FAQ Group One - Experience and Qualifications
What experience do you have?
Ask for a brief description of the financial planner’s work experience and its relation to their current practice. CFP® professionals must have two years of professional experience related to financial planning.
Answer:
I have been working as an independent income tax preparer since 1992. From 1994 until 2008, I offered financial products as a commissioned-based, registered representative.
After becoming a Certified Financial Planner Practitioner in 2002, I started looking at a fee-only compensation model more closely and began offering financial services as an advisory representative. I moved from a commissioned-based sales of securities to a fee-based compensation model offering financial planning and asset management services in 2008.
This change in my compensation model is reflective of how I used to view the financial planning process and how I view it today. Before this change, the industry viewed a financial plan as a sales tool to support a transaction-based business. Therefore, I was uncomfortable with the conflict of interest in using the “financial plan” as a marketing and sales tool.
Now I embrace the financial planning process as a value-added service I offer in my advisory asset management relationships. With planning at no additional charge, no sales, and no conflicts of interest, I am genuinely on the client’s side of the table. As you benefit, I benefit.
The training to become an IRS, Enrolled Agent and my experience in personal taxation bring a unique value to my fee-based financial services practice. An investor choosing to use the services I offer no longer must go to a second (tax) advisor to understand or plan for the tax effect of a financial transaction.
What are your qualifications?
Ask about your planner’s credentials and learn how they stay up to date with current changes and developments in the financial planning field. In addition, CFP® professionals expand their knowledge and stay informed through mandatory continuing education courses.
Answer:
My work experience and the credentials I have earned make me highly qualified. I began offering tax preparation services in 1992. In 1994 I achieved the Enrollment to Practice Before the IRS as an Enrolled Agent (EA). In 2001 I was certified by The (CFP) Board of Standards as a Certified Financial Planner® practitioner (CFP). In addition, as a charter member of Kingdom Advisors, having completed the required training, I was certified (CKA®) in 2005.
To maintain the standards and currency of these credentials, I complete a minimum of 50 hours of continuing education per year. Typically, I will exceed these requirements by attending national conferences, local symposiums, webinars, and self-study courses.