To receive authorization to use the designation, a candidate must meet education, examination, experience, and ethics requirements and pay an ongoing certification fee.
[12] The CFP board and other organizations have communicated with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to augment accredited degree standards and ranking of professional designations.
[13] The CFP Certification Examination is a multiple choice, computer-based exam consisting of 170 questions, broken into two sessions separated by a 40-minute break.
[14] The exam includes two case studies, multiple mini-case problem sets and stand-alone questions designed to assess the student's ability to apply their knowledge of the aforementioned areas to financial planning situations.
Students and certificants must adhere to the CFP Board Code of Ethics & Professional Responsibility and the Financial Planning Practice Standards.