The whole world seems to be moving online, including programs to earn the certified financial planner (CFP) designation. During the past decade, online versions of the CFP Board's course work have sprouted up all over the country at various universities and colleges.
"The growth in online CFP programs has made CFP certification more accessible,'' says Kevin Keller, CEO of the CFP Board of Standards Inc. The first CFP Board-registered program was offered in 1970. Today, there are 341 of them comprising 186 certificate programs, 105 undergraduate programs, 44 master's programs and six PhD programs. At year-end 2011, there were 64,236 CFP professionals in the U.S.
Some four-year institutions have seen burgeoning growth in their online CFP programs. Boston University launched its on-campus CFP Board-registered course in 1990, and added its online version in 2002. Enrollment in B.U.'s in-person CFP study program has grown steadily, while its online class has grown exponentially in the past five years--an estimated 319 B.U. students enrolled in the in-class program this year versus 2,766 for the online program.
Ruth Ann Murray, director of the Center for Professional Education at Boston University's Metropolitan College, attributes the fast growth of B.U.'s online program to students' familiarity with learning via a computer, the program's flexibility and a growing perception that online courses are both more challenging and thorough in covering the CFP course work.
But Murray says that B.U.'s online course completion rate is lower than its in-classroom one. She attributes that to the online version's heavier workload where students choose between a nine-month accelerated, instructor-led virtual classroom and an 18-month self-paced version.
"People just aren't aware of what it means to be committed to a nine-to-18 month course that covers numerous areas of study," Murray says. But she adds that students who complete the online program typically score somewhat higher exam pass rates.
The CFP education program's major planning areas include general principles of financial planning, insurance planning and risk management, employee benefits planning, investment planning, income tax planning, retirement planning and estate planning.
Starting this year, the CFP Board has expanded its education requirement by adding a financial plan development course. This capstone course requires students to present a financial plan that incorporates the knowledge they learned in their course work.
The extra requirement will mean extra costs for CFP aspirants. For example, the complete online program at the University of Georgia went from $1,995 to $2,795 after the capstone course was added--a 40% hike. Meanwhile, the cost of the university's traditional in-class program went up just 3% for both non-alumni ($4950) and alumni ($4,750). That's because the in-class version already had an optional capstone program in place, so it didn't have to make a big adjustment regarding course structure and manpower.
"There isn't a lot of instructor-to-student time with the online program," says Dan Madden, a CFP license holder with Greene Consulting, which partners with the University of Georgia to run the school's online CFP program. "We're going to have to do a lot more with this new course because students will present financial plans to us and we have to communicate with them about that, so our person-to-person time increases as a result of the required capstone course."
-Jim McConville