A homegrown CFP

Newly created Wisconsin Financial Services Institute offers local continuing education for financial planners, insurance professionals

Story by Jan Rupnik

FINANCIALLY PLANNING FOR YOUR FUTURE is the single most important thing you can do for yourself. By investing wisely you’ll be able to ensure you have enough money to retire when you want and how you want. The second most important thing you can do is to work with someone who knows how to maximize your investments so that you can achieve those goals.

It used to be that 40 years ago, financial planning was considered home economics or a topic your insurance agent would talk with you about, but in recent years there’s been a paradigm shift in how people think about their financial future.

“We’ve seen a shift in how companies and people think. In the past it used to be that a company would take care of their employees for life,” said Barry Mulholland, CFP, a professor of finance in the College of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and co-director of its 1-year-old Wisconsin Financial Services Institute. “Today, companies provide employees with an opportunity to find a way to take care of themselves. For most, that might mean a 401(k) with a match.”

With such a shift in paradigm, there’s been a burgeoning industry of professionals offering assistance to individuals planning for their future wealth. In an effort to meet a growing demand for quality education in financial services industries, the Wisconsin Financial Services Institute was created to provide quality, local continuing education courses and programs in which professionals can enroll at their convenience. For its first series of course offerings, the institute is delivering a program allowing area financial planners to garner the education they need to receive the designation of Certified Financial Planner, or CFP.

History of an emerging industry
ORIGINALLY, THIS GROUP OF FINANCIAL planning professionals grew out of the insurance industry. But as the need grew, the financial planning industry began to specialize itself with training, education and expertise coming from many different areas.

Like any growing industry, there’s bound to be change. Within the financial planning industry, there is a push for greater regulation and improved professional pedigrees, including in the kinds of designations offered.

“In some states, such as Nebraska, there were more than 70 designations (for financial professionals) about a year ago,” said Mulholland. “Left unregulated, this could be a problem as some of these designations didn’t have testing or education requirements. But through legislation, there are now only five recognized designations in that state.”

Since the 1970s, this industry has also begun to develop into its own area of study with a number of universities offering undergraduate, masters and doctoral-level degrees in financial planning.

Meeting the community need
IT USED TO BE THAT INDIVIDUALS wanting to become a financial planner would have to participate in long-distance learning or self study programs. For area planners, that meant traveling long distances to areas like Chicago or Minneapolis to take classes, or doing correspondence coursework with American College, Boston University or Florida State University.

As part of UW-Oshkosh’s community outreach efforts, the College of Business formed the Wisconsin Financial Services Institute in late 2007 to provide educational services to professionals in the financial and insurance industries.

“We were looking for additional community outreach,” said Mulholland. “There was a strong community need and desire for this type of programming.”

Its first series of course offerings – about a year-and-a-half program to educate and prepare financial professionals for the CFP designation – includes a series of six required courses and three electives all directed toward the CFP exam.

“We started developing the program three years ago, received funding two years ago and then a year ago we started registering students, with the first classes starting in September 2007,” Mulholland said. The first cohort of students to go through the Wisconsin Financial Services Institute program are expected to sit for the CFP exam by next spring.

Currently, the Certified Financial Planners Association board requires participants to have education and knowledge on 89 required learning topics. Using those requirements, Mulholland and his peers tailored its program to help its students succeed. And success, at least initially, isn’t an easy task. According to the Certified Financial Planners Association, only an average of 62 percent of people who take the exam pass the first time. Of those who retake the test, only 43 percent pass.

In order to sit for the exam, a financial planner must also have at least a four-year degree, a minimum of three years of financial planning or related experience, and have attended two hours of continuing education on ethics.

“In Wisconsin, we’re seeing planners with three hours (of ethics training) because it’s required by the insurance side of things,” added Mulholland.

The cost alone to take the exam is $600. On average, it requires an estimated 100 to 200 hours of study preparation.
For local financial planners who previously would have traveled to take classes or who did self-study, the creation of the Wisconsin Financial Services Institute is ideal. Oshkosh-based independent financial planner Jeff Jahnke said it’s provided him with many benefits.

“It’s convenient for me. I can mark the time off during the day, and attend class without distractions getting in the way,” said Jahnke. “It’s also better when you have an instructor who you can ask questions of. You also learn more about the practical applications of what you’re learning because you can incorporate real-life situations.”

What’s next?
THE WISCONSIN FINANCIAL Services Institute continues to work with the Financial Planners Association, its local chapter in the Fox Valley, and other companies within the industry to strengthen its current educational offerings. It is also working on developing additional opportunities to meet the continuing education needs in the insurance and banking professions, as examples.

“As we grow the financial planning side, we’ll be looking for opportunities to do continuing education in the insurance industry as well as identify other designations we can develop programming for,” said Mulholland. “The institute is meant to be more than financial planning. It could include banking, investing, and other sources of financial education.”

For more information on the financial planning courses offered at the Wisconsin Financial Services Institute, visit the Web site at www.business.uwosh.edu/wfsi.

Jan Rupnick is a freelance writer based in Oshkosh.