For those of you who have your CFPs, what change in results, new clients have you noticed since obtaining your CFP?

The CFP is the premier professional designation of this industry. That is, if you are a CFP. Plenty of arguements can be made for the other designations — insurance, investment, otherwise. Personally, I just decided to obtain and hold this one license and forget about all the others.

As you pointed out, obtaining the CFP is something you do while you learn the business, and in the the case of your joining a broker dealer training organization, trying to build a book and surivive.

Setting yourself apart from the competition is a good idea — for any business. Since the products we offer are commodities, what we have to offer as professionals are things like: specialized knowledge, technical service, the benefit of experience from working with many clients over time, and other obvious benefits.

The CFP is important on a couple of levels. First, it draws a frame and formally defines the body of knowledge, experience and ethics that define the financial planning and investment advisory and insurance advisory professions. As you know, you have to have industry experience to get it.

Next, it helps define you as a planner. If you have traveled to the formal intellectual boundries of the kingdom, you are qualified to report to the emporer. You don’t have to get a CFP to do that. But especially for the way some of us think, we are better planners for having made the group excursion to the hinterlands.

It can help give you confidence, and it provides a formal structure upon which to attract and attach the learnings and experience you will aquire by doing. The continuing education requirement will force you to read industry journals or attend group training which will continue to build the intellectual framework.

As far as marketing, in the context of building a practice while affiliated with a training broker dealer, this has been the least important benefit. It is hard to know how much business has found me over the past decade. Having a CFP in my mind helps me to position myself as a professional — I did not chase new clients after the first few years, only working by referral.

You probably want to wait a year or two before jumping in to the CFP studies, since you have so much to learn and do, when you first start, managing all of the critical activities for survival is like trying to drink from a fire hose.

But it is kind of like going to college right after high school — not a bad idea to get this taken care of and apply the benefits of formal education as soon as possible. Don’t get busy with your life and forget to invest in yourself.