During the first few weeks after David N. Myers College announced it would offer courses at its downtown campus to help professionals prepare for the rigorous two-day Certified Financial Planner exam, more than 100 prospective students requested enrollment kits.
That pales in comparison to the number of messages that flooded Elizabeth Plax’s office during May from professionals curious about what the CFP licensing process entailed.
“Every time I checked the voice mail, it was full of people calling in, and it’s a whole variety of people,” says Plax, who is serving as the director of the college’s Financial Planning program. “It’s brokers, it’s insurance agents, it’s bankers, it’s attorney’s, it’s CPAs — the whole gamut.”
The response is a local indicator of a nationwide trend in the financial industry. As both personal and business finances grow increasingly complex for the individual, droves of financial professionals are seeking out a CFP license.
Major national brokerages and insurance companies such as Charles Schwab Corp. and Metropolitan Line Insurance Co. are pushing their employees and associates to snare a CFP license to grab the attention of consumers looking for financial expertise.
“Financial planners have become the quarterbacks — the people who create the individual’s game plan,” says Plax, who has held a CFP license for 15 years and is president of the Northern Ohio Society of The Institute of Certified Financial Planners. “We look at the big picture. Our broad background enables us to deal with the entire spectrum of financial management. It really has more and more become a designation of choice.”
David N. Myers College is just the third institution in the state to offer classes to prepare for the CFP licensing test, and the second in Northeast Ohio. The University of Akron and the University of Dayton both offer programs endorsed by the Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards.
The national accrediting organization requires CFP candidates to pass an arduous two-day test that focuses on investment planning, tax planning, insurance planning, estate planning and retirement. CFP licensees must have three years experience in a related field, pledge to an industry code of ethics and standards and take part in continuing education to retain the license.
There are 750 CFP licensees in Northern Ohio and 33,000 in the United States. Diane C. Savage, a benefits educator for the human resources consulting firm of Watson Wyatt Worldwide, is one of them. She believes it is an important designation because it is the only way to provide the public with a solid measurement of a firm’s financial planning skills.
“I think a lot of people are looking to have some way of assuring their clients or their potential markets they are dealing with that they have been exposed to the information,” says Savage. “It lets a client know that this person should have a broader perspective of what they do and maybe that will make them a better server.”
Gregory P. Althans, a CFP licensee with The Hickory Group, says the designation is not so much a selling point, since the investment firm deals mainly with referrals. However, he believes the license adds to the company’s image and gives peace of mind to the consumer.
“I think it is one more thing that gives them a comfort level with what we’re doing here,” says Althans, who is also a Certified Public Accountant. “They may not come to our particular firm because we have CFPs on board, but it gives them additional comfort in the services we deliver. I think that’s a positive, although we actively don’t even market it.”
As the baby boom generation closes in on retirement, some with a large amount of wealth, Plax says the number of people turning to financial planners for retirement planning is expected to rise. She expects the number of financial professionals seeking out the CFP designation will also increase.
“If people have saved appropriately through a retirement plan or their own personal savings, they are finding themselves right now with a lot more money than they had anticipated ever accumulating,” Plax says.
“The question for them is, ‘How do I know I’m making the right decision both in terms of planning my own retirement as well as what I can do for my children?’ What a CFP does is bring to the table a breadth and depth of expertise that people have come to recognize.” For more information: Contact David N. Myers College, (216) 696-9000, ext. 527