status across all types of online platforms, including your email signature, website, blog, LinkedIn profile and other social media accounts. FPSB Ltd. is pleased to offer this technology to CFP professionals in India, and will provide additional information on how to leverage these digital credentials to highlight your achievements as a CFP professional at the time of delivery.

You can watch this video to see how to get the most out of your digital credential through printing, sharing and embedding.

Always Accessible – Never worry about losing your certificate; your credential will always be present at its web address.
Easily Shareable – You want to share your achievement. Digital credentials let you showcase your achievement on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Control Your Privacy – Take advantage of searchability and have your achievement be discoverable on search engines, or set it to private and share with only selected people. How and when you share your credential is up to you.
Print at Any Time – Easily print a high-quality PDF of your certificate, whenever you’d like.
Learning, Verified. – Your achievement can be verified at any time. Your certification(s) on LinkedIn can be linked to your live credential so anyone, anywhere can see what you have achieved.

You can share your digital credential in many ways online. Here are just a few ways:

• LinkedIn
• Embedded in an email signature
• For more ways to share your digital badge, please click here.

The legacy program candidates who have passed legacy exams which entitle them to at least one Specialist exam credit in the new program, are offered transition at a concessional fee of $110 against $165 normal registration fee. Moreover, in the same cost they are entitled to apply for one or all Specialist certifications (those to which they have credit basis their already passed legacy exams, as well as those that they pass subsequent to transition to the new program).

Transition from Legacy program to the new program is now CLOSED.

The new CFP exam is a combination of Financial Plan Assessment and a final exam of 3 hours which will include one case study to be shared only in the examination. The syllabus of exam and all modalities about making a financial plan is available to Education Providers, Mentors and students through MyFPSBLearning on our website.

A differentiated proposition in the new pathway is the Integrated Financial Planning course which seeks to evaluate the Financial Plan preparation skills of a student. Once successful on this metric, the student can access the final 3-hour CFP certification exam.

The transition to the New Program is processed at a charge of US$110, which enables a candidate access to buy course content, appear for Specialist Exams, apply for Certifications and other resources available in MyFPSBLearning, with a validity period of one year from the date of transition to completing the remaining exams, or further renew registration at the applicable renewal fee.

Transition from Legacy program to the new program is now CLOSED.

The Hardware and Internet connection is the responsibility of the candidate in the Online Proctored mode. Ensuring compatible hardware can be done by taking mock tests. Alternate Internet connection should be available in case the primary internet connection goes down. 20 mins is the maximum break which the system is configured to handle, which is more than sufficient time in such situations to make the shift.

The CFP certification once obtained must be renewed only on the basis of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) points and payment of renewal fees. This is the global norm of renewing CFP certification, and is followed in India, too. SEBI mandates that their Registered Investment Advisers (RIA) can renew their accredited certification not by way of CPD points but by retaking the same accredited certification exam again on renewal, if the particular exam has been passed by RIA at least once in prior three years. So, it is applicable to only those CFP professionals who have used CFP certification in obtaining/renewing their RIA license from SEBI.

This is in development and can take up to 3 months’ time to come to production after proper testing.

A candidate in the New Program is given up to a maximum of 3 years from the date of registration to complete all the Specialist exams or start all over again on the way to CFP certification. It is assumed that 12-15 months is a good enough duration to complete the entire exam criteria.

There are no pre-approved cut score or pass marks percentage in New Program exams. The exams are assessed for uniform difficulty on month to month and are initially fixed and subsequently equated every month based on a metric that underlines capability of passed candidates to practice on the market place the skills that they acquire.

The candidates who transition to the new program having one or more credits to the Specialist exams can, at the concessional registration fee of $110, apply for those respective Specialist certifications. They shall be renewing their Specialist certifications afterwards a year from the date of issue of such certifications. There is no need to renew separately the student registration. The candidates’ eligibility to pursue more Specialist courses and the FPSB® Integrated Financial Planning course remains valid as long as they renew their existing Specialist certification/s.

The Ethics course is to be taken online only once before taking one or more Specialist certifications or CFP certification.

Mentors are seasoned CFPCM professionals who have agreed to support candidates on FPSB® Integrated Financial Planning course, especially the Financial Plan Assessment exercise. Mentorship is a non-commercial supportive relationship where Mentors interact with Mentees on fine aspects of a financial plan, communicate the best practices in financial planning, and discuss professional skills on client engagement, workflow and structure of financial plan, etc. It may be noted that a Mentee needs to learn the FPSB® Integrated Financial Planning course on own or through an Authorized Education Provider. Mentors would carry the Mentees through some practical scenarios in India context which might help them in developing a financial plan. It is presumed to be a short interaction not exceeding eight hours over a two-month span.

All questions (75 in number) in each of the three Specialist exams are MCQs only, and will carry 1 mark each, with no differential grading among easy, medium and difficult question. The CFP exam will consist of 25 standalone MCQs of 1 mark each and another 25 MCQs based on a case study, each such case study based MCQ will carry 3 marks. Thus, the assessment of CFP certification exam will be out of 100 marks.

Please refer the below table to get a clear understanding on credits for legacy exams passed when transitioning to the New Program.