Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Certification Program, Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies

Program Overview:

CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (TM) Education Program

The Northwestern University Certified Financial Planner^TM program offers multiple CFP-Board-approved classes to fit your work/lifestyle. We have designed each program to meet your needs, whether you are a career changer or long-time planning professional, or if you prefer to learn in-person or online. Participants who pass all required courses will receive a certificate of completion from Northwestern University, one of the world’s top universities, which they can proudly display on their wall and share with their clients.

Weeknight Program

The weeknight program offers a skills-based approach, with assessments designed to simulate the daily life of a successful planner. Our instructors worked closely with the CFP Board to design this new curriculum.

Frequency and Location: Once a week at 210 S. Clark St. in the Loop, plus some online assignments.

Next cohort: Fall 2013

Time to Completion: As little as 14 months when students take concurrent classes.

Required Courses:

Introduction to Financial Planning
Insurance Planning
Investment Planning
Income Tax Planning
Retirement Planning and Employee Benefits
Estate Planning
Financial Plan Development and Presentation

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Accelerated Weekend Program

Frequency and Location: Fridays and Saturdays monthly at 210 S. Clark Street in the Loop

Time to Completion: 12 months

Required Courses:

Introduction to Financial Planning
Insurance Planning
Investment Planning
Income Tax Planning
Retirement Planning and Employee Benefits
Estate Planning
Financial Plan Development and Presentation

To see when these courses are offered, Visit our partner site at BOE.

Online Programs: Instructor Led and Self-Paced

Frequency and Location: "Live" courses meet twice weekly; self-paced are on your own time. All courses are online.

Next cohort: Live – May 2013; self-paced – any time

Time to Completion: About 9 months

Required Courses:

Introduction to Financial Planning and Insurance Planning
Investment Planning
Income Tax Planning
Retirement Planning and Employee Benefits
Estate Planning
Financial Plan Development and Presentation

To learn more visit our partner Dalton Education.

CFP (R) Exam Review

Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies has selected The Dalton Review® as the exclusive review for our CFP® certification education programs. The Dalton Review provides students with a high quality curriculum and is led by outstanding faculty. To learn more, visit our exam preparation page.

Certified Financial Planner ™ and federally registered CFP® (with flame logo) are certification marks owned by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. Northwestern University does not certify individuals to use the CFP®, Certified Financial Planner™; and marks. CFP® certification is granted solely by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. to individuals who, in addition to completing an educational requirement such as this CFP Board-Registered Program, have met ethics, experience and examination requirements.

Core Courses:

FN_EXTND 300-0 Intro to Financial Planning
This course provides an introduction to the financial planning process, with a particular focus on client interaction, fiduciary issues, and ethics. Other topics include time value of money, the regulatory environment, and practice management concepts.

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FN_EXTND 301-0 Insurance Planning

This course provides a foundation for understanding the principles of risk management and the use of insurance as a principle method of managing financial risk exposure. In addition, this course will help students identify the various types of financial risk and how to evaluate alternative strategies in order to lessen the impact of unplanned events. Contingency planning is one of the most important elements of the financial planning process, and discussions will center on how to make recommendations to manage ongoing risk when planning for the future. Finally, the analysis of client insurance needs and methods of determining the type and amount of insurance best suited to each client's situation is examined, incorporating discussions of life, property, liability, homeowner's and personal-auto insurance. Also covered are medical and disability insurance and long-term care policies.

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FN_EXTND 312-0 Investment Planning

This course surveys the wide variety of investment vehicles that can be included in a client's investment portfolio, introducing risk-return criteria as a means of evaluating alternatives. The broad spectrum of investments is explored, ranging from guaranteed- and fixed-income products to derivatives and private placements. An emphasis on the client is the overriding theme for the course, beginning with the client needs assessment as it relates to risk tolerance, return requirements and liquidity needs. Techniques for selection, timing, measurement and diversification of investments are studied in detail. Different strategies and valuation models are used to understand fundamental investment principles. Modern portfolio theory, risk management, market strategies, efficient market theory, and asset allocation and diversification are introduced. Retirement planning and employee benefits will be discussed, as will relevant ethical considerations. Students analyze expected return characteristics individually and in combination within a hypothetical portfolio. Specific investment types discussed include stocks and bonds, mutual funds, insurance-based investments, options and futures contracts, foreign investments, real estate, tangible assets, and other debt and equity securities. Other topics include tax considerations, economic factors, the portfolio construction and management process, portfolio performance evaluation methods, market analysis, hedging and option strategies, and formula investing. The course also discusses government regulation of securities and markets.

