Behind the CFP Board’s CE Requirement Increase

Making money isn’t free.

The CFP Board, the largest credentialing body in the financial services industry by advisor headcount, announced last month that it will be increasing its continuing education credit requirements to 40 hours every two years, up from just 30. The nonprofit also raised its annual fee to $575 in order to help fund an advertising campaign in October. The moves struck some experts across the industry as self-serving, particularly among CE credit providers who already have to pay by the hour for the programs they offer.

“CFP Board has extracted as much as $1.875 [million] per year … out of CE providers,” Michael Kitces, publisher of the blog Nerds Eye View, wrote on LinkedIn last week. “Our CE provider costs to CFP Board at Kitces have skyrocketed from $13k/yr to $90k/yr in just 3 years.”

To CE, or Not To CE?

The CFP Board certification isn’t the only way advisors can show potential clients they mean business, but it’s certainly the most common. There are more than 100,000 active CFP professionals as of year-end 2024, over a third of the roughly 300,000 personal financial advisors in the US. Melissa Caro, a CFP and CE provider at My Retirement Network, agreed that the value of CE stems from exposure to many sources of education, rather than just one credentialing body. “When education draws from many voices, advisors are better equipped to deepen their knowledge and refine how they serve clients,” she said.

Others maintained that having a well-known, gold-standard credential prevents bad actors from taking advantage of clients. “Most consumers have a hard time delineating real planners from PINOs, or planners in name only,” said Charles Failla, CEO of Sovereign Financial Group. “I’m not anti-CE, but I am pro putting the resources somewhere else where they may be better to help the cause.”

To Be Continued. And the educational resources are going to need to keep up with demand. According to the CFP Board and a recent McKinsey report:

• Last year, the nonprofit certified 6,709 new CFP professionals, a new record.
• US direct brokerages have trained over 5,000 new advisors in the last five years.

There are more than 1,200 CE sponsor providers in the US, but more providers doesn’t always mean better content, Failla said. “I don’t think there’s a real need for more CE providers, but there is a need for better education.”