This page is a product of Professor Jim Brau and Research Assistant Spencer Dickinson. As stated in disclaimer below, it is not an official product of BYU or any entity of BYU. It is simply information from me (Brother Brau) to help students understand our CFP® program at BYU. The BYU Marriott finance major integrates the full CFP® Board education requirement into your undergraduate degree. Students in other majors have five other routes to the same certification. For example, if you are an SOA student and plan to earn the CPA designation, all you need to complete is a capstone course and you can complete the accelerated path through cfp.net after earning the CPA. If you are earning your JD, you also qualify for the accelerated path once you pass the bar and become a licensed attorney. Along with CPA and JD there are other accelerated paths. Currently, our capstone FIN 418 is only available to finance majors, so you will need to complete a third-party capstone course. Click the tab below “Not a Finance Major?” for details.
About the CFP® Certification
The CFP® certification is the financial planning industry’s most respected credential. Earning it has four parts: a bachelor’s degree, coursework covering CFP Board’s core planning areas, passing the CFP® exam, and logging 4,000 (apprentice program) or 6,000 (non-apprentice) hours of qualifying work experience. The coursework comes before the exam, since the CFP® Board requires it before you can register for the exam, the experience hours are more flexible and can be logged before (10 years), during, or after (5 years) of passing the exam. Many students finish the coursework and pass the exam while still in school, well before their experience hours (and, in some cases, their degrees) are complete.
Most candidates have not passed the exam while in college, so doing it while you are still a student puts you ahead of nearly everyone else applying. The certification also opens doors well beyond the title financial planner into such fields as: private wealth advisor, portfolio manager, family-office advisor, planning roles at banks, RIAs, and fintech firms. CFP® Board’s own compensation research shows CFP® professionals earn meaningfully more than non-certified peers, and the gap widens the longer they’re in the field. Students who pass the exam before graduating also tend to obtain more competitive job offers than those who haven’t yet passed.
The BYU Finance Path
For finance majors, beginning in January 2021, BYU folded the CFP® Board coursework into the finance degree. This is the integrated CFP® track, officially the Private Wealth and Financial Planning Track. It’s an official CFP® Board Registered Program, and its seven required courses are integrated into the finance curriculum, so there is no separate program to apply for or pay tuition to. As soon as you finish the coursework, and all of your grades for the seven courses below are on your transcript. BYU can submit your approval and you are eligible to sit for the exam. Many students do this and sit for the exam either their junior or senior year. You do NOT need to register for the finance PW/FP track. You simply complete the courses and then Brother Brau can submit your name to the CFP® Board so you are eligible to sit for the exam. He emails out the paperwork you can fill in at the end of Winter and Fall terms to those students completing FIN 418 required to get approval from the CFP Board. You can email him at jbrau@byu.edu if FIN 418 is not completed in your last semester at the end of either Fall or Winter semester and he will send you the paperwork to join that group for approval.
Beyond the coursework, plan on 250–400 hours of exam prep and 4,000–6,000 hours of qualifying work experience, which can be logged before, during, or after the exam.
Required courses for the track
- From Your Prerequisites: ACC 200, FIN 201
- From Your Finance Core: ACC 310, FIN 410, FIN 453
- From Your Finance Electives: FIN 200, FIN 418
The Four-Year Roadmap
Dr. Brau’s suggested sequence for coursework, FINRA licensing exams, experience hours, and the CFP® exam, adjustable to your own schedule.
Program Overview Handout
A printable summary of the BYU CFP® Board Registered Program: who the track is for, the seven required courses, how the CFP® compares with the CFA for different career goals, what to expect when studying for the exam, and the full list of CFP® Board principal knowledge topics.
If You’re Not a Finance Major You Can Still Earn the CFP® Marks
Admission to the finance program isn’t a requirement for the CFP® certification, and neither is a business major. Other routes lead to the same credential, from low-cost online certificate programs you can complete alongside any major to CFP® Board–registered master’s degrees after graduation. Once the coursework is done, the exam and experience requirements are the same for everyone.
See Other Paths to CFP® Certification for all five routes and what each one costs.
Where to Go From Here
Study Strategies and Exam Prep
A potential study plan for the CFP® exam, the Dalton discount available to BYU students, and Open Exam Prep. This is just an example, you may prefer a different study plan from Kaplan or somewhere else.
Other Paths to CFP® Certification
Five routes to certification for students who are not in the finance program.
Resources
Disclaimer: This website is created and hosted by Dr. Jim Brau, the BYU CFP® Director. It is not an official BYU, Marriott School, or BYU Finance website. It is designed to answer the questions I constantly receive from students interested in our CFP® program.