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FN_EXTND 313-0 Income Tax Planning

This course provides an overview of the federal income tax system, examining the income taxation of individuals, sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs and corporations. Students will begin with taxation terminology and then learn about the concepts of gross income and deductions for profit-making activities, personal deductions and tax planning for the family, tax benefits of home ownership, planning for the acquisition and deposition of other real estate, and how the choice of business entity affects the taxes of owners and employees. The course will focus on how financial planners advise clients about the most effective methods of maximizing wealth by reducing their tax burden through an examination of a variety of tax issues-including tax law, accounting methods, tax planning related to employee compensation, research and practitioner concerns, cost-recovery methods, consequences of like-kind exchanges and tax-advantage investments. Alternative minimum tax (AMT), self-employment tax, ethical considerations, potential traps and pitfalls, and the consequences and effects of IRS audits and enforcement activities also will be discussed.

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FN_EXTND 314-0 Retirement Planning

This course covers all aspects of retirement planning and employee benefits, beginning with the presentation of tax-deferred retirement program options and the framework used to conduct a needs analysis for achieving retirement income goals. Key features of qualified retirement plan design are discussed, emphasizing the advantages and disadvantages of specific types of plans for the owners of small- to medium-sized businesses. Assumptions and projections of lifestyle, inflation, returns and life expectancy are critical when considering retirement needs. An understanding of cash flow, income sources, medical expenses and benefits must go into the calculations. Employee compensation has changed significantly in recent years, so it is essential that financial planners grasp how to coordinate employer-sponsored benefits within a plan. All of these issues are addressed in detail, as are how to avoid inappropriate investments and how to present recommended courses of action to clients. Additional relevant topics highlighted in this course include commonly provided non-pension employee benefits, such as disability, healthcare and group life insurance. Students will discuss the uses of life and disability insurance in planning for closely held businesses, as well as for the family. Childcare, Medicare and other dependent-care benefits are considered. Federal social security, cafeteria plans, stock options and stock purchase plans, transportation issues, and forms of non-qualified deferred compensation are included, as well.

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FN_EXTND 315-0 Estate Planning

Planning and managing federal estate and gift taxation is one of the most overlooked yet critical elements of a financial plan. Part of this process involves understanding the perspectives of the many parties involved and their related concerns; that is, the perspectives of descendants, fiduciaries, estates, trust beneficiaries, donors and recipients. This course examines the important estate-planning issues from all of these perspectives. Beginning with the fundamentals of federal estate and gift taxation, the process of developing an estate plan is presented through a discussion of a variety of mechanisms - such as incapacity planning, qualified interest trusts, generation skipping, estate planning weaknesses, property ownership forms, intestacy and will substitutes, how to satisfy liquidity needs, and specific exclusion and valuation techniques that reduce the size of the gross estate. There are many facets to proper estate planning, and this course will touch on all of the essential elements necessary for consideration by the financial planner. Charitable, intrafamilial, postmortem and business-transfer planning techniques that play an important part in estate planning are addressed, and additional focus is placed on the implications of gifts and bequests, including lifetime gifting and coordination of the unified credit with marital deduction. Other issues include tax consequences of estate planning techniques, revocable and irrevocable trusts (including bypass and marital deduction trusts), life insurance, federal estate tax, probate and more.

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FN_EXTND 320-0 Financial Plan Development

New required for all students starting in 2012, this Financial Plan Development and Presentation course will lead you through the steps in developing a complete financial plan. You will learn what goes into a financial plan, participate in mock client interviews to learn proper interview techniques, read and analyze case studies of other plans, and develop and present your own financial plan to the class and a panel of experts. This course may only be completed as the final course in the program.

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CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (TM) Education Program

Weeknight Program

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Best option for:

Accelerated Weekend Program

Best option for:

Online Programs: Instructor Led and Self-Paced

Best option for:

CFP (R) Exam Review

Core Courses: