Kaplan and Kitces CFP Continuing Education: A Comprehensive Guide

Maintaining the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification requires ongoing professional development. Kaplan Financial Education and Kitces.com offer resources to fulfill these requirements, ensuring CFP® professionals stay current with industry knowledge and ethical standards. This article provides a detailed overview of the continuing education (CE) requirements and how Kaplan and Kitces can assist in meeting them.

Understanding CFP® Continuing Education Requirements

CFP® professionals must complete 30 hours of continuing education (CE) each reporting period. This includes a mandatory 2-hour CFP Board-approved Ethics CE and 28 hours of CE covering CFP Board’s Principal Topics. These hours must be earned during the CFP® professional’s current reporting period, with no carryover of excess hours to subsequent periods.

Ethics CE Requirement

The 2-hour Ethics CE requirement is specific to CFP® Certification and must be a pre-approved program. Non-approved ethics programs may count for general CE credit if they meet CFP Board’s CE standards, but they will not satisfy the ethics requirement.

Reporting CE Hours

Registered CE Sponsors are required to report CE attendance records to CFP Board within 2 weeks of program completion. If a program is not registered with CFP Board, the CFP® professional can report it online for consideration, subject to a $60 non-refundable reporting fee for each non-registered course submitted for review.

Pre-Certification CE for Candidates

Candidates who do not complete the CFP® certification process within 12 months of passing the CFP® examination begin to accrue a continuing education requirement at a rate of 15 CE credit hours per year, prorated at 1.25 CE credit hours per month. This accrual begins 13 months after passing the exam and continues until the Experience and Degree requirements have been met. CE accrual stops after the second of these two requirements is met and must be completed within 6 months for the candidate to be eligible for certification.

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Acceptable CE Activities

CE credit can be earned through completing continuing education programs, college-level courses, authoring publications, or teaching. Programs that meet CFP Board's CE requirements are eligible for CE credit.

CE Credit Calculation

CE credit for Live Programs is based on an initial unit of at least one CE credit hour (minimum of 50 minutes constituting one CE credit hour), with half-hour increments accepted after the initial CE credit hour has been satisfied. CE credit for Self-Study Programs is determined, in part, by the number of assessment questions, with the requirement of 5 questions per CE credit hour requested.

Importance of Completion and Documentation

Certification will not take place until the entire CE requirement has been fulfilled and reported. Failure to complete the CE requirement within six months from the date of fulfilling the experience and degree requirements necessitates retaking and passing the CFP® Certification Examination and meeting the certification requirements in place at the time of submitting a new CFP® Certification Examination application. It is crucial to keep documentation for CE hours on file for at least four years following program completion.

Kaplan Financial Education: A Comprehensive CE Provider

Kaplan Financial Education is a prominent global provider of financial education and exam preparation products. Kaplan’s continuing education courses are a smart career investment. The College for Financial Planning®-a Kaplan company can help CFP® professionals fulfill the necessary CE hours to maintain their CFP® certification. Kaplan also assists in maintaining insurance licensure by meeting state continuing education requirements, earning accounting continuing professional education credits, and obtaining required investment adviser representative (IAR) CE.

College for Financial Planning CE

All programs, courses, and CE products from the College for Financial Planning are applicable toward the College's designation CE requirements. CE courses taken from the College are exempt from the College's professional designation CE audits.

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Course Completion and Access

Participants have one year from the purchase date to successfully complete the courses and must achieve a score of 70% or higher on the end-of-course assessment to successfully pass the course. Two attempts are allowed for the final exam; if unsuccessful after the second attempt, the course must be repurchased. Payments and fees for CE courses, packages, and subscriptions are non-refundable. Access to the course content is granted for as long as the participant remains active in the course and for a period of one year following the completion of the course. Downloading all course content files is encouraged to prevent losing access to these resources.

CE Sponsorship and Reporting

The College for Financial Planning is a registered CE sponsor with CFP Board and most state insurance departments that require sponsor registration. The College reports CE credit directly to CFP Board within 7 days following successful completion of a course, provided the last four digits of the Social Security number or the CFP Board ID number are on file.

Kaplan’s CE Offerings

Kaplan provides various options for fulfilling CE requirements, including self-study courses, live online courses, and onsite courses.

Ethics CE Course

Kaplan offers a 2-hour Ethics CE course in self-study, live online, and onsite formats. The College reports the hours to CFP Board upon completion of the attestation at the end of the course, regardless of the learning method chosen.

Total Access CE

Total Access CE provides 365 days of unlimited access to all courses approved for CFP® certification CE, excluding the Ethics CE course. This option allows professionals to take as many online continuing education courses as they want for one price.

AIF® Training

The Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) Training is a certificate program, whereby a certificate of completion is issued upon successful program completion. The program does not award a professional certification (i.e., a credential that demonstrates the holder's specialized knowledge, skills, and experience). The AIF® Training allows professionals to fulfill 7 CE hours toward renewing their CFP® certification. Participants gain a fundamental understanding of fiduciary duties, the standards of conduct for acting as a fiduciary, and a process for carrying out fiduciary responsibilities.

CFP® Continuing Education Webinars

Kaplan offers live online courses (webinars) approved for CFP® certification CE. Participants can choose from approximately 13 webinar topics, including Estate Planning Techniques, Retirement Planning Strategies, and more. These webinars combine the benefits of live instruction with the convenience of online study.

Professional Designation Programs

Successful completion of the College’s professional designation programs can qualify for continuing education (CE) hours for CFP® certification renewal. Additionally, if a professional currently holds a designation from the College, completion of a new professional designation fulfills CE hours as part of the renewal of their current designation with the College.

