In this week's episode of "Coffee with Waymark," we take a break from market talks to focus on our team. Brandon discusses his journey toward becoming a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, outlining the work, the ethics, and the aha moments along the way.
UPDATE: We’re pleased to announce that Brandon has passed his exams! Congratulations, Brandon!!
Topics Discussed:
What the CFP® Certification Entails
Six Key Focus Areas for CFP® Exam
The Importance of Fiduciary Standard
Work-Life Balance While Studying for the CFP® Exam
The Real-world Application of CFP® Exam Studies
Transcript:
Brendan Sheehan
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Coffee with Waymark. Today's episode is going to be a little bit of a different one. We're not going to talk much about the stock market or what's going on in Washington or taxes or anything like that. But again, kind of elaborating on some themes that we've had in the past, which is getting to know the team a little bit better. And today we're going to talk about something that's going on with Brandon. Brandon is currently studying very hard for his CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification, or “CFP®.” So in a little while Brandon will have a “CFP®” after his name. But first, before he does it, he's had to do a lot of things to get prepared for the exam, which is a 10-hour exam. Brandon, is that right?
Brandon Cardarelli
They give me six. They cut it down. I gotta do it in six hours now.
Brendan Sheehan
Okay. Well, when I took it back in the day, it was six hours on day one, four hours on day two, split with a lunch break between it to put three-hour blocks for day one. But sounds like it's a six-hour straight for you test.
Brandon Cardarelli
Three and three - three, lunch hour, and three.
Brendan Sheehan
Okay, got it. So it's easy. So he'll get it. But what I wanted to do is kind of just explain Brandon's journey and ask him a few questions about the CFP®—again CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™—certification. In our industry, that's considered kind of the gold standard. You know, when you get that and you have that “CFP®” after your name, at least it indicates that you spent hours upon hours studying for this. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So, Brandon, can you elaborate any more on the CFP® certification like, well, what is it? And what's it all about?
Brandon Cardarelli
Yep, well, obviously, you already just gave the designation. But the exam itself is comprised of six kind of key areas or key spots that they focus on. One is general principles, two is insurance, three is investments, four is income taxes, five would be retirement planning, and six would be estate planning. There's other kinds of sets of those, but those are the high-level areas. But not only does it focus on the exam, obviously, once you pass the exam, which I plan to do shortly, it's followed by an ongoing commitment set to the CFP® Board who puts on the exam. And they set out and enforce these different standards for the certification that you have to abide by, obviously, holding professionals to a higher standard with regards to ethics, duties of care to each other - other advisors, other professionals as well as to our clients and loyalty and integrity as well.
Brendan Sheehan
So, Brandon, I'm curious - and this is gonna make you go off script for a second because I know Brandon has written down all of his answers to these questions. Is fiduciary, what's the deal with the fiduciary standard when it comes to CFP® certification?
Brandon Cardarelli
Fiduciary is always putting your client first - or whoever you're working on behalf of - would be putting someone else first or above and beyond your own personal gain, I guess. So putting the client first and all aspects of whatever you're, dealing with.
Brendan Sheehan
Yeah, so one of the one of the key pieces of having the CFP® certification is that because of the strict ethics standard we have to operate as fiduciaries, whereas folks that don't have the CFP® certification, don't necessarily always have to do so. I have my own personal opinions about that and I will keep them to myself. But needless to say I very much support the CFP® Board requiring that those that have the CFP® mark operate as a fiduciary. Okay, question two, Brandon, what's involved with earning your CFP® certification and how's the journey been?
Brandon Cardarelli
Well, I will say in short, it's been a lot of studying. So a lot of reading a lot of materials. My wife kind of yells at me constantly because I have my books all over the place. So it's not just one book set and forget it. It's multiple books. As I mentioned previously, there's multiple modules or areas so I have a book at least one book per each.
Brendan Sheehan
And how many modules Brandon again?
Brandon Cardarelli
Six.
Brendan Sheehan
Okay, so six separate books that you have to know cover to cover.
Brandon Cardarelli
Cover to cover, plus all the quizzes, exams, case studies. So there's more than six books, we'll put it that way. So, along with all this studying, obviously, lots of reading involved, it's just been long days, long nights, weekends, Friday nights, Saturday nights, Saturday mornings, you know. We've had classes, long days from 8 am to sometimes 7 pm. So just a lot of time, you know, a lot of stressful times as well. But it's been very eye-opening. And what I mean by that, there's been, in my studies, a lot of aha moments, meaning, once we're reviewing a certain section, I'll be looking at it like, "Oh, that's what Brendan was talking about - oh, that's what the attorney mentioned." Or when we work with accountants, I say, "Oh, okay, now that now that it makes sense. So that's why we want to do what we do for that client." So it's definitely been an eye-opening experience.
Brendan Sheehan
Got it. So what's one of the things that you've learned in this journey that you've had?
Brandon Cardarelli
What I've learned is that the CFP® exam is all around. The only problem is I wasn't really privy to all the information. So stuff kind of went above my head in meetings, you know, that I kind of just mentioned with Brendan or attorneys, but now that I know this information, it's all kind of fitting in like a like a giant puzzle. So there's little pieces, and now learning how they all kind of fit together in one nice little neat little box.
Brendan Sheehan
Cool. What's been the most difficult part?
Brandon Cardarelli
Difficult is obviously there's a lot of material. So there's a lot of stuff. But the tricky part is remembering not so much the rules, it's usually the exception to the rules. So the small special circumstances. Example is, you know, with a spouse who doesn't have a 401(k), but their other partner does, you might think, Oh, well, they can just contribute to a traditional IRA account and get the tax deduction. However, the little rule is that if they make too much money that gets phased out, and they can no longer get that deduction. So again, you have to remember all the rules and look at the big picture to figure out when it comes into play.
Brendan Sheehan
Got it? All right, final question before we wrap this thing up. So Brandon, you have a wife at home, we got two little ones, you have a pretty busy household. So why in the world would you want to take the CFP® exam and why did you want to earn it?
Brandon Cardarelli
Yep. And you also forgot about the two dogs one being a few months old as well. So on top of all that, yes, it's definitely a lot. But for most people who know me, I see myself as pretty analytical. And you know, I tend to ask the whys behind a lot of things. So I felt that by getting my CFP® certification, I'll be able to kind of expand my knowledge on not just doing the smaller piece, but again, seeing the bigger picture. And by getting it I can help bridge those little gaps and actually understand the whys behind everything that we do and why they all fit together. And obviously, this will eventually just all fit together and help us give better results to our clients.
Brendan Sheehan
Cool. All right. Well, those are all my questions. Brandon, thank you for being our guest today. Hanifa is taking a test not the CFP® exam, but some of the beginning tests to actually be able to give advice - the series 7 and the series 66. So we'll probably have a future video with her featuring her and her journey on educational excellence. One of my clients actually joked with me that I run a tight ship here at Waymark. But I think that both Brandon and Hanifa are both on the more analytic side and they like to know the whys behind everything. So it's good that both of them have taken the bull by the horns and they're trying to expand their knowledge and give the best advice to our clients. So that's all we had for this week. So thank you for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time. Thanks!
Brendan is the Managing Director for Waymark Wealth Management. He has extensive experience in comprehensive wealth management. His focus includes retirement planning, behavioral finance, investment portfolio construction, education funding, insurance & risk management, taxes, charitable giving, and estate planning. Brendan has an ability to take clients' complex visions and distill them down to simple action plans, helping them move from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow.
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