CFA or CFP as a retirement transitional gig ?

I am a CFP and my coworker is a CFA. There are other CFAs on the board that might weigh in as well.

The CFP took me a couple of years to complete, and is intended to be a comprehensive course on all aspects of financial planning, including insurance, estate, retirement, and investing. The test was fairly difficult for me, mostly because I didn't have a strong math foundation. The pass rate is around 50-60%, or it was when I took it.

The CFA is another bird entirely. Much rarer, and much, much harder. There are three tests, and the pass rate is quite low. There is a tremendous time commitment involved in studying for them. Most CFAs work in mutual funds and big investment firms, where lots of stock analysis is needed.

The coworker with hers is damn near brilliant, and had unlimited time at work to study, thanks to our boss (who did the same for me years ago for my CFP).

If you are interested in doing financial planning as a side gig in retirement or just for the education, the CFP is "enough". If you want a deep, deep dive into analysis, CFA may be more interesting. Both have 3 year apprenticeship requirements and continuing education to maintain your marks.

Holler if you have any other specific questions, I'm happy to help.
 
I am a cfa charterholder. It was very time consuming and difficult to obtain. Not the sort of thing you do for yuks. I managed to pass all 3 exams on the first try, but it is not uncommon for people to take 4 to 7 attempts to pass the 3 exams. I was working in the field and it still took me a solid 6 months of prep to get ready for each exam.
 
CFP here. If you are going to set out a shingle as a CFP in your own practice, your primary job for the first few years will be sales and marketing, not financial planning.
 
Pbkmaine said:
CFP here. If you are going to set out a shingle as a CFP in your own practice, your primary job for the first few years will be sales and marketing, not financial planning.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You may as well stay at your regular job. Even if you work for a mega-corp, they will expect you do get clients, and work 60+ hours a week.

You are better off delivering newspapers.
 
This really appealed to me also, until the DW who did technical sales for years schooled me. Her position was that there was a LOT of selling and not as much technical work. That cooled my ardor.
 
I looked at it very briefly - but realized it sounded an awful lot like WORK.

I am choosing to spend my education/learning desire on learning Italian, instead.... No pressure to put it to use for money... but it could be useful in travel. :)
 
I was originally thinking the same thing until i found out about the 3 year apprenticeship. Would probably never be able to get it off the ground in my mid 50s.
 
I started a graduate program in financial planning once and lasted literally one class. I asked the professor about the jobs the previous graduates had and most were in sales jobs, which is not my strong suit or area of interest.
 
Like others I looked into it briefly. Had a former employee who went that route and opened his own business. But he spends more time doing people's taxes than financial planning. And as others have noted if you get employed by someone instead, it's more of a sales job.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
As a former CFP I surrendered my certification when I FIRE'd two years ago. I had mine for 30 years and originally got mine under the original five part program. No two day exam for me. It meant a lot to me over the years and will maintain that it was the best $900 (yes, that was the total cost in the early 1980's) that I will probably ever spend.

Would I want to do it now? I have to say no. The only person's finances that I truly care about are mine. There is so much more regulation and continuing education in the business that the idea of starting over just doesn't do it for me.
 
pjm, did you have the blue book exams? The older guy who started our firm took it in the early 80's, I think, and talked about them.
Mine was the 10 hours over two days bit. Ugh.
I can't/won't do any sort of sales, so was fortunate that my entry into the business was with a very low pressure firm. Like we haven't had business cards for the last three years since we moved offices and chucked the old ones.
I really have to say that my own finances are always more interesting to me than anyone else's, but my favorite part of the job is helping folks organize when they are getting started (kids of clients). And the most humbling and sobering is for clients after a death in the family.
 
Sarah - Yes the tests in the early 80's were pencil and blue books. The original CFP program was written by old school CLU's, so the answer always had some take on whole life insurance. The tests were only given at a few locations (no computer based exams). For my first exam I had to drive almost five hours to Bozeman Montana as that was the closest testing site.
About a dozen years ago I had the chance to work with the CFP board to "test the test". We reviewed the questions and the subject matter for the comprehensive exam. The younger CFP's could not believe that everything was paper and pencil, and that the answers always revolved around whole life insurance.
 
