The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards last week moved to increase continuing education requirements for CFP professionals starting in 2027, boosting the required CE credits from 30 to 40 hours per two-year cycle.
The changes are part of updates to the organization's broader competency standards, a project that began in 2023.
At the time, Dan Moisand, the 2023 board chair, said "everything" was on the table in the review process, including the requirement that holders of the CFP mark must have attained at least a bachelor's degree. The recent updates did not change that requirement, but an accompanying FAQ document suggests that the debate isn't over.
"During the public comment period, CFP Board received a significant number of thoughtful comments raising broader questions about the bachelor's degree requirement, including access to the profession and workforce considerations," the document states.
Based on that feedback, the CFP Board made "a deliberate decision" not to make changes. However, the board will convene an Academic Pathways & Standards Working Group in 2026 to assess whether the requirement should be maintained or modified.
"The current bachelor's degree requirement remains in place," the document emphasizes.
The news has sparked a spirited online debate in the financial planning community, as embodied by a LinkedIn post over the weekend by Jeff Levine, the financial planning and tax management expert. The post generated dozens of comments in both support and opposition to the potential change, underscoring the challenge that the new working group will face.
'Mixed Feelings'
"Man ... I have SUCH mixed feelings about this one," Levine wrote. "Ultimately, I think the decision needs to be driven by the CFP Board's broader, long-term vision for the marks. If the Board wants the marks to show someone has demonstrated a minimum level of acceptable competence to work with clients and provide financial advice, then I say scrap the (any) Bachelor's degree requirement."
Notably, Levine said, the "minimum" here shouldn't be conflated with "minimal."
"By definition, there has to be a minimum at some point," Levine said.
On the other hand, Levine said, if the CFP Board's goal is to move public perception of CFP professionals closer to that of accountants and attorneys, then it could make more sense to keep the degree requirement — while ensuring that a sufficient number of credits were earned in an appropriate field of study, such as financial planning, economics, mathematics or psychology.
"For what it's worth, my undergrad work did not include the necessary coursework to allow me to sit for my CPA exam," Levine noted. "So, I ended up going back to school to get my Master's in Accounting... not because I wanted the Master's degree, but because I wanted to be able to sit for the CPA exam and become a CPA."
Ultimately, Levine predicts, the CFP Board will choose to jettison the bachelor's degree requirement.
"Simply put, the number of potential CFP candidates significantly increases if you remove that requirement, and I think the allure of that untapped market ultimately proves too strong for the Board to ignore," he said.
Additional Perpsective
Cody Garrett, a financial advisor and author with Measure Twice Planning, agreed broadly but doesn't necessarily think the type of degree is significant, noting that he personally met the requirement with a music theory degree."People say the degree shows commitment, determination, ability to meet deadlines, etc.," Garrett observed. "But so do the CFP Board's Education, Experience, and Exam requirements. My take: Remove the degree requirement but don't allow designation waivers for the Education program requirement. For example, CPAs shouldn't be able to jump right to the exam, imo."
Other commenters said that someone who chose to join the military out of high school, start a small business or join the workforce in any capacity is no less qualified to pursue the CFP mark than someone who has a four-year degree that is unrelated to financial planning.
In her comments, Meg Bartelt, president of Flow Financial Planning, quoted Dick Wagner, a well-known financial planner who once observed that financial planning, well done, requires "the most demanding mixture of liberal and technical arts."
"So, when you talked about 'well, maybe they can still require a bachelor's, but it has to be in a related field,' I wondered, only somewhat glibly, 'Which field ISN'T related?'" Bartlet wrote. "History, sociology, psychology, math, finance ... knowledge of all these areas contribute to being a good financial planner."
Levine conceded the point: "There's certainly a lot of truth to the idea that to be a good financial planner you have to pull from a lot of different areas. And at the very least, a degree shows an ability to learn."
Pedro Dominguez, a candidate pursing the Chartered Financial Consultant designation from the American College of Financial Services, noted that he is pursuing that certification first because he doesn't have a bachelor's degree for the CFP yet.
"I'm all in for higher education, but when there are hair thin deadlines to meet for projects with students who procrastinate until the last day, or I'm required to retake courses because the University deemed them not transferable from previous college, that does not feel efficient for a working professional raising a family," Dominguez said. "The ChFC allows me to make progress at my own pace, which is great."
Pictured: Jeff Levine
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