Frequently Asked Questions

No. We do not require students to travel to campus to participate in course activities or exams. All courses in the Extended Learning Certificate program are taught 100% online.

No. Our courses are asynchronous, and we do not require students to login at a certain time on a certain day to participate in lectures or course activities. Course content is released on a weekly schedule and you have a full week to complete all assignments for that particular unit. You have weekly deadlines, but how you allocate your time during the week to listen to the pre-recorded lectures and complete the assignments is up to you.

If guest speakers are scheduled to speak at a live event during a semester, we try to record those sessions and make them available to watch at your convenience.

If you would like to qualify for the CFP® Exam, then yes, you will need to complete all seven courses and earn a ‘C’ or better in each course. If you only want to take certain courses for personal knowledge, with no intention of sitting for the CFP® Exam, then no, you do not have to take all seven courses.

We accept up to two courses completed through another CFP Board Registered Program, provided that the course was completed within the last 5 years and a grade of ‘C’ or better was earned. A transcript or letter of verification is required. Every program structures their courses differently, so the coursework you took from another institution may not line up perfectly with our courses.

If you took more than two courses from another institution, or the coursework was completed from an institution that is not a CFP Board Registered Program, then you will need to initiate a Transcript Review with the CFP Board. In this situation, you can complete the remaining coursework with our program and then self-report your eligibility to the CFP Board after you have completed the Capstone course.

Our courses are set up on a semester schedule, which means they have definitive start and end dates each semester. Students can typically work ahead in most courses, but we try to keep everyone at the same pace. Summer courses are 10-weeks long; Spring and Fall courses are 15-weeks long.

This entirely depends on your work/life balance and how much time you have in your schedule. Most students in our Extended Learning Program are working professionals and they typically stick with one or two courses at a time. Courses in our Extended Learning Program are comparable in time and effort to a 3-credit hour upper-level undergraduate course. Please review the Course Workload section on the Certificate Coursework page.

If you are taking all seven courses, we recommend starting with FPCC 435 Financial Planning Fundamentals. FPCC 441 Financial Plan Development (Capstone) should be the last course taken since it combines topics from all courses and incorporates it into a written financial plan. The remaining courses can be taken in any order.

No, we do not require students to be continuously enrolled. If you need to take a semester or two off, just let us know and we will work with you to re-enroll when you are ready to jump back in.

Your pace through the program is entirely up to you and what works best with your work-life balance. We do not require you to take a certain number of courses at a time or to finish within a certain timeframe. We recommend that students complete the coursework within 5 years of your start date if you wish to sit for the CFP® Exam.

Tuition for each course in the Extended Learning Certificate Program is $575. There are seven courses in the program, so if you take all seven courses, tuition is $4,025. Books are additional and those average about $150 per course. A financial calculator is also required; approximate cost is $40.

Payment is due at the time of course registration. We are a pay-as-you-go program and only require payment for the course(s) in which you intend to enroll in the upcoming semester. Payment for the entire program up front is not required.

Requests for withdrawal are only accepted via email. Just send us an email stating that you wish to withdraw (be sure to include the course name), and we will help you with the process.

For students who successfully complete all seven courses with our program, we will issue an official Certificate of Completion. Grade audits are performed at the conclusion of 441 Financial Plan Development (Capstone). Students must have earned a ‘C’ or better in all seven courses to receive an official Certificate of Completion from Texas A&M University. The certificate of completion is only for the financial planning coursework completed through our program. We do not award the CFP® marks.

For students who successfully complete all seven courses with our program, we will report your eligibility directly to the CFP Board.

We accept up to two courses completed through another CFP Board Registered Program, provided that the course was completed within the last 5 years and a grade of ‘C’ or better was earned. A transcript or letter of verification is required.

For students who took financial planning courses from an institution that is not a CFP Board Registered Program, you will need to initiate a Transcript Review with the CFP Board. After you receive a response from the CFP Board, then you can complete the remaining coursework with our program. Students who go through the Transcript Review process will self-report their eligibility to the CFP Board after completion of the Capstone course. We provide grade reports at the conclusion of each semester.

For students who have taken more than two courses from a different CFP Board Registered Program and wish to complete the remaining coursework with us, you will self-report your coursework completion through the CFP Board’s Combo Status/Multiple Registered Program option.

No. Courses taken for Extended Learning Credit are classified as continuing education. The Registrar only issues official transcripts for credit-bearing coursework.
If you need a transcript for the Extended Learning courses, please send us a request by email and we will be happy to help you.

While we cover all topics required by the CFP Board, we do not teach specifically to the exam. We take a holistic approach and focus more on helping students develop skills and knowledge that will benefit them as an industry professional.

Students who complete all seven courses with our program will fulfill one part of the coursework requirement for the CFP® certification process.

We recommend that all students take a CFP® Exam Prep Course before sitting for the exam. Exam prep courses are specifically designed around the CFP® Exam and will give you a better frame of reference for what to expect on exam day.

No. We do not offer a master’s degree or master’s level certificate in financial planning. The only three paths we offer are: