Continuing Education Credit for Teaching and Publishing
Sarah, a CFP® professional, needs 10 more CE hours to meet her 30-hour requirement by December 31, 2024. She has already completed 20 hours, including 2 hours of Ethics. She recently taught a 3-hour continuing education course on retirement planning at a local university. The course was not CFP Board-approved. She also published a 10-page article on estate planning in a peer-reviewed journal. She spent 40 hours researching and writing the article. Sarah believes both activities should count toward CE. She also attended a 1-hour CFP Board-approved webinar on ethics, but she already met the 2-hour Ethics requirement.
1. Can Sarah count the 3-hour teaching course toward CE? Explain.
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No, Sarah cannot count the teaching course unless it was part of a CFP Board-approved program. The CFP Board CE requirements allow credit for teaching a course only if the course is pre-approved for CE and the instructor is teaching for the first time. The scenario states the course was not CFP Board-approved, so it does not qualify. Therefore, Sarah cannot claim the 3 hours.
2. Can Sarah count the published article toward CE? If so, how many hours?
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Yes, Sarah can count the published article toward CE, but the credit is limited. The CFP Board allows CE credit for publishing an article in a peer-reviewed journal, with a maximum of 5 hours per article, and the article must be relevant to financial planning. Sarah's article on estate planning qualifies. Therefore, she can claim up to 5 hours of CE credit for the article, regardless of the 40 hours spent. She should claim 5 hours.
3. What is Sarah's total CE hours after claiming the article? What should she do to meet the 30-hour requirement?
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Sarah had 20 hours, plus 5 hours for the article = 25 hours. She needs 5 more hours. The teaching course does not count. She cannot use the 1-hour ethics webinar because she already met the 2-hour Ethics requirement; however, additional ethics hours beyond the 2-hour minimum can count toward the general 30-hour requirement. The CFP Board allows excess ethics hours to count as general CE. So Sarah can claim the 1-hour ethics webinar as 1 hour of general CE, bringing her to 26 hours. She still needs 4 more hours of CFP Board-approved CE. She should take approved courses to reach 30 hours by December 31, 2024.