Important Changes in the March 2010 CFP Certification Examination
For individual registering for the March 2010 CFP® Certification Examination, which will be administered on March 19-20, 2010 the CFP Board had changed the exam in ways that will affect how you
The March 2010 CFP® exam will include questions covering current 2010 tax law, including the estate tax and Roth IRA conversion changes that took effect in January 2010. The laws effecting these changes were passed in 2001 and 2006, respectively, so including this material on the March 2010 exam is consistent with CFP Board’s policy of testing material that was passed into law at least 6-months prior to the date of an exam.
2010 tax tables and other indexed values will be provided to you with your exam booklet for reference during the exam. A copy of these tax tables and indexed values is available on CFP Board’s Web site at: www.CFP.net/become/taxtables.asp.
Historically, it has been a practice for CFP Board to wait until the July administration of the examination to include the annually updated tax tables and other indexed numbers. CFP Board and the Council on Examinations has recently reconsidered this issue, and effective with the March 2010 exam, the tax tables and other indexed numbers provided to examinees with the exam booklets will reflect current year tax law, with the exception of any recent tax law changes signed into law six months or less prior to the exam administration date. For example, a tax law signed into law in January would not be eligible for testing on the March exam but would be eligible for testing on the July exam and thereafter.
This change to the tax laws covered by March exams was adopted to maintain the validity and currency of the CFP® exam’s content, so that it accurately tests the knowledge and skills utilized by practicing financial planners. The tax tables and other indexed numbers to be tested on any given exam do not need to be memorized by examinees; the tax tables and other indexed numbers to be tested are included with the exam booklets given to examinees for reference during the exam.
CFP Board has flagged all March 2010 exam questions that may be “tax law”-sensitive for special scrutiny by the psychometricians during the scoring process to assure that examinees are not adversely affected by this change.
You will be sent an admission ticket by e-mail two weeks before the exam date. The exact time and location of the exam will be printed on the ticket. You must bring the ticket with you to the exam on both days. Please take a moment to log in to your online CFP Board account at www.CFP.net/login to verify that the e-mail address and other information listed in CFP Board’s records is current. Please also verify that the name under which you registered matches the name on your government issued photo ID, which you will be required to present at the exam center.
We wish you the best as you prepare to take the CFP® Certification Examination. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at 800-487-1497 or initialcert@CFPBoard.org.
