By now you surely have been blitzed with a myriad of resolutions, time management tips, to do lists, etc. so I’m going to spare you from the typical new year pep talk and instead highlight a change you should be aware of, regarding the educational requirements for new financial planners in CFP Board registered programs.

In the past, it has been possible for a new financial planner to graduate with an undergraduate/graduate degree or certificate in financial planning without ever having created a financial plan. For all students who matriculate from this month forward, though, the situation has changed; they will be required to take a Financial Plan Preparation course. The course requirements include both developing a written financial plan, and presenting it orally.

Some institutions long ago saw the absurdity of graduating financial planners who had never prepared a plan, and have had a financial plan preparation course, commonly known as Capstone, included in their core curriculum prior to it becoming a requirement. It will be business as usual at these institutions, such as Virginia Tech however other schools have now been required to come up to speed. Since current students (those who had already started their financial planning program prior to 2012) are grandfathered in from this requirement, there will still be graduates in the next few years who have never gone through the task of completing a financial plan. But in the long run, we think this is a good change by the CFP Board, and will better prepare new planners for adding value to planning firms.

Here is the link to the press release announcing the requirement: http://bit.ly/CFPBoardPlanDevelopment

As part of our commitment to helping you find the best new planner fit for your organization, I will be visiting many of these schools across the country over the coming year to monitor these programs’ process in developing their new planners and integrating the new Capstone requirement.