FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT DSFP CERTIFICATION

 By completing a CMSSA Transcript Review, you can understand if your prior courses meet the necessary educational criteria.

Absolutely! As long as they appear on the vetted Certification List, then yes.

All candidates for initial certification must hold a bachelor's degree; there is no option to bypass this requirement. It does not apply if one only wishes to take the DSFP, however.

If you want to use an international degree as a substitute for a U.S. undergraduate degree, it must receive bachelor's equivalency recognition from either NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services) or another third-party evaluation agency. To begin your application process, submit the necessary documents for document-by-document review and evaluation by one of these agencies.

Ready to take the next step in your registration process? There's only two actions left before you can apply for the exam! Firstly, make sure that you submit your application through CMSSA online account. Secondly, book an appointment with our test facility partner located in Exam Registration section to select a suitable test date, time and location. The sooner these steps are completed the sooner you can test.

You have the opportunity to reschedule your exam only once during registration, but be aware that there is a fee of $300 associated with this. If you decide not to take advantage of this one-time offer and instead opt out altogether, we will provide you with a refund in the amount of $200 for your application cost. For those who do choose to reschedule their examination appointment within two upcoming testing windows, otherwise they forfeit all chances for taking it.

Read more about our postponement, rescheduling and withdrawal policies.

Scheduling changes made 30 days or more prior to the exam date are free of charge. However, if you wish to reschedule within 5-29 days before your exam, a $100 scheduling change fee applies. Please note that any alterations requested less than five days beforehand will not be accepted and all associated fees are forfeited for no-shows.

You may take the DSFP exam up to five times throughout your life, and a maximum of three times within 24 months. If you attempt it on 3 consecutive attempts, however, then you must wait one full year (three exam cycles) before registering for another try.

Get prepared for your exam day by learning what to bring, how to answer questions, the formulas you will be provided with, our policy on calculators and more! Don't miss out any information so that you can ace this exam. Read more about EXAM DAY.

Once you finish your exam, you will quickly receive a report that indicates whether or not you passed. If the outcome is negative, it will provide insight into which topics you excelled at and where improvement may be needed. Your official results should arrive approximately four weeks after the test period has closed.

Submit your report whenever you're ready! We highly encourage that you check in often to ensure the best accuracy. Go here for a list of approved certifications that will count towards your DSFP credits 

Yes. If the Experience Standards are met, international experience can qualify. Learn more about the pathways to experience.

Yes, you can sit for the CFP® exam before meeting the experience requirement. You will have up to 5 years after successful completion of the exam to complete your required hours. Learn more about the pathways to experience.

If you're attempting to report your experience hours, activities that don't involve the personal financial planning process for clients must be excluded. This includes time devoted to corporate finance, training, practice management, marketing software development or administrative duties.

Additionally, clients may not be immediate family members, as defined by FINRA Rule 3240.

When reporting this type of experience, the procedure is no different than any other one. The only difference is that you need to find a Qualified Attester who has obtained at least one of these credentials: 

*To be eligible, you must possess a degree from an accredited U.S. college or university.

Your pre-certification CE accrual begins 13 months after passing the exam and continues until both the Experience and bachelor’s degree requirements have been fulfilled. If these requirements are done within a year of passing, you will not need to complete CE to become certified.

No, you do not need to complete an Ethics CE course. The Ethics requirement to become certified includes agreeing to adhere to our Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct, signing an Ethics Declaration and Agreement, and CMSSA conducting a background check.

You have six months to finish any credits acquired once you've met all the requirements for your Experience and Degree. During this time period, there is no need to hurry up in completing pre-certification CE credit hours; if you manage to go beyond what's needed at that moment such extra credits will be stored in your account and can be utilized when more units are earned before certification.

Although CE credit hours earned to meet the pre-certification requirement do not carry over towards meeting the renewal needs for DSFP  certification, they are still an invaluable component of your overall financial planning education.

To ensure that your course completion is reported to CMSSA, make sure to provide them with your CMSSA ID number. If the specific course you're taking has not been pre-approved by CMSSA, a non-registered review process can help you receive credit for it—albeit at an additional cost.

You can view your CE summary using your CMSSA Account Dashboard once the requirement becomes active at that 13th month after passing the exam (if you are still working on your experience and/or degree requirements). To do this, log in and click on the Education tab in your account, then scroll down to the Continuing Education section.

You will have access at any time to fill out the Declaration and Agreement in your CMSSA online account.

We recommend you read over our Fitness Standards to review unacceptable conduct and conduct deemed a presumptive bar.

You can make your payment in your online account once all other requirements are completed: Education, Examination, Experience, CE (if applicable) and Ethics.

Read more about how your payment is calculated.

After making your payment, you'll receive an email confirming your certification. You can start utilizing the DSFP marks directly from the email. The following day, you will be given access to a digital certificate and shortly after that - approximately 2-3 weeks later - you will get your hard copy certificate in the mail! Simultaneously, when we process your payment; Your Account Dashboard will automatically convert into its professional version granting you extra features of this membership level.