Pjm, very cool! And yes, the whole life answers are long gone! Nowadays (or at least 2006-2007) it is heaviest on ethics. Thanks for "giving back" and working on the tests, us later ones appreciate the update! If not exactly the 10 hours! :)
 
I considered doing something like this back when I first FIREd. My plan was to become a "CFP for the people", advising and teaching people to invest in low cost indexes and learn how to manage their own money. I'd do this for a fixed fee, low enough to just cover costs. Luckily Sarah and Brewer and others slapped me and woke me up from my dreams of being a financial Robin Hood. It's not like I haven't had plenty to do over the last 10 years without saving the world.

Unless you are serious about wanting to do this as a living I would advise against it.
 
Pbkmaine said:
CFP here. If you are going to set out a shingle as a CFP in your own practice, your primary job for the first few years will be sales and marketing, not financial planning.
Click to expand...

+1

I tried and failed as a financial planner from 2012-2014. Worked for 2 firms and tried a third time on my own.

The tough part is SELLING knowledge. Your first 100 clients would likely be people you already know... I am less comfortable selling to people I know- I prefer to be impersonal in certain aspects of the process.

If you choose to do the financial planning route, I would strongly suggest starting 5 years before you start- networking events, discussions with people you know and focus on building relationships with people you already know.
 
Pbkmaine said:
CFP here. If you are going to set out a shingle as a CFP in your own practice, your primary job for the first few years will be sales and marketing, not financial planning.
Click to expand...

+1

This recent episode of the Radical Personal Finance podcast has some useful insider information about what the real life of an early-career financial planner is like. Also worth exploring the archives for similar episodes (I recall there are a few):

https://radicalpersonalfinance.com/334/
 
brewer12345 said:
I am a cfa charterholder. It was very time consuming and difficult to obtain. Not the sort of thing you do for yuks. I managed to pass all 3 exams on the first try, but it is not uncommon for people to take 4 to 7 attempts to pass the 3 exams. I was working in the field and it still took me a solid 6 months of prep to get ready for each exam.
Click to expand...

Likewise and agree. Not something that most people would say is fun.
 
pjm-7 said:
Sarah - Yes the tests in the early 80's were pencil and blue books. The original CFP program was written by old school CLU's, so the answer always had some take on whole life insurance. The tests were only given at a few locations (no computer based exams). For my first exam I had to drive almost five hours to Bozeman Montana as that was the closest testing site.
About a dozen years ago I had the chance to work with the CFP board to "test the test". We reviewed the questions and the subject matter for the comprehensive exam. The younger CFP's could not believe that everything was paper and pencil, and that the answers always revolved around whole life insurance.
Click to expand...


Ah...the bluebook! In law school, most classes have only one comprehensive exam at the end of the class and they are usually essay exams. Most of the young kids will use laptop computers to do the exams and I did this for the Fall term and hated it. I can type fairly quick, but there is added stress of the possibility of computer failure, lots of clicking of keys (with 40+ student test takers in the room) and generally it's a miserable experience. However, the do allow students to "bluebook" the exam if they wish...basically you sit in another exam room and write out the answers. I did that this semester and it was GREAT! I took 4 exams and in all of them, it was the same 6 people taking the exam. Quiet, relaxed, less stressful. Of course, hand cramps did come into play a couple of times...but I think that's a good thing...that means you are putting out a lot of information. Also, my grades this semester have been better although that could be from getting used to the law school way of thinking and test taking.

OK..sorry about the off topic diatribe...back to the normally scheduled thread topic.

I considered doing something that the OP is contemplating, but after talking to a few folks, it sounded like law school would be easier! :D
 
brewer12345 said:
I am a cfa charterholder. It was very time consuming and difficult to obtain. Not the sort of thing you do for yuks. I managed to pass all 3 exams on the first try, but it is not uncommon for people to take 4 to 7 attempts to pass the 3 exams. I was working in the field and it still took me a solid 6 months of prep to get ready for each exam.
Click to expand...

+1

It's great to have - it helped my career, but it was brutal! :)
 
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