CFP study plan

Map each step of the financial planning process to the specific Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct principle that governs it

Distinguish fiduciary duty requirements from the practice standards at each stage of client engagement

Compute net worth, cash flow, savings rate, and emergency fund adequacy from a raw fact pattern without notes

Identify how economic, regulatory, and legislative environments shift a client's planning assumptions

Draft disclosure and documentation language for a new client engagement

Calculate and interpret Sharpe, Treynor, and Jensen's alpha, and select the appropriate measure for a given client context

Compare passive and active management on cost, turnover, and tax efficiency

Apply modern portfolio theory, correlation, and rebalancing rules to construct allocations for three distinct risk profiles

Evaluate mutual funds, ETFs, separately managed accounts, and annuities on cost, liquidity, and tax treatment

Distinguish market efficiency, behavioral, and valuation-based explanations for pricing anomalies

Quantify life insurance need under the human life value, needs analysis, and capital retention methods, and reconcile the differences

Differentiate term, whole, universal, and variable life on premium structure, cash value, and tax treatment

Analyze disability income, long-term care, and property-casualty exposures against a client's actual coverage gaps

Identify policy provisions, riders, exclusions, and replacement concerns that change a recommendation

Determine the income taxation of death benefits, cash value growth, and policy loans

Compute taxable income from gross income by applying above-the-line adjustments and the standard versus itemized decision

Calculate capital gains and losses including basis, holding period, and netting rules

Apply basis rules for gifts, inheritance, and property transfers, and identify step-up provisions

Compare tax-advantaged savings vehicles on deductibility, contribution limits, and distribution treatment

Identify AMT, NIIT, and phase-out triggers that change a planning recommendation

Calculate retirement funding need using inflation-adjusted replacement ratios and test the result against a sensitivity or Monte Carlo analysis

Compare 401(k), 403(b), SEP, SIMPLE, and defined benefit plans on limits, vesting, and taxation

Determine required minimum distribution amounts and sequence withdrawals across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts

Evaluate Social Security claiming strategies including spousal, survivor, and delayed-credit effects

Distinguish qualified plan loan, hardship, and rollover rules that create planning risk

Calculate gross estate, deductions, credits, and net estate tax liability including portability of the deceased spousal exemption

Compare intestate succession with will and trust strategies for a blended family

Apply gift tax annual exclusion, lifetime exemption, and basis rules to lifetime versus testamentary transfers

Select titling and beneficiary designations that meet client objectives and avoid probate

Differentiate revocable, irrevocable, GRAT, ILIT, and charitable vehicles on control, taxation, and flexibility

Diagnose behavioral biases such as loss aversion, anchoring, recency, overconfidence, and mental accounting in client scenarios and select a mitigating strategy for each

Distinguish money scripts and communication styles and adapt advice delivery accordingly

Structure a discovery meeting and a difficult-conversation script using an established counseling framework

Re-verify conduct and documentation obligations triggered by behavioral and communication decisions

Integrate cross-domain recommendations into a single client narrative

Complete two full-length timed practice exams under exam-day conditions

Convert every missed item into a one-line rule or flashcard and re-test after 72 hours

Recite the financial planning process steps and the Code of Ethics principles from memory

Audit the error log for repeated failure patterns and re-drill only those domains

Finalize an exam-day logistics and pacing plan