Hi Christine,

Hope I'm not "talking out of school" when I bring this suggestion to help... but it seems to me the financial pro participation here at GardenWeb/ThatHomeSite/iVillage is a bit happenstance & almost accidental most of the time.

We do have some good pros here (yes, even the one's who perpatually stand as my loyal opposition in strategy ;~), but at The Fool there are exponentially more (including my opposition... perhaps ESPECIALLY my opposition ;~)

There is a CFP Study Group board... but its been quiet for a long time.

Otherwise, there are quite active boards for virtually every niche-aspect of Financial Planning strategy, from Estate Planning, Fixed Income/Bonds, Life Insurance, Annuities, LTC, Tax Planning (and of course, a zillion and one securities investment boards.)

Here's perhaps the most active generalist boards;

Macro Economic Trends and Risks (the name says it all)
http://boards.fool.com/Messages.asp?bid=114903
Macro Economic Trends and Risks (the name says it all)

Investment Analysis Clubs / It Is What It Is
http://boards.fool.com/Messages.asp?bid=113032
Investment Analysis Clubs / It Is What It Is
(This is populated by money managers and active traders, moreso than passive planners or service placers. LOTS of hyper-speed noise & trader lingo, be forewarned ;~)

Hope that's helpful!
Dave Donhoff
Leverage Planner

(FWIW; I chose strictly Series 65 & chose not to go CFP after swimming amongst many of them. Its a great curriculum (which can/SHOULD be studied regardless of label,) but the lack of fiduciary commitment in the CFP was what turned me away. The certification "brand" didn't brush the direction I wanted. Having said that; I know CFPs that are solid & honorable... but they were already that way without the ® anyway. The cert doesn't really raise them further above the rabble, and actually pulls them into a generality that doesn't serve them (in my opinion.) Everyone has to start somewhere though.)

In answer to your question, I have certainly met quite a few CFP. Before you spend a lot of time and money studying it, I recommend you check into job opportunities. You are in the Chicago area--good job market for that type of thing. Alternatively you might want to study to be a stockbroker, and work at that for a while. You can learn the insurance market. I cannot imagine that a CFP I would hire to help me would not know those two fields quite well--otherwise they would be just trying to sell me annuities. Bear in mind that people with a lot of money who need help are going to want somebody smarter than they are --in several fields. You may notice that Dave Donoff is pretty knowledgeable about several fields.
I am often disgusted that clients of mine who inherited money managed to find a financial planner that lost the money quicker than you would at the tables in Las Vegas.

I worked as one of the admin staff for a local, very well respected CFP. He is 'semi-retired', and has a client base of about 130 clients, many of whom have been with him for two and three generations now. The CFP firm we now use for my MIL's assets, was founded 20 yrs ago by a CFP he trained.

With the crackdown by the SEC on the brokerages shading into 'Financial Planning' - which technically can only be done by four categories of Registered Investment Advisors (CFPs, CFAs, CPAs with PFS certification, CLU for insurance purposes only), more of them are encouraging their brokers to obtain CFP certification.

It is not, as Donhoff points out, a cure-all for 100% reliability/honesty/knowledge. It is, however, at least a first step in winnowing out those who can't be bothered to study for an RIA designation and aren't willing to expend the additional requirement of annual classes to maintain that RIA status.

Once you pass the CFP exam - pass rates fluctuate every year but are usually in the 40-60% pass ratio - you do a 3-yr internship before you are actually allowed to use the CFP title. If you have been working in financial services you can apply to have your past work experience counted towards your internship requirement.

It took my boss 25 yrs in business before he could 'fire' the 80% of his clients that weren't worth working with. It is very true, when you are in this type of business, that when you factor in your time, 80% of your profits come from just 20% of your clients. The remaining 80% are more trouble than their accounts are worth.

When he did take this drastic step, there were about half a dozen clients who were put on 'probation'. They were told they had to treat his office staff with courtesy from now on, or they too would have to leave. He made sure that anyone he 'cut' was given a referral to at least two other CFPs who were willing to accept new clients.

The morale of the office staff rose considerably after this drastic purge, and although his business revenues declined by about 15% that year, the time saved by not dealing with recalcitant clients freed him to go after clients who proved more profitable and a better psychological 'match,' which is always an optimal goal in a service business like financial services. He never did 'hard' advertising; almost all his new clients came from personal referrals.

The other independent CFPs envied him for being able to limit his client base. Most of them could not afford to do this, and had a much lower asset minimum for accepting new clients.

IOW, it's like any other job where you can work for a large company (e.g., brokerage or other FS firm) and be a cog, or you can try to break out on your own, where you struggle with the difficulties of being a small business owner and wearing 'all the hats' as you try to market your business. It's a hard road, no doubt about it.

Brokers who work towards earning their CFP designations are usually day-to-day doing portfolio allocations and stock/fund research. A lot of people think they want to do financial planning, but when they are forced to do the constant ROI number-crunching and endless market analyses, quarter after quarter (those YE deadlines for summary reports are REALLY stressful), find they don't enjoy it all that much, after all.

