When Peter Stickeler took the director’s post at Bryant College’s Executive Development Center three years ago, one of the first things he did was hire an outside research firm to poll area companies to get a better picture of the professional development services they needed.
As a result, several changes were made to the center, including the addition of the financial planning certificate program to fulfill students’ educational component for Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
This is the third academic year Bryant will offer the program, which Program Manager Jennifer Larrabee Chasse said has two goals: “It teaches people to be better financial planners and it prepares them for the CFP exam.”
Chasse said the CFP certification (which is, at this point, a voluntary certification for professionals in the fields of financial planning, investments, insurance, banking, accounting and estate planning law) was developed by the CFP Board, a nonprofit certifying organization founded in 1985 to benefit the public by fostering professional standards in personal financial planning.
As of July 31, there were close to 38,000 individuals authorized to use these marks in the U.S. More than 1,200 CFP practitioners are in Massachusetts, 600 are in Connecticut and 140 are in Rhode Island.
Chasse said 136 schools throughout the country offer review courses for the CFP Board’s CFP Certification Examination, but that Bryant’s is the first program in Rhode Island registered with the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Board of Standards.
The CFP mark, which requires planners to pass a 10-hour exam and adopt a specific code of ethics among other requirements, makes the financial planners who obtain the certification more competitive.
“In 10 years, I think if you don’t have your CFP marks, you’re going to have a really hard time,” said Chasse.
Bryant’s CFP curriculum – which is the standard CFP curriculum established by the CFP Board – includes six courses, including classes in insurance risk and management, investment planning and tax planning. Each course lasts 12 weeks, meeting for three-hour sessions once a week.
The program can be completed in 18 months if students – who are mostly professionals working full-time – take one course each semester, but the timeframe for completion of the coursework is flexible.
“Each class is offered several times a year,” Chasse said. “I try to offer every class three times a year.”
Chasse said the majority of students in the program are from Rhode Island, with the rest commuting from Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut.
The college also takes the program to companies with groups of employees interested in the certification program.
The program’s faculty, like the students, is made up of practitioners in the field, which Chasse said makes for lively discussions and networking opportunities.
“They do this every day – the majority have their own practices,” she said. “They’re able to really bring examples into the class – that’s so valuable.”
Chasse said the first group of people have completed the program and took the July CFP exam, and that 20 more graduates of the program are expected to take the November exam.
Future additions to Bryant’s Executive Development Center include the addition of an advanced leadership program to the center’s Emerging Leader program and a distance learning program to be conducted over the Internet, Stickeler said. She added that the center will continue to strive to meet the needs of the area’s business community.
“We believe in our mission statement, which is ‘Your career is our business,'” he said. “That’s what we have to focus on.”
