College for Financial Planning to Add Renewal Requirements

The College for Financial Planning plans to add renewal requirements to some of its professional designations starting next spring.

The designations to which the new requirements will apply include the Accredited Asset Management Specialist; the Accredited Wealth Management Advisor; the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor; the Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist; the Chartered Mutual Fund Counselor; and the Foundations in Financial Planning, which leads to the RP Designation.

The renewal requirements will entail taking 16 hours of continuing education every two years and complying with an updated ethical component. The college said the changes were intended to stay ahead of the shifting regulations in the financial planning industry and strengthen the credibility of the college's designations and the professionals who hold them.

"We designed the requirements to strengthen our marks from the perspectives of regulators, financial services firms and our students," said College for Financial Planning president John Sears in a statement. "The new requirements enhance the investment students have made in their professional education."

As a regionally accredited academic institution, the College for Financial Planning's professional designations are either approved, exempt or receive preferential treatment in all the regulations and legislation thus far enacted at the state and national levels. However, the college is instituting the requirements as a proactive step, anticipating the regulatory requirements are going to become stricter for financial planners.

The college's Certified Financial Planner mark already has a continuing education requirement, as mandated by the CFP Board.

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