• Experience
  • Complete at least three years of full-time financial planning-related experience (or the equivalent, measured as 2,000 hours per year)
• Ethics
  • Agree to be bound by CFP Board’s Standards of Professional Conduct, a set of documents outlining the ethical and practice standards for CFP^® professionals.

Individuals who become certified must complete the following ongoing education and ethics requirements in order to maintain the right to continue to use the CFP^® marks:

• Continuing Education
  • Complete 30 hours of continuing education hours every two years, including two hours on the Code of Ethics and other parts of the Standards of Professional Conduct, to maintain competence and keep up with developments in the financial planning field.
• Ethics
  • Renew an agreement to be bound by the Standards of Professional Conduct. The Standards prominently require that CFP^® professionals provide financial planning services at a fiduciary standard of care. This means CFP^® professionals must provide financial planning services in the best interests of their clients.

CFP^® professionals who don’t comply comply with the above standards and requirements may be subject to CFP Board’s enforcement process, which could result in suspension or permanent revocation of their CFP^® certification.

Source: https://www.cfp.net/docs/default-source/consumer-outreach/what_is_cfp_certification.pdf

* D Magazine Top Wealth Manager – Members in DFW chapters of the Financial Planning Association®, Chartered Financial Analyst Association® and the Investment Management Consultants Association® were allowed to self-nominate their firms. Finalists chosen by panel of esteemed local wealth managers must hold themselves out as fiduciaries and have total assets under management of at least $100 million; average assets under management per client of at least $1,000,000; a 95% client retention rate over the last two years; no current disciplinary action and at least five years of experience. To select the **Best Financial Planners, every CFP^® practitioner in the DFW chapter of the Financial Planning Association was asked to cast an online ballot; self-nominations were tossed out. Winners were selected by a panel of esteemed local financial planners and had to be practitioners in good standing who would accept new clients as of November 2018. Neither the firms nor their employees pay a fee to D Magazine in exchange for inclusion on the lists. Inclusion is no guarantee of future performance or investment success, and is not representative of any one client’s experience or an endorsement by D Magazine. Raymond James is not affiliated with D Magazine.