New Annual CFP® Certification Fee, Effective October 2022

Dear CFP® Professional,

Today, CFP Board stands in a pivotal and influential role, ready to welcome the opportunities and challenges of a still emerging financial planning profession. The Board of Directors recognizes CFP Board’s unique position as the certifying body for the financial planning profession and believes that it is appropriate and essential for CFP Board to proactively lead the profession into the future.

As a result, the Board approved CFP Board’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan with an ambitious list of new strategic priorities — Standards & Certification, Access, Awareness, Community & Regulatory Engagement and Workforce Development. These priorities advance the value and visibility of the CFP® certification for the public and for CFP® professionals, they strengthen CFP® certification’s standing as the high standard for competent and ethical personal financial planning, they align with CFP® professionals’ priorities for CFP Board, and they advance the profession.

After careful review of the work needed to accomplish CFP Board’s important mission and our new strategic priorities, we explored the investment required to achieve these. The Board of Directors committed significant funding from CFP Board’s reserves. For additional investment funds, we made changes to the fee structure associated with the value that the CFP® certification brand delivers to CFP® professionals and to CFP Board’s partners in its certification program.

In support of the strategic priorities, the Board of Directors voted unanimously to increase the certification fee for the first time since 2017. The new $455 annual CFP® certification fee takes effect for individuals who become certified beginning October 1, 2022, and later, as well as for renewing CFP® professionals whose certification periods expire in October 2022 or later.

The new annual certification fee reflects an increase of $100, which will be invested as follows:

• $15 to Public Awareness Campaign, the first increase of certification fee funding for the campaign since its launch in 2011. This will address media inflation and expand the reach of our ongoing nationwide campaign to increase consumer awareness of, and preference for, working with CFP® professionals.
• $35 to Workforce Development to support a national initiative to promote financial planning as an attractive career choice among college-bound high school students, as well as baccalaureate program expansion. This will raise recognition of financial planning as a profession on par with established professions like accounting, law and medicine; facilitate growth of CFP® professionals to meet the needs of the public; and strengthen the pipeline of talent available to your practice.
• $10 to the Center for Financial Planning to support initiatives that advance diversity and inclusion in the financial planning profession, to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population, and to support development of new research and resources to support the practice of financial planners.
• $20 to Client Impact Research/Practice Resources to support development of empirical, longitudinal research studies to assess the impact that financial planning has on clients’ well-being, other new research and resources for practitioners, and expanded access to pro-bono services.
• $20 to Enforcement to safeguard the integrity of the CFP® certification marks through CFP Board’s work to uphold the Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct that inspire confidence and trust among the public that CFP® professionals reflect the high standards of ethical conduct.

The investment of your annual certification fee in these programs ensures the long-term relevance and sustainability of the financial planning profession and the value and importance that your CFP® certification communicates to your clients and prospects.

We invite you to join us for a live webinar this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern) to learn more about how CFP Board’s new strategic priorities and the new annual certification fee will advance the value of your CFP® certification. After a short presentation, we will dedicate the webinar to answering questions from the CFP® professional community. If you are not able to join us, a recording of the webinar will be available on CFP.net later this week.

Register for The Webinar

Thank you for your ongoing support of CFP® certification and the important services you provide to your clients and communities.

Best Regards,

Kamila Elliott, CFP®
Chair, Board of Directors

Kevin R. Keller, CAE
CEO, CFP Board