Course Examples

Kaplan offers a wide array of courses covering various topics relevant to financial planning. Some examples include:

Anti-Money Laundering Essentials (CFP): Discusses money laundering methods and specific vulnerabilities within the financial sector.
Financial Exploitation of Seniors and FINRA Rule 2330, 3rd Edition (CFP): Addresses financial exploitation of vulnerable adults and reviews the features and suitability of variable annuities.
Long-Term Care Concepts, 6th Edition: Introduces insurance agents to long-term care (LTC) insurance, including various types of LTC settings and services.
Understanding Annuity Sales Obligations and FINRA 2330, 2nd Edition: Reviews the history of regulations, the current FINRA regulations, and the NAIC Best Interest standard.
AML Best Practices for the Life Insurance Industry, 3rd Edition: Shows insurance company personnel how to build anti-money laundering programs.
Long-Term Care Coverage Combined with Annuities and Life Insurance, 3rd Edition: Discusses combination products in the insurance market that integrate long-term care insurance (LTCi) with annuities and life insurance policies.
Annuity Essentials and FINRA Rule 2330, 2nd Edition: Reviews the basics of annuities with a focus on deferred variable annuities and the FINRA regulations pertaining to those annuities.
Anti-Money Laundering Training for Insurance Professionals, 2nd Edition: Contains the recommended core elements of an AML program for life insurance companies.
Understanding 1035 Exchanges, 2nd Edition: Examines Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 1035 and the planning capabilities it requires.
Know Your Customer and Variable Annuities (FINRA 2330), 2nd Edition: Discusses the key aspects of the FINRA Know Your Customer rule and contrasts them with variable annuity suitability requirements.
Financial Exploitation of Seniors: Why Insurance Agents Should Care, 2nd Edition: Provides answers to questions about financial exploitation, its impact, signals, and what to do about it.
Financial Products Training Course, 8th Edition (CFP): Provides a practical and sales-oriented look at how each financial product works, including its tax consequences and its relative strengths and weaknesses.
Introduction to Advanced Markets, 5th Edition (CFP): Teaches the concepts needed to succeed in the advanced markets, including succession planning and various insurance products.
Senior Needs Planning, 6th Edition (CFP): Helps understand the financial concerns facing retired clients and offers strategic solutions to address those concerns.
Estate Planning Concepts, 13th Edition (CFP): Covers forms of property ownership, wills, trusts, probate, and estate and death taxes.
Advance Planning for Senior Needs, 5th Edition (CFP): Considers life insurance, annuities, health insurance, and long-term care, and covers critical market conduct issues.
Business Insurance Concepts, 11th Edition: Provides principles and guidelines for determining the suitability of life insurance products and making appropriate recommendations for prospects and clients.
401(k) Plans, 6th Edition: Covers basic concepts governing 401(k) plans, building to marketing, installation, and administration of these plans.
Advising Clients on Medicare, 2nd Edition: Discusses the need and value of providing advice to Baby Boomers on Medicare programs and choices.
Annuities for Today's Investor, 1st Edition, 3rd Revision: Discusses the features of annuities and where they belong within the range of retirement saving and distribution options available to clients.
Annuity Concepts, 2nd Edition, Revised: Covers variable annuities in depth, distinguishing them from fixed annuities and discussing variations such as single and periodic premium, immediate and deferred annuities.
Annuity Training Course - NAIC/FINRA Rules and Regulations: Covers the fundamentals of the annuity contract, suitability, and sales practices.
Anti-Money Laundering: Applying the Rules: Provides a clear understanding of the various techniques by which money laundering occurs and the laws, rules, and regulations regarding money laundering.

Kitces.com: An Alternative CE Provider

Kitces.com, founded by Michael Kitces, has become a leading platform for financial advisors, offering in-depth financial planning strategies and CE opportunities. The Kitces.com Members Section provides ample CE hours to fulfill ongoing educational requirements for CFP®, FP Canada, Investments & Wealth (IWI, formerly IMCA) and American College designations, and Investment Advisor Representative (IAR) CE obligations every year.

Membership Benefits

The Kitces.com Members Section includes exclusive content such as white papers, webinars, and unique member resources. Members can earn CE credits for reading the Nerd’s Eye View blog, along with CPE credits if they are CPAs.

Content and Standards

Kitces.com provides thorough and well-researched content explained clearly and written in a way that all advisors can understand. The platform is a certified provider with the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through NASBA, the CFP Board’s Quality Partner program, and the North American Securities Administrators Associations (NASAA).

CE Opportunities

Kitces.com releases a new webinar and a new blog quiz worth 1.0+ CEs with the CFP Board and IWI, as well as CPE credits for CPAs, and IAR CE every month. Premier members gain instant access to white papers, “The Kitces Report,” providing in-depth analyses of advanced financial planning strategies.

Webinars

Kitces.com offers bi-monthly (on the first and third Tuesday of each month) or on-demand access to engaging and instructional webinars from Michael Kitces and other leading industry experts on a wide range of advanced financial planning topics. These webinars deliver engaging expert speakers, a custom workbook with presentation notes and activities, and graphics and animations to highlight key concepts.

Automatic Reporting

All CE credit for CIMA, CIMC, CPWA, IAR and CFP certificants, along with all American College designations, are automatically reported to Investments & Wealth Institute and CFP Board every Wednesday, based on completion of the requisite CE quizzes. IAR CE is automatically reported to FINRA every Wednesday only with the purchase of the $36/year IAR CE Add-On.

CFP Ethics CE

Kitces.com Members are the only planning professionals able to get their CFP Ethics CE in a different way, using four ethics-focused articles written by Michael Kitces.

IAR CE

Kitces.com is approved by NASAA to be a content provider of IAR CE courses. The platform collects and remits the mandatory “IAR CE reporting fee” of $3 per CE credit hour (or $36/year to report all 12 hours of CE) to FINRA.

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