CFP Board announces exam results

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. today announced that slightly more than half (52.3%) of the 2,063 individuals who sat for the March 20-21, 2009, CFP certification examination passed the test. The 10-hour, two-day exam was conducted at 50 sites nationwide, according to a statement. Since 1995, 80,708 people have taken the exam, and 46,257 have passed. The cumulative pass rate is 57%, the organization reported. The financial planning industry, under the auspices of the Denver-based Financial Planning Association, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors of Arlington Heights, Ill. and the CFP Board is lobbying heavily in Washington to designate the CFP Board as chief regulator for the currently unregulated industry. They are opposed to regulation by the much larger Washington and New York-based Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., the self-regulatory group for securities brokers, which has expressed interested in expanding its turf to planners. The next CFP exam will be held July 17 and 18. The deadline for completed applications is June 3. The CFP Board is based in Washington.