The biggest difficulty in this business is not only are there many niches to the FS industry, but also, the people who need it the most are the least able to afford it. It's like being an independent mechanic: it takes you the same amount of time to service a $20K Chevy Malibu as it does to service a $150K Mercedes. But you can charge a lot more for the Mercedes than for the Chevy, so your return on time expended is more profitable. This means you not only need to be good at crunching numbers, you need good people skills to help grow your asset management portfolio. Being good at two very different skills is not easy for most people.

The certified financial planners that I know are strictly FEE ONLY professionals. They do not get commissions for selling particular financial products. They go over your entire financial circumstances with you in detail and develop a plan that fits your needs and risk tolerance and, most important, is LOW in expenses. Typically, that means using index mutual funds that are broadly diversified. The key to success is that you get exposure to all the markets where there's a chance to make money, and the Percentage of your nestegg that you put into each market depends on how much risk you want to take and how large that market is. The index funds have the lowest expense ratios and they do not depend on the vagaries of particular fund managers' strategies, that may or may not work in this or that investment climate. That is the kind of approach that makes sense for about 90% of the stock/bond investing public. the other 10% have such large amounts of discretionary funds available, that they can afford to take bigger risks.

If the approach I have outlined above is consistent with your view of the investment arena, then becoming a certified financial planner is a career path you should consider. If not, maybe you should think about Wall Street banking or Las Vegas.

haus_proud, your explanation sounds great but frankly, I know several people who started to become CFPs and found they just weren't cut out to do it. I regularly attended the local FPA mtgs (Financial Planners Association) and the issues they faced as small-business owners were exactly the same as those of the many other small business entrepeneurs I know, almost all of whom are struggling in this rough economic environment.

It's certainly much easier to join a big brokerage and have them help pay for your classes, but again, it comes down to selling. Whether you work corporate or independent, you will NOT be successful unless you can sell to strangers. Period. That's what the business comes down to, in the end.

christine, I would suggest you use the websites of NAPFA, FPA and Garrett to find a couple of CFPs who would be willing to talk to you about how to break into the business and what is needed to succeed. Asking here, where there are no RIAs, isn't likely to get you the specific information you need to make an informed decision.

A couple further clarifying comments;

"Fee Only" is a business model that *SOME* CFPs follow, but certainly not all (nor even most!) Many other professional certificants of differing flavor from CFP (i.e CFA, RFC, CPA, PFA, and many others) also practice strictly Fee-Only. There are pros and cons (for both, the professional *AND* the consumer) to Fee Only practices. For the vast majority of folks needing financial advice, fee-only (especially on hourly or similar retainers) creates an emotional hurdle that keeps them from "going to the well" as often as they really should.

For mid-tier clients and higher, Fee Only *may* make better sense... but much is determined by exactly how fees are thusly calculated, and thereby whether the professional's interests (and risks) are actually effectively aligned with the client, or not. Of course, for an individual professional to get as perfectly as aligned as possible, they would either have to write custom retainer calculations for each individual client, AND/OR accept only a very narrow type of client (much as Jkom's former boss was able to do after he'd built enough of a book that he could afford to "fire" everyone that didn't fit his preferred niche. I think this is every (or most) high-quality professional advisor's dream outcome!)

FWIW, it appears the majority of fresh CFPs currently pouring out are employed/sponsored by Ameriprise (formerly American Express.) Virtually none of these CFPs operate on strictly a Fee-Only basis... and in the industry, the perspective is that the CFP identity/brand is being distorted as the Ameriprise reps are seen as heavily encouraged to push their internal products regardless of actual best ineterest.

Regarding Jkom's comments;
christine, I would suggest you use the websites of NAPFA, FPA and Garrett to find a couple of CFPs who would be willing to talk to you about how to break into the business and what is needed to succeed.

Excellent sources, and I'll add Cambridge Advisors.

Asking here, where there are no RIAs, isn't likely to get you the specific information you need to make an informed decision

A clarification; RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) is a distinction of the SEC Series 65 license, which authorizes an advisor to charge advisory fees (but not to collect sales commissions.) The RIA license is not the same concept as the CFP® (Certified Financial Planner.) A CFP® can operate with *ANY* type of securities license (including the commission-only Series 7 (aka stock brokers,) or no securities license at all (such as accountants, attorneys, and insurance professionals.)

There are many RIAs that are not CFPs, and many CFPs that are not RIAs. Same same for accountants, attorneys, and insurance pros, of course.

Cheers,
Dave Donhoff
Leverage Planner

I applied for the position of CFP for a local company and GOT the job. I didn't take it. Their terms were: They would keep me on for 3 months while I studied to take the stock broker exam, they would train me and pay the fees. "IF" I passed then I would cold book clients, by cold calling local companies and I would have a year to build up clientel of $1million with a wage of $24K the first year. After that I'd start earning a percent of what I was taking in. I didn't think cold calling was my "thing".....I wasn't sure I could work hard enough or be good at it. I just didn't feel up to the challenge. Afraid of failure....maybe. Not hungry enough.....? Dealing with the public when I already have my own cash I invest would be difficult. Not everyone wants to buy a mutual fund when the alternative is getting to spend their money. :0)