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 reflects 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 my services 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 current with